Completed: The 1969 Seattle Pilots

One team I've been fascinated with for many years is the 1969 Seattle Pilots. That was their one and only year in existence, and my understanding of why that was so has long been incomplete. As a young lad, I read Jim Bouton's Ball Four, and it left a pretty deep mark on me, as it did so many others (there's a new book out now just about Bouton, by the way, and you can read about it here). Bouton pitched for the Pilots part of that year, and much of the "diary" that is the bulk of the book recaps the behind-the-scenes locker room shenanigans of that team.

I'm also a big fan of the city of Seattle, the second-greatest city in the US of A. I lived there from 1997-99 while in grad school, and I'd live there again in a country minute. Seattle in 1969 didn't really seem to me to be a big-league town quite yet, and the Pilots year there happened to also coincide with the hemorrhaging of jobs at Boeing, the city's largest employer. So yeah - it didn't go so well for these guys. Not only did they finish dead last in the brand-new American League West, they went bankrupt. Bankrupt! Their owners threw up their hands, then packed up and sold the team to a group in Milwaukee the next spring (but not before Topps got out some "1970 Seattle Pilots" cards, about which more next time). We now know them as the "Milwaukee Brewers".

I decided I needed to track down each and every one of the 26 Topps 1969 Seattle Pilots cards - and recently, I did just that. Most of them were procured at my local card shop, Lefty's Sports Cards in Burlingame, CA. The ones that remained elusive were bought on eBay. But I've got them, and this set is done, ladies and gentlemen.

Interestingly, Tommy Harper - above left - is probably one of the fellas you've heard of on the team, along with a couple of the folks below. Harper stole 73 bases for the Pilots that year, and despite a .235 batting average, he had a very healthy .349 OBP. The following year in Milwaukee he'd go on to club 31 homers while stealing 38 bases - his best year in the majors. Oh - and there's no real Jim Bouton card for the Seattle Pilots! Only customs that you can find online.

Here's an article about collecting the Pilots, and here are a few other cards from that '69 set.