Things started badly when they traded perennial prospect Lou Piniella to the Royals in spring training. They actually had four players who went on the win World Series rings as bit players in the 72 to 74 Oakland dynasty: Larry Haney, Don Mincher, Mike Hegan, and Bob Locker. Mike Marshall, who passed last week, won a Cy Young Award in 74 for the Dodgers. Tommy Harper was a good player. Tommy Davis could still hit. Marty Pattin went on to pitch well for the Royals. And, of course, Jim Bouton wrote his groundbreaking "Ball Four" about that season.
The reason the expansion was moved up from 1971 to 1969 was Missouri senator Stuart Symington threatened to get baseball's anti-trust exemption revoked because the Athletics left Kansas City for Oakland in 1968. He didn't want Kansas City to go 3 years without major league baseball. The Royals fared much better than the Pilots because they had a very wealthy owner and Kansas City had a ballpark that, while not great, was at least adequate to host games until a new facility was built.
I was there and they were not that bad for a first year team. Yes, they had problems but they also were not given a real chance to develop. Boeing could have (and in the minds of some should have), bought the team. Anyway there were some good players in that team like Tommy Harper. As a 13 year old it was sad to see them leave and again in many ways they were far above what the Mariners are since they existed.
Beginning the season a whole two years early at a badly-designed baseball stadium was a kamikaze move for that team...bad news for Seattle, good news for Milwaukee, who needed a new team at the time...
Seattle was so stupid, why did they buy a franchise in the first place if the city wasn't ready to host a baseball team because the stadium had inadequate seating and other issues not mention plumbing problems. They should have awarded to Milwaukee instead because they had an existing stadium after the Braves left in '66. At least they finally got a team in '77 the Mariners and a indoor stadium called the Kingdome. But the Mariners and the Kingdome would soon have problems later.
Seattle in a manner of speaking was forced into the market way too early, despite after telling MLB that the city was not ready financially and an adequate venue. But because a Missouri senator threatened an antitrust lawsuit against the league, after losing the Athletics to Oakland two years prior, he was not going to wait another three years for baseball to return to Kansas City.
I've read "Ball Four" cover to cover. It is Jim Bouton's account of his 1969 season. He spent most of it with Seattle, and it became apparent early in the book that the Pilot front office and field personnel compounded the financial instability with laughable incompetence. They didn't know what they were doing at all.
Bouton said it was Joe Shultz who was totally incompetent as manager. He told the Pilot players to go out there & give them hell. That's it! Not any game plan. If they won , Shultz , coming from the Cardinals, had a lot of stock in A.B. Beer, he'd stock the club house with Bud , & tell the players go get their Buds!
I've read that book many, many times, lol He liked Joe Shultz. Not because he was a wise manager, but moreso that all of the players liked him, and they were going "all go down the drain, together." He disliked Sal Maglie, Eddie O'Brien, and Ron Plaza. Especially Maglie, the pitching coach, and O'Brien, the bullpen coach, whom they christened "Mr. Small Stuff." Plaza was very guarded over the practice balls, which I'm sure was annoying, lol.
Seattle at the time was not ready, but because some Missouri senator threatened to sue MLB because he wasn't going to wait another three years for another team after losing the Athletics to Oakland. MLB and the American League could have awarded Milwaukee a franchise along with Kansas City.
Because of the threat of Missouri Senator Stuart Symington to revoke MLB's anti-trust exemption if Kansas City was not given a franchise as of immediately instead of waiting three years, MLB could have awarded cities such as Milwaukee, Dallas, Denver, or any other cities that had adequate venues and ownership instead of Seattle. They knew Seattle wasn't ready, but pushed on.
Their attendance was better than the Cleveland Indians & the Chicago White Sox of 1969. It wasn't as bad as it seemed. I think San Diego's first year in 69' wasn't much better than the Pilots.
There were rumors that the Padres were going to move to DC in 1974, the prospective owner Giant Food's Joseph Danzanky forgot there were 10 years left on the lease, the Mayor of San Diego Pete Wilson threated legal action if it happened, Ray Kroc bought them and kept them there.
I don't know what you are referring to. He was factually accurate (as far as I know). The only criticism I have for him is his lighting on the shots of himself.