Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Changing Jobs In the Middle of the World Series

Here is an interesting picture of Seattle Pilots manager Joe Schultz in a Seattle Pilots uniform during the 1968 World Series when he was still a member of the St. Louis Cardinals:


As this picture shows, the Pilots uniform was almost complete before the end of the 1968 post season. I say "almost" as there are a few differences between the prototype that Joe is wearing and the road uniform that they wore in 1969.

The first difference is the cap. Although its partially cut off in the shot above, the "S" on the cap looks more like a reversed "Z" than a "S". Here is a different shot of Joe in the cap:




The second difference is the lettering. First, the prototype has "seattle" straight across the uniform, whereas the 1969 jersey had the name arching across the front.


The second difference is the "s". Just as the cap features a "s" that almost looks like a reversed "z", so too does the jersey. And finally, the "t"s appear to be smaller on the prototype than what they actually wore in 1969. The letters also appear to be tilting to the right on the prototype whereas they appear to be more straight on the 1969 jersey.

I like the shot of Joe with both of his uniforms, and appreciate the fact that since this picture shows him in the Pilots uniform during the World Series, it gives us an idea of when the Pilots had almost finished designing their uniform.

3 comments:

1969PilotsFan said...

Thanks for another nice piece on the Pilots. It's nice to see that they are not forgotten.

Anonymous said...

I've always been fascinated by the Pilots, and this blog always seems to unearth really great stuff about Seattle's original MLB team!

I've seen the prototype hat Schultz is wearing a few times, and it's never done much for me; I much prefer the design the Pilots actually ended up wearing during the regular season in 1969, after the simple block "S" cap they wore in spring training.

However: I love the prototype jersey! That wordmark is fantastic. And seeing the "backwards z" "S" in "Seattle" really justifies the look of the prototype cap. Like the way the original 1977 Mariners uniforms carried the trident "M" from the wordmark to the cap, it ties things together.

JeffB said...

That prototype with the italicized lettering is great! I like that much better than what they went with.