Fewer than 678,000 fans came to see the Pilots, which ranked 20th of the 24 major league teams[2] — a major reason why the team was forced into bankruptcy after only one season.[3] Despite the poor conditions at aging Sick's Stadium, the ticket prices were among the highest in the major leagues.[4] The bankruptcy sale of the team was approved by a federal court in Seattle on March 31, 1970,[5] and the team moved to Milwaukee at the end of spring training for the 1970 season and became the Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee had lost the Braves to Atlanta after the 1965 season.
A book about the season exists called The 1969 Seattle Pilots: Major League Baseball's One-Year Team. Part of the Pilots' season was also documented in the book Ball Four by Jim Bouton.
After the Pilots, there would not be another MLB team in Seattle until the birth of the Mariners in 1977.
The last remaining active member of the 1969 Seattle Pilots was Fred Stanley, who retired after the 1982 season.
Pitched in the minors through 1973. Never played in the major leagues.
1968 MLB June amateur draft and minor league affiliatesedit
The Pilots and Kansas City Royals, along with the two National League expansion teams set to debut in 1969, the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres, were allowed to participate in the June 1968 MLB first-year player draft, although the new teams were barred from the lottery's first three rounds. The Pilots drafted 29 players in the 1968 June draft, including future major league manager Tom Kelly (eighth round) and starting pitcherBill Parsons (seventh round).[16] Seattle affiliated with one minor league club during 1968 to develop drafted players; the roster was filled out by professional and amateur free agents that had been signed and players loaned from other organizations.
On Tuesday, April 8, the Pilots won their first-ever game, 4–3 at Anaheim Stadium over the California Angels. Twenty-six-year-old Pilots' starter Marty Pattin went five innings, allowing two earned runs for Seattle. RHP Jack Aker earned the save. Right fielder Mike Hegan hit Seattle's first-ever home run, a two-run shot off Jim McGlothlin, after second baseman Tommy Harper had doubled to left to begin the Pilots' existence.
On the afternoon of Friday, April 11, the Pilots played, and won, their first American League game at Sick's Stadium in Seattle – 7–0 over the Chicago White Sox. Thirty-two-year-old righty Gary Bell tossed a complete game for Seattle, scattering nine hits, striking out six Sox and walking four. Bell also helped his own cause by stroking a two-run double off RHP Bob Locker in the bottom of the sixth. Seattle 1b Don Mincher hit a two-run HR off RHP Joe Horlen in the third. The official attendance was 14,993.
On October 2, the Pilots played their last-ever game, losing 3-1 to Oakland in front of 5,473 fans in Seattle. In the final inning, Steve Whitaker hit the Pilots' last-ever home run, Greg Goossen got their final hit (a single), and Jerry McNertney struck out to end the game. Steve Barber took the loss.
^Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p. 129, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
^Box Score of Game played on Tuesday, April 8, 1969 at Anaheim Stadium
1969 Seattle Pilots Roster webpage. Baseball Almanac website
Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.
Further readingedit
Allen, Rick (2020). Inside Pitch: Insiders Reveal How the Ill-Fated Seattle Pilots Got Played into Bankruptcy in One Year. Tacoma, WA: Persistence Press. ISBN 978-1-73-459590-1.
Hogan, Kenneth (2006). The 1969 Seattle Pilots: Major League Baseball's One-Year Team. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-78-642786-4.
Mullins, Bill (2013). Becoming Big League: Seattle, the Pilots, and Stadium Politics. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-29-599252-5.