The Awkward History of the Seattle Pilots
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- You've probably never heard of this team, and that is for good reason.
Get ready for an awkward sports history story that will continue to get worse as it goes on.
A great book to check out related to the Seattle Pilots is "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton (forgot to mention the book in the video)
#MLB #Seattle #Pilots #Baseball #Mariners
Some of my favorite baseball card collectables are the 1970 Topps Pilot cards. I got them in....1970!
Things started badly when they traded perennial prospect Lou Piniella to the Royals in spring training. They actually had four players who went on the win World Series rings as bit players in the 72 to 74 Oakland dynasty: Larry Haney, Don Mincher, Mike Hegan, and Bob Locker. Mike Marshall, who passed last week, won a Cy Young Award in 74 for the Dodgers. Tommy Harper was a good player. Tommy Davis could still hit. Marty Pattin went on to pitch well for the Royals. And, of course, Jim Bouton wrote his groundbreaking "Ball Four" about that season.
When the Pilots traded Pinella to the Royals in their inaugural season, he won Rookie of the Year.
The reason the expansion was moved up from 1971 to 1969 was Missouri senator Stuart Symington threatened to get baseball's anti-trust exemption revoked because the Athletics left Kansas City for Oakland in 1968. He didn't want Kansas City to go 3 years without major league baseball. The Royals fared much better than the Pilots because they had a very wealthy owner and Kansas City had a ballpark that, while not great, was at least adequate to host games until a new facility was built.
Seattle was so stupid, why did they buy a franchise in the first place if the city wasn't ready to host a baseball team because the stadium had inadequate seating and other issues not mention plumbing problems. They should have awarded to Milwaukee instead because they had an existing stadium after the Braves left in '66. At least they finally got a team in '77 the Mariners and a indoor stadium called the Kingdome. But the Mariners and the Kingdome would soon have problems later.
Seattle in a manner of speaking was forced into the market way too early, despite after telling MLB that the city was not ready financially and an adequate venue. But because a Missouri senator threatened an antitrust lawsuit against the league, after losing the Athletics to Oakland two years prior, he was not going to wait another three years for baseball to return to Kansas City.
I've read "Ball Four" cover to cover. It is Jim Bouton's account of his 1969 season. He spent most of it with Seattle, and it became apparent early in the book that the Pilot front office and field personnel compounded the financial instability with laughable incompetence. They didn't know what they were doing at all.
Bouton said it was Joe Shultz who was totally incompetent as manager. He told the Pilot players to go out there & give them hell. That's it! Not any game plan.
If they won , Shultz , coming from the Cardinals, had a lot of stock in A.B. Beer, he'd stock the club house with Bud , & tell the players go get their Buds!
I've read that book many, many times, lol
He liked Joe Shultz. Not because he was a wise manager, but moreso that all of the players liked him, and they were going "all go down the drain, together."
He disliked Sal Maglie, Eddie O'Brien, and Ron Plaza.
Especially Maglie, the pitching coach, and O'Brien, the bullpen coach, whom they christened "Mr. Small Stuff." Plaza was very guarded over the practice balls, which I'm sure was annoying, lol.
Aftet reading Ball Four, l had a certain endearment for the Pilots .They were much better than the 1962 Mets, who also have a place in my heart.
@@duroshebanja6810 He also told them to"Go pound the Budweiser. Never heard about Joe Schultz after that season
I was there and they were not that bad for a first year team. Yes, they had problems but they also were not given a real chance to develop. Boeing could have (and in the minds of some should have), bought the team. Anyway there were some good players in that team like Tommy Harper. As a 13 year old it was sad to see them leave and again in many ways they were far above what the Mariners are since they existed.
In hindsight, Milwaukee should have received the 4th expansion franchise in 1969. Seattle just wasn't ready.
It's also ironic that each of the major league sports franchises in Seattle have threatened relocation at one time, with 2 actually succeeding.
With so many dollars and reputations at stake, I don't think we'll ever see a repeat of the Pilots (or the Sonics for that matter) fiasco in this present age of pro sports.
The other runner up was Buffalo, according to some AFL Football players it was built in the 13th century.
What was the atmosphere in Seattle when Milwaukee Brewers came back to Seattle?
Beginning the season a whole two years early at a badly-designed baseball stadium was a kamikaze move for that team...bad news for Seattle, good news for Milwaukee, who needed a new team at the time...
Odd that if they waited and started in 1971 we would most likely see the Seattle Pilots instead of the Mariners
We also would not have the Brewers, either...
Seattle at the time was not ready, but because some Missouri senator threatened to sue MLB because he wasn't going to wait another three years for another team after losing the Athletics to Oakland. MLB and the American League could have awarded Milwaukee a franchise along with Kansas City.
Because of the threat of Missouri Senator Stuart Symington to revoke MLB's anti-trust exemption if Kansas City was not given a franchise as of immediately instead of waiting three years, MLB could have awarded cities such as Milwaukee, Dallas, Denver, or any other cities that had adequate venues and ownership instead of Seattle. They knew Seattle wasn't ready, but pushed on.
To be fair, all 4 franchises still exist. 2 of them have moved.
This team was setup to fail at the very beginning
Did any ex Pilots play for the mariners?
Their attendance was better than the Cleveland Indians & the Chicago White Sox of 1969. It wasn't as bad as it seemed. I think San Diego's first year in 69' wasn't much better than the Pilots.
There were rumors that the Padres were going to move to DC in 1974, the prospective owner Giant Food's Joseph Danzanky forgot there were 10 years left on the lease, the Mayor of San Diego Pete Wilson threated legal action if it happened, Ray Kroc bought them and kept them there.
It wasn't a bad ballpark - for an AAA club.
Actually, at one time it was regarded as the finest minor league park
Sloppy, many errors and assumptions...
Do I get to know what I did wrong or.......
I don't know what you are referring to. He was factually accurate (as far as I know). The only criticism I have for him is his lighting on the shots of himself.
I think he meant the team and its management, not you.
@@Toastbastard I meant the producer and script editor
@@AwkwardSportsMedia I tried saying Sick’s Stadium but it kept being 6.
Funny!!
First
I was gonna say the same thing, but I’m a bit late