Before the Mariners, there were the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Pilots, the disappearing expansion team of 1969. The Pilots lasted just one season, flying to Milwaukee for spring training under new car salesman owner and future MLB commissioner Bud Selig after declaring bankruptcy in April 1970. The MLB had rushed their expansion plans and landed the Pilots in Seattle to play in a minor league stadium with plumbing problems and a press box with blocked views. under duress from a Missouri senator who had threatened MLB’s coveted antitrust exemption. The resulting financial stress on the owners and reluctant taxpayers in Seattle left the Pilots grounded after their first season, which became just a quick stop in Seattle on the way to Milwaukee.
For team collectors, MLB’s 1969 foray into Seattle offers a chance to experience a unique moment in baseball history. The 1969 and 1970 Topps Pilots are eminently collectible and include notable cards such as Lou Piniella’s third rookie card, a team card with the entire franchise history on the back and the entire team roster listed in the mid-double digits.
Seattle’s Sick’s Stadium in the background.
The back shows the full statistical data of the pilots
franchise history – in team colors.
Of the 26 1969 Topps Pilots cards, most of the issue features the Topps signature airbrushed caps without the logo, but Jim Gosger (#482) is the first card to introduce the Pilots uniform and colors. Three of the pilots, including Gosger, received the yellow/white team name variant; the others are Rich Rollins (#451) and Diego Segui (#511). The rarer white team name variations have a 3.5x premium over the card value of the more common yellow team name issue.
Cuban pitcher Segui offers an interesting look at Seattle’s future as he is one of two pilots who have gone to the Mariners to finish their careers. Segui pitched the first games for both the Pilots and the Mariners in their first seasons in 1977. The other Pilot with a stop in Seattle is Lou Piniella, pictured on his third “rookie card” #394. Piniella was also depicted on a Topps rookie card in 1968 for the Indians (#16) and in 1964 for the Washington Senators (#167), his actual rookie card. However, Piniella never really played for the Pilots since he was traded to the Kansas City Royals during spring training following the Topps draft. Piniella returned to Seattle and managed the Mariners from 1993-2002, taking the team to the postseason four times, including for their 116-win season in the 2001 season, and winning manager of the year in 1995 and 2001.
The 24 1970 Topps Pilots cards were issued when the team was renamed the Milwaukee Brewers. In fact, the Brewers’ blue and gold colors are a legacy of the move at the end of 1970 spring training in Tempe, Arizona, when the equipment trucks carrying the pilot uniforms bound for Seattle were ordered to divert east to Wisconsin instead. When they arrived within days of opening day, there was no time for new Brewers uniforms, so the team simply adopted the Pilots colors and sewed “Brewers” onto the jerseys in a simple block script.
The most notable card from the 1970 series is the high-numbered Pilots team card (#713), the only one featuring Seattle’s Sick’s Stadium, the minor league venue that was forced into MLB service before it could be expanded and updated and was the primary cause of the Pilots’ financial distress with its uncovered seats with poor views and high ticket and concession prices. Sick’s Stadium was ignominiously demolished in 1979, a fate that seems to be a recurring theme for Seattle sports venues. (See also the arson at Dugdale Field in 1932, the toppled UW Huskie Stadium in 1987, and the imploded Kingdome in 2000.) The only vestige that remains is a small sign and a house sign hidden in the junk and carts at the entrance of a hardware store. The back of the Pilots’ team card summarizes the entire roster and statistical history in their team colors. Photos of the player cards were taken during spring training in Tempe, Arizona, with the Butte dominant in the background, or at Yankees Stadium in front of the stands.
Notably absent from the 1969 and 1970 Topps Pilots cards is the card for Jim Bouton. Bouton was a fastballer for the Yankees who won two games in the 1964 World Series and developed a knuckleballer as a relief pitcher for the Pilots. Known as “Bulldog” for his competitive play, his contract was picked up by the Pilots before the expansion draft in 1968. However, he is best known for his memoir Ball Four: My Life and Tough Times Throwing the knuckleball in the major leagues in which he openly shares his unvarnished view of baseball based on his diary from the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Bouton should have had a 1969 Topps card, as he had joined the Pilots early in their tenure, and certainly in 1970, but it has been suggested that his involvement with the Players Union may have disenfranchised him from Topps. His book, published in 1970 and immediately denounced by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who attempted to discredit the exposé, sealed the deal and his 1968 Yankees #562 would be his last Topps card.
Other collectible and odd series include the 1983 Renata Galasso set with the full roster of 43 pilots (including Jim Bouton), the 1970 Kellogg’s 3-D Super Stars with Tommy Harper #74 and Don Mincher #75, the 1969 Topps Deckle Edge by Tommy Davis #15, and the 1969 Topps Super cards by Tommy Davis #32 and Don Mincher #33.
After the Pilots’ flight to Milwaukee, the city of Seattle decided to play hardball with the American League and sued for $32 million in damages for breach of contract, as King County voters had already approved a $40 million bond issue in 1968 for a new domed stadium as a condition of awarding the Pilots. After years of failed negotiations, the trial finally began in 1976 and resulted in an agreement by the League to provide an expansion team for the 1977 season. The new $67 million multi-purpose domed stadium, the Kingdome, was completed in 1976, in time for Opening Day, when the Mariners would finally dock in Seattle.
Editor’s note: Pilot fans may also enjoy these two other SABR Baseball Cards items:
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