Silly me, I once thought that "collecting the Seattle Pilots" meant "buy the Pilots cards from the Topps 1969 and 1970 sets, and you're done". How naive! The deeper I went into that Pilots rabbit hole - and no, I haven't quite completed that '70 set just yet - the more I learned about post-1970 card issues featuring Pilots players - or weirdly, guys who never played for the Pilots but who still got cards dressed up in their uniform (Ichiro Suzuki hadn't even been born when they spent their lone season in Seattle) - the deeper I needed to go.Like Jim Bouton for example. He's the world's most famous Seattle Pilot, thanks to his book Ball Four that immortalized his year with the team. He never got an official Topps card of him in a Pilots uniform in 1969 nor in 1970 (he was traded to the Astros during the '69 season). You know what he did get, though? A 2004 Fleer Greats card, that's what. You see it here to your left. Bouton had two monster years for the Yankees as a starting pitcher in 1963 and 1964, winning 21 games in the former, but was mostly a "sloppy mopper" in the years that followed. I still call him a Fleer Great, though. So should you. He's got a Seattle Pilots card that I'm exceptionally proud to own.
And listen - if you've never watched Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, it's an outstanding film, as is virtually everything Altman made in the 1970s ("3 Women" is probably my favorite film of all time). Why is that relevant? Well, because Jim Bouton is in it - and not just for a minute, either. He's got quite a few key scenes. Anyway, that's your dose of Seattle Pilots card collecting ephemera for this time around.....as I pull together more weirdo Pilots odds & ends, you can be sure I'll share them with ya here.
Chandler's buried in San Diego, so I visited his grave once. Left him a shot.
ReplyDeleteNice. I read my first Chandler - "The Little Sister" - just this year.
ReplyDeleteGotta say... it'd be fun to bust a box of that 1989 Swell Baseball Greats. It's a great looking design and if it contains fan favorites like Bouton... it'd be a blast flipping through the singles in each and every pack.
ReplyDeleteBouton is also a Pilot in the 1983 Renata Galasso set alongside w/42 members of the 1 & done 1969 Seattle Pilots. As for the Swell sets they are very similar to the early 1990s sets made by Pacific. Another interesting thing about Bouton he was the brainchild of Big League Chew the shredded bubblegum.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that Renata Galasso set is excellent - my Bouton in that set is autographed, and legend has it that ALL that Boutons in that set are autographed (?).
DeleteMine isn't! Harrumph.
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