Ed McNevin started the first JPL slo-pitch softball league in 1968. Ed soon saw the need for a less competitive coed softball program to include more people, and in 1975 (approximately) he started the B league.
Dennis Wittman, a long-time veteran of JPL's A, B, C, and D Leagues, provides some information (from the perspective of his own teams) about the early days of A and B Leagues:
I worked for a JPL Contractor, Informatics Inc., from the summer of 1972 through Oct 1977. I think it was 1973, but could have been 1974, we formed the team "Informatics" and played in the JPL A League. The Informatics contract expired in 1977 and I transitioned over to being a JPL employee, so in 1978 a few of us put together a new A League team "The Ringers". We chose this name because we were allowed to "stretch" the rules a little and have more than 3 non-JPL employees on the team (the league wanted an even number of teams and we were allowed to join). The team core was basically John Johnson (JPL) and his brother Dave, Gary Klein (JPL) and his brother Greg, and myself plus three of my brothers Gary, Adrian, and William. We played in the A League until it had dwindled from 8 teams down to 3, I believe. At that point the three teams dropped into the "B League", at this point I don't remember what year that was hopefully I can find some records for you.
When NASA decided to create a data center for the Astronomical Community in 1985 it was named the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and I moved over to it as I had worked on the IRAS mission. IPAC put together a team the IR-Sox which was managed by Tadas Sesplaukis and Tom Chester, I believe that they started in the C League about 1986. I still had the Ringers in the B League for a few more years. At this point I don't remember what year we merged into just the IR-Sox but I suspect it was 1990 and moved to the D League.
Long-time veterans of B League are requested to contact Sam Dolinar
B League seasons archived online: Fall '17 | Summer '17 | Spring '17 | Fall '16 | Summer '16 | Spring '16 | Fall '15 | Summer '15 | Spring '15 | Fall '14 | Summer '14 | Spring '14 | Fall '13 | Summer '13 | Spring '13 | Fall '12 | Summer '12 | Spring '12 | Fall '11 | Summer '11 | Spring '11 | Fall '10 | Summer '10 | Spring '10 | Fall '09 | Summer '09 | Spring '09 | Fall '08 | Summer '08 | Spring '08 | Fall '07 | Summer '07 | Spring '07 | Fall '06 | Summer '06 | Spring '06 | Fall '05 | Summer '05 | Spring '05 | Fall '04 | Summer '04 | Spring '04 | Fall '03 | Summer '03 | Spring '03 | Fall '02 | Summer '02 | Spring '02 | Fall '01 | Summer '01 | Spring '01 | Fall '00 | Summer '00 | Spring '00 | Fall '99 | Summer '99 | Spring '99 | Fall '98 | Summer '98 | Spring '98 | Fall '97 | Summer '97 | Spring '97 | Fall '96 | Summer '95
Scanned documents from some earlier B League seasons (thanks to Dennis Wittman): 1987 | 1988-1989