The Cleveland Jaybirds were a men's professional softball team that played in the American Professional Softball League (APSL) starting in 1977. After two seasons, the team was sold to local ad man Ted Stepian, who renamed them the Cleveland Competitors. After one more season in the APSL, Stepain pulled the team out of that league and formed the North American Softball League (NASL- not be confused with the soccer league with the same initials). Stepian, who would later own the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers (with nearly disastrous results), owned six of the eight NASL teams and still couldn't win the championship.