It doesn't seem like 1997's fall promotional All-Star Tour actually happened, but expansion plans did come to fruition in 1998. Two new East-Coast teams were created, the Buffalo Nighthawks and the New Jersey Diamonds. Plus, the Los Angeles Legends were relocated to Homestead, Florida, after being unable to secure a new lease with UCLA. Now there were 2 balanced divisions, with 3 teams on each coast.
And after their fourth season, the Colorado Silver Bullets disbanded after the Coors Brewing Company pulled their sponsorship at the end of the 1997 season. So in 1998, around ten former Silver Bullets players came over to what was now known as the Ladies Pro Baseball League. "We still have a long way to go; we're grass-rooting this," said league president Mike Ribant. "It's not like we're the WNBA. The thing we have this year over last year is talent. We have the best baseball players in the country."
Tryouts were again held. A 56-game season was planned. The plan was two split the season in the middle, with the winners of each half facing off in another five-game World Series at the end of September. The director of operations for Ladies Pro Baseball League, Ken Jacobs, said "I think we're slowly creeping onto the national radar. We'll be doing Rosie O'Donnell in July and CBS Morning News is working on a story about the league. I think everyone is optimistic."
Michael Ribant made an appearance on the Rosie O'Donnell Show on July 21st. "We were close to getting a Fortune 500 company as a sponser," he said. "With a start-up league we knew we were going to lose money at the start." He later added, "We're in kind of a Catch-22 situation. Sponsers like us, but we need another year to get them. But it will come. We have the talent and the product. We're way ahead of last year."
But on July 28th, Mike Ribant decided to end the league, recognizing decling attendance and a lack of a successful funding plan. In its first month of play in 1998, they lost $300,000. They were averaging just 200 fans per game, less than half what he had hoped for. The Long Beach Aces and Buffalo Nighthawks were declared first-half winners. "What we need is a TV contract," Ribant said. "A regional one that would provide us with local sponsorships. Attendance is not enough to keep the league alive." That being said, plans to continue the LPB. There was a plan for the whole league to take the month of August off, and that at the end of September the Aces and Nighthawks would meet in Buffalo for a playoff series. Perhaps the league would play exhibition games overseas in Japan or in Venezuela. And at the bare minimum, the league might be back next year in some capacity.
Players were disappointed by the season's premature-ending. Leah Braatz, of the Phoenix Peppers, said "I found out (Tuesday) about the league folding from a newspaper reporter. So yeah, it was definately a surprise. The league president called me hours later and said they didn't have enough money to keep the league going....In my eyes, the way everything has been handled is not very professional."
Leah Cochrane, of the Peppers, stated, "I have no idea what I'm going to do now. There was no talk about this, nothing. I had no clue this was going on. We weren't informed at all."
Dawn Bergeson, also of the Peppers, stated "It was very unexpected. Everyone panicked. There were a lot of unanswered questions."
"If we had kept it going this summer, we would've lost another $700,000. I couldn't justify that to the other shareholders and investors. After a while, the dream switched to reality," said league president Mike Ribant.
Still, Mike Ribant tried to remain optimistic about resuming play in Japan. "It's not for certain. We've got offers. If I can pull it off, it would be a miracle."
But there was a surprising post-script to the Ladies Professional Baseball League. On November 16 1998, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against LPB founder Mike Ribant. They charged that Ribant sold his customers' securities without their authorization, and wired the money to his accounts, in order to use the funds to help finance the Ladies League Baseball.
In September of 1999, Mike Ribant pled guilty to defrauding investors of $2.8 million that was used to help the Ladies Professional Baseball League, and was expected to receive a significant jail sentence.
