Dr. Jeff Eiberson will join with hundreds of other softball enthusiasts next week to welcome the 30th anniversary season of the City of Brotherly Love Softball League. Even though Eiberson has been a member of CBLSL longer than many current members have been alive — and nearly half of his own life — he doesn’t intend to hang up his jersey any time soon.
Eiberson, 68, plays for Westbury Four Play, part of the recreational division, and will be among a collection of longtime CBLSL supporters who will play in the “Old Timers” game at the April 21 Opening Day celebrations.
The psychologist, who moved to Philadelphia from New York in the late 1960s, is a founding CBLSL member who was involved with the league since even before its 1984 inception.
Eiberson and a handful of other gay players had been gathering for informal games for a number of years before forming the Masterbatters in 1976.
“We started this gay team just for fun at first, then we got involved in a straight league where we were the only gay team and, eventually, we heard about gay leagues around the country,” Eiberson said, noting that the team was invited to play in the 1983 Turnpike Tournament, a small gay softball competition in Pittsburgh. “We came back from that and the next year we started CBLSL.”
Eiberson said there was a fair amount of debate when CBLSL was getting off the ground about its structure.
“Some people wanted to play more competitive ball, some people more recreational, so it took some time to work all that out,” he said. “We now have a bunch of divisions for people depending on what they want.”
Eiberson has been on the same team, although the sponsor and name have changed, since the beginning. He largely played first base but recently moved to right field.
Eiberson served on the league’s executive committee its first two years in operation. He was also manager of his team for the first eight years, and sat with the other managers on the league’s commission.
Before moving its games to Fairmount Park, the league played at Starr Garden on Lombard Street.
Eiberson spearheaded the effort to get the city to trim the trees at the park, which he said had become an obstacle for the league.
“One of the major challenges we had back in the formative years was that the trees in Starr Garden were overgrowing the field and it was getting harder and harder to play,” he said. “Getting the Fairmount Park Commission to trim the trees was a major undertaking that took me about a year. It sounds silly but it was really getting to be a matter of if we were able to play or not.”
As an original member, Eiberson said he’s seen the league’s growth — from five teams to more than 30 — firsthand.
“In the first couple of years we used to go to this bar on Drury Lane and set up a volleyball net and hang out after the games and play volleyball with the whole league,” Eiberson said. “We have 750 players now, so you may go the whole year and not meet every member of the league. That shows how big it’s become. But, on the other hand, it’s giving a hell of a lot more people the opportunity to play ball.”
CBLSL has spurred countless couplings, Eiberson said, a trend that has been of particular interest to him, since he is a psychologist.
“I think couples need some kind of common passion besides each other to get through rough times,” he said. “Couples who are both really passionate about softball, that consumes their leisure activities for about half the year and I think that can carry them through the rough spots in their relationship.”
Relationships of all forms have grown from CBLSL, which Eiberson said has been one of the league’s most valuable contributions to the community, and to him personally.
“Really great relationships have developed from CBLSL,” he said. “I think sports are more about cooperation than competition, especially in a team sport like softball where you’re depending on all of your players to be supportive of one another to win.”
For more information on CBLSL, visit www.cblsl.org.