Seattle Pilots in the Sunday Comics

The comic strip "The Argyle Sweater" by Scott Hilburn had a great look at retired sports logos in today's Sunday paper, including the Seattle Pilots logo playing checkers with the Minnesota North Stars logo:

Also included are the Montreal Expos, Seattle SuperSonics, Houston Oilers, Hartford Whalers, and Quebec Nordiques.

I wonder how many readers would be able to identify all the teams.  I'm guessing a lot of people won't recognize the Pilots.

Thanks to Scott for a great Pilots reference!

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.

The Curious Case of the 1970 Brewers Prototype Jersey

Thanks to the fact that a number of different archives of newswire photos are currently being auctioned on ebay, there are a number of fascinating images which are showing up for sale.

One of those images is a great shot showing the transition from the Seattle Pilots to the Milwaukee Brewers


The photo is dated April 3, 1970 and was taken at the Pilots/Brewers Spring Training home in Tempe, AZ. The Pilots had just found out that they were going to move to Milwaukee a few days earlier (March 31), so it looks like this was a photo-op to show the changing of the uniforms from the Pilots to the Brewers.

There was apparently at least one other photo taken that made the newswire showing the new Brewers jersey:


This photo was taken a few days earlier on April 1, and shows Marty Pattin in the same prototype jersey. The interesting thing about these pictures is that the Brewers jersey is not what they would wear when they started the season a few days later.

The letting on this jersey reminds me of the late 1960's California Angels jerseys (the "E"s look very similar):


There is one other photo which shows this prototype design, but in this case its not being worn by a player, but by a stewardess:


This picture is from the April 6 edition of The Milwaukee Journal (so the picture would have been taken on the 5th).

So for at least a week, this version of the Brewers jersey was being used to promote the team's move.

However, when the Brewers were warming up on April 6, 1970 (the day before Opening Day) , they were wearing the uniform that was their standard home uniform for the 1970 season:


Even though you can't make out the jersey entirely, you can see that the lettering is different and the stripes on the arm do not match the prototype.

For a full view of the jersey that was worn opening day, here is a picture of manager Dave Bristol after the Opening Day game


Here we can see that the Brewers were wearing the uniform on Opening Day that would be their uniform for the entire season.

If anyone knows why the Brewers jersey that was used for the first week after the Pilots became the Brewers had a different design than what they ultimately ended up wearing that first season, I'd be interested in hearing the story.

Obviously there was a very tight window to get the new Brewers uniform created in time for Opening Day since the Pilots didn't become the Brewers until March 31, so could it be that the company that created the uniforms for the Brewers (possibly based in Milwaukee?) wasn't the same company that designed the prototype (who possibly may have been based in Arizona since the team was just finishing up Spring Training).

That seems like the most logical explanation, but I'm wondering if that has ever been verified.

Another Custom Fleer Baseball Sticker From The Phillies Room - Flashback Edition

In case you didn't see Jim's post on The Phillies Room previewing the Brewers v. Phillies series, I have only one word to describe this custom Fleer sticker:

AWESOME!

In discussing my appreciation for the great work he is doing with his custom Fleer stickers that he has created to go along with his previews for each Phillies series this season, I asked if he would entertain any special requests, and indicated that I would really enjoy seeing a Seattle Pilots sticker.

Jim really delivered on my request with a great job on this classic cap, complete with the "scrambled eggs" on the brim.

Thanks for the great Pilots sticker Jim!

To see more of Jim's custom work, please visit his fantastic blog The Phillies Room.

1969 Expansion Team Programs - Royals and Padres

Two of the four 1969 expansion teams utilized designs on their scorecards that featured team logos. The Kansas City Royals scorebook featured the 12 AL teams surrounding the American League logo:


Just in case anyone didn't recognize the logos, the program identifies the team insignias, and makes the point that there will be more MLB players coming to Kansas City to play the Royals than previously came to town to play the Athletics (who had moved to Oakland the previous season):


The Padres score card featured the other 11 NL team logos surrounding the Padres logo against a background featuing San Diego Stadium (later known as Jack Murphy and now named Qualcomm):


If you take a look at the scoreboard, you will see an interesting MLB logo celebrating the 100th Anniversary of "Professional" (not Major League) Baseball:


I have never seen the MLB logo using the term "Professional" before. This is what we are all used to seeing:


The "Professional" logo was not used on the uniform patch that was worn in 1969:



Even looking back at the MLB logo variations produced by Fleer (which had a patch in 1969 for the 100th Anniversary), there was never a version that used the word "Professional":


The "Professional Baseball" logo must have been short lived as I have never seen it used anywhere else.

Taking a look at the other two expansion teams, the closest the Seattle Pilots got to featuring other teams on their program was a version of the program that included other team's stars such as Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, and Denny McClain:


Another Pilots program cover that year featured the domed stadium that was to be built as one of the conditions for Seattle gaining an expansion franchise:


And finally, the Expos had a very plain looking design, with just a circular black and white picture on the bottom half of cover:


Its interesting that only the Padres note that Major League Baseball was celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 1969. The rest of the expansion teams make no mention of it, at least on the covers of their programs.

1969 Fleer Pennants & Stamps - Seattle Pilots

Staying with the Seattle Pilots theme for one more post, I got an e-mail from Sean last week who came across the article I'd written about the 1969 Fleer Pennants & Stamps and he sent me a picture of a stamp sheet that I had not seen before featuring the Seattle Pilots pennant:


These stamp sheets almost never show up for sale. The only time I've ever seen these offered was a few years ago when I saved this picture from an auction:


That auction did not include the Pilots pennant sheet, so Sean's picture of his sheet adds one more sheet to the list that we can now catalog. These items are so rare that you almost never even see any loose stamps that have been removed from the sheets. I've only ever found one auction for loose stamps which look like this:






The wrapper will show up for sale occasionally:


and the box has shown up once before:


but the stamps are almost impossible to find.

What I find interesting is that even though the Pennants & Stamps release is almost nonexistant, a similar release from Fleer that same year is always available:


At any given time, there are always unopened packs and sometimes unopened boxes of the 1969 Fleer Iron-Ons. Right now on ebay there is one auction for an unopened pack and 3 ebay stores selling packs in addition to a listing for the complete set.

Either Fleer produced the Iron-Ons in much greater quantity than the stamps, or perhaps they just never sold well which is why there is still unopened material available 40 years later. I really wish the Pennant & Stamp packs were as plentiful as the Iron-On packs as I'd be busting 40 year old wax every chance I could pick up a pack as I really like the look of the stamp sheets and would really enjoy putting together a set.

I'd like to say thanks to Sean for contacting me and sending the picture of his Pilots pennant sheet and allowing me to post it for everyone to enjoy. Thanks Sean!

The Seattle Pilots Documentary - and how it led to a fantastic trade

I'd like to take a break from Football for a moment to cover an upcoming documentary on the Seattle Pilots and explain how that documentary helped me track down the last Fleer Baseball Cloth Patch that I've been searching for over the last few years.

Anyone reading this who is a collector trying to finish off a set knows the feeling of trying to track down that last item that will complete the set they are working on. Some would say that it can border on obsession. In this case, this has been my obsession for the last few years:

The 1970 Seattle Pilots Fleer Cloth Patch

The Fleer Cloth Patches are one of the first things I collected as a kid, and my interest in them and the number of different versions that I've come across is what led me to start this blog as a way to document these differences for other collectors. Over the years I have been tracking down the patches and had finally gotten to the point where I only needed 1 more patch.

I'd come close on a few occasions, but was never obtain one. Usually when they'd turn up, they'd be included in a near complete set of patches, and the price for the lot would end up far exceeding what I could justify for the one patch I needed.

I'd found the 1969 version of the patch:


but was never able to find the 1970 version.

Then, I came across this:




This is the 2nd part of the trailer of an upcoming documentary currently being worked on called The Seattle Pilots: Short Flight Into History by Play Ball Films. Both parts of the trailer as well as information on the documentary can be found on their website:

http://seattlepilotsfilm.wordpress.com/

At the 5:48 mark the above trailer shows a brief clip of some Pilots memorabilia from a fantastic personal collection. Perched up on one of the upper shelves are the Fleer Pilots patches. Fortunately the documentary's website mentioned the collector's name and also gave his e-mail address as he has been a contributor to the documentary as well as to the Pilots 40th reunion held earlier this year.

Figuring it couldn't hurt to ask an expert Pilots collector if they happened to have an extra Pilots patch, I e-mailed Charles and asked if he could help me out. I also sent him links to my Pilots related posts, including the one on the Fleer Pilots patch variations.

As it turns out, Charles did have the patch I needed. But, he had not been aware that there were 2 versions of this Pilots patch:


He asked if I had an extra copy of the patch on the right, but unfortunately I did not. I told Charles I would check with some other Fleer collectors to see if I could locate one. Fortunately I was able to track one down and subsequently we were able to finalize the trade.

I was able to finally acquire the patch that had eluded me for so long, and Charles was able to add a new variation to his amazing Pilots collection - truly a win - win trade.

I'd like to say thanks to Charles for this great trade and for helping me track down that one last piece of the puzzle to complete my full set of baseball patch variations (at least all of the variations I'm aware of!)

I'd also like to encourage anyone who enjoys the history of baseball to check out the Pilots documentary. According to Director Steve Cox, the documentary is going to be approximately 90 minutes, and they are hoping to have it ready sometime in January. You can sign up to be on the mailing list at their website to receive updates about the release if you'd like.

Based on the trailers it looks like this is going to be a great documentary, with interviews with Pilots players (including Ball Four author Jim Bouton - so you know there will be some good stories!) as well as rare Pilots footage. Thanks to Steve Cox and his team for putting together this fun look at the history of this One Year Wonder. I am eagerly awaiting the film's release early next year!

It Was 40 Years Ago...A Look Back at the Seattle Pilots as reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

I was going to wait to write this post on the 40th anniversary of the printing of this newspaper (April 11), but given the news that tomorrow is the last day that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is publishing their newspaper, I thought maybe it would be appropriate to celebrate its 40th anniversary a few weeks early.


As you may have heard, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is publishing their last newspaper on Tuesday March 17 and is moving to an entirely digital format. Its hard to imagine a world without newspapers, but as more and more people get their news from digital sources, it seems like we will continue to see other papers make decisions like this to remain in business.

From the first time I saw a picture of this paper, I knew I had to have a copy. I've always been interested in the history of the Pilots, and given the paper has all the American League logos in full color on the front page, I wasn't going to be happy until I had a copy for myself.

The section shown above was actually part of the edition that had a similar design on the front page of the main paper:


The souvenir edition is a fascinating look at the start of this franchise. In addition to information on how to get to the stadium, short bios on some of the players, and a lot of advertisers welcoming the Pilots and wishing them good luck, there are a few great articles which I found very interesting.

The first article is about the design of the Pilots uniform, and discusses the issues the team ran into with the American League regarding the rules of uniform design (click on each picture to see an enlarged version to read the text):




I really liked the insight that the original cap design had the "scrambled eggs" on the brim out much closer to the edge of the cap but the decision was made to move them further away from the edge so that players wouldn't get them dirty when adjusting their cap.

Its also a nice touch how they decided to place the ad with the classic turn of the century uniform on the same page with the "modern" Pilots uniforms.

The other article I thought was interesting was regarding the Seattle Stadium at the Seattle Center, which we later knew as the Kingdome:


Reading this article made me think how time flies by so quickly. Since this article was published, the stadium broke ground in 1972, opened in 1976 as the home to a second Seattle expansion baseball team (as well as an expansion football team), was vacated, and torn down 9 years ago.

The domed stadium was in some ways partially responsible for the team moving to Milwaukee. One of the conditions of Seattle getting the team was that the city would begin construction of a domed stadium before Dec 31, 1970. If this condition was not met, MLB reserved the right to move the team.

During this time the team ran into a number of issues with the city and almost no progress was made on the domed stadium in 1969 . This was one of MLB's main concerns during the AL Winter Meetings in late 1969 which opened the door to the possiblity of moving the team. By the end of 1969 a site for the stadium had not even been decided upon, so it was clear there was no way construction would begin by the end of 1970. This ultimately gave MLB the right to have the franchise sold to Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee where they became the Brewers in 1970.

The Pilots never got to see their new stadium, but instead only got to play in Sicks Stadium:



Finally, to wrap things up, here is an ad from the paper showing one of the souvenirs you could buy at Sicks Stadium (as well as Sportsland):


As this newspaper shows us, nothing lasts forever. The Pilots only lasted 1 year, the domed stadium that was going to be "one of the finest" lasted less than 25 years, and now a paper that started in 1863 is publishing its last newspaper tomorrow.

While I think technology is great and I get much of my news from the internet, the fact that we are losing a number of our newspapers saddens me. Reading old newspapers (even if they are just a PDF file or on microfilm) gives the reader a sense of the times a particular article was written.

Looking back through this newspaper with the various ads and articles transported me back to 1969. If I were to read just the text of these articles through an online archive, while I would get the same information out of the article, I wouldn't get the same experience of seeing the article in the context of the other items that were part of that day's news.

Seattle Pilots Official Theme Song

As a follow up to my post from a few days ago on the history of the Seattle Pilots, here is a video showing pictures of Sicks Stadium during the time the Pilots were playing there as well as what became of the stadium after they left set to the music of the "Official Team Song of the Seattle Pilots":




Here is a picture of the 45:

They might not have had a local TV contract to give the team much exposure that first year, but after hearing "Go, Go, You Pilots" on Seattle radio, how could you not want to catch a few Pilots games!

If you'd like more information on the Pilots, in addition to the books I previously mentioned in my earlier post ("The 1969 Seattle Pilots" and "Ball Four:), you might want to check out this web site which is dedicated to the Pilots.

Fleer Baseball Cloth Patches - Seattle Pilots

Even though the Pilots only existed for 1 year, they actually had patches produced for both 1969 and 1970. The reason they had patches in 1970 is most likely due to the fact that it wasn't until the very end of Spring Training in 1970 that Bud Selig was able to buy the team and move them to Milwaukee.

There are 2 versions of the City / Logo patch due to color variations. The patch on the left has a lighter shade of blue for the City, and a red captains wheel whereas the patch on the right has a darker shade of blue and a burgundy wheel:

The patch on the left is the earlier version.

For the Cap / Team Name, the differences are much more striking:

Does anyone have any pictures with the Pilots wearing orange? I don't think so. That's because they never did. This is the 1969 patch which shows a color combination the Pilots never used. I'm guessing that in late 1968 when Fleer needed the artwork for the patches the expansion Pilots were still getting things finalized and had not settled on the ultimate team colors which are seen on the 1970 patch:


We saw this same orange / blue color combination on the 1969 Fleer 3D Baseball Trophy Plaques:


Only in this case, the "S" is orange on a blue cap as opposed to the patch above which had a blue "S" against an orange background.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the Major League team that only lasted one year, I recommend the book I just finished reading entitled "1969 Seattle Pilots: Major League Baseball's One-Year Team":


The book gives the background of how the team came into existence, a day by day account of the team's ups and downs during the 1969 season, and details of why the team ran into financial troubles which precipitated the move to Milwaukee.

A few interesting items I came across:

1) We can thank A's owner Charley Finley for the AL expansion in 1969. The AL originally had plans to expand in 1971 but because the A's moved from Kansas City in 1968 significant political pressure was put on MLB from a Missouri Senator to get a team back in KC immediately. To avoid having MLB's antitrust exemption reviewed, MLB agreed to move up the expansion timetable to 1969.

2)While on the surface the accelerated expansion would appear to have been good for Seattle, it probably caused them to end up losing the team at the end of their first season because they didn't have enough time to get everything properly prepared.

For example, even though the local paper shown above announced "Seattle Goes Big League", the Pilots weren't able to get a local TV contract for the 1969 season, which cost them both in terms of exposure to potential fans, as well as revenue that they were not able to realize.

3) One of the conditions of Seattle getting the team was that the city would begin construction of a domed stadium before Dec 31, 1970. The team's opening day program even had an artist's conception of what the stadium would look like:

However, if this condition was not met, MLB reserved the right to move the team. While the domed stadium project would eventually become the Kingdome and would allow Seattle to gain an NFL team and later the Mariners,


at the time the team ran into a number of issues with the city and almost no progress was made on the domed stadium in 1969 .

This was one of MLB's main concerns during the AL Winter Meetings in late 1969 which opened the door to the possiblity of moving the team. By the end of 1969 a site for the stadium had not even been decided upon, so it was clear there was no way construction would begin by the end of 1970.

4) The Pilots actually played a game in Milwaukee in 1969. Talk about foreshadowing! The Pilots lost to the White Sox 8-3 in Milwaukee on June 16, 1969.

In 1969 Milwaukee was trying to make a case they could still support baseball after the Braves left, so Bud Selig worked out a deal to have the White Sox play 11 "home" games in County Stadium. The White Sox went along with the plan as this would give them some leverage to get some stadium concessions from the City of Chicago. As you can see from the above program from 1969 which has the Pilots logo as well as the Brewers logo, Bud Selig already had a team name and logo ready to go.

5) With the team having run out of money by the end of the 1969 season and no domed stadium on the horizon, MLB was forced to have the team sold to Bud Selig and move it to Milwaukee. There were attempts to try to work out a way to get a local Seattle ownership group together to buy the team to keep in in Seattle which MLB apparently supported, but given how much debt the team had taken on, no buyers were willing to put together a deal. That is why the process drug on through the 1970 Spring Training.

6) To give you an idea of how much an 11th hour type of situation it was regarding the movement of the team, the moving truck with the team's equipment heading back from Spring Training in Tempe, AZ had to sit and wait in Utah until it was decided whether they were to take the equipment back to Seattle, or head to Milwaukee. Hence this is likely why Fleer and Topps were still referring to the team as the Pilots for their 1970 sets:


7) As a result of the move, the city of Seattle filed an anti-trust lawsuit against MLB in 1970 which dragged on until 1976 when the AL agreed to award a new team to Seattle for the 1977 season which is how the Mariners came into existence.

There is quite a bit of other interesting information in the book as well. If you have any interest in baseball from this time period, its a fun read.

For some additional insight into what it was like playing on that Pilots team, pick up Jim Bouton's "Ball Four":


Jim spent part of the 1969 season on the Pilots and has some great stories to tell!
The Seattle Pilots are a great "one-hit wonder" that have a special place in baseball history due to their unique situation.