Carrying On With The 1970 Seattle Pilots

One of my early joys here, now that I'm back collecting cards as I am, has been putting together the 1969 Topps Seattle Pilots team set - then finding out that there was a 1970 Pilots team set as well, photographed and assembled mere moments before the team packed up and moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers. I talked about the '69 cards here, and scanned my first four cards in the '70 set here.

You'd think that collecting those two Topps sets would be the end of it, right? Get those two Pilots teams assembled and you're all done? Nah, it doesn't work that way. Trading Card Database says there are 463 of 'em to gather, if you're so inclined. Here's what I'm doing: getting those two Topps sets, picking off the two 1970 Kellogg's Pilots cards that I know about - and then figure it out from there. I'll skip the O-Pee-Chee version of the 1970s set, and maybe go deeper into a regional issue or two, perhaps something a gas station put out. They look really cool.

What you're seeing here are the 1970s Kellogg's cards for Don

Mincher and Tommy Harper. Relatively speaking, those were the guys that raked for the Pilots in their inaugural - and only - season in 1969. My Harper card is a bit beat-up, but it'll do for now. Keep in mind that he stole 73 bases for them that year - then went on to hit 31 homers for Milwaukee in 1970 (!).

I'm pretty smitten with both cards. Shlabotnik Report wrote about the Mincher one here. I guess my question to you folks out there is: once you've got the Topps and the Kellogg's, are there other Pilots sets and/or cards worth going after? I think I could be happy with this 1983 Renato Galasso set in my possession. There, I just added it to my want list (and just as quickly removed it, after finding the set on eBay for a decent price). What else?

I've scanned up all the 1970 Topps Pilots that I've added since my last post about them. I've still got twelve more to add (all listed here), and listen, if you've got extras of those lying around and enjoy trading with like-minded obsessives, I'm right here. That said, buying them online is fairly straightforward and not all that expensive, either. I'll be sure and give 'em a good scan-n-post once I've completed that set.

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.