July 9, 2006
IT AIN'T "MEET THE METS":
AUDIO: "Go, Go You Pilots!" (1969)
Written by local broadcaster Rod Belcher and performed by a musical group he named "Doris Doubleday and His Command Pilots."
MORE:
Endearing & enduring: The 1969 Seattle Pilots (Larry Stone, 7/09/06, Seattle Times)
Tommy Davis laughed heartily when asked for his prime recollection of the Seattle Pilots.Posted by Orrin Judd at July 9, 2006 8:25 AM"Bunch of mutts, man," he said. "Bunch of mutts."
Then Davis, a two-time batting champion and one of the Pilots' few players with stature, quickly added another pertinent point about Seattle's first major-league baseball team: "Very comical."
It's a recurring theme one finds in delving into the madcap world of the Pilots.
They lasted just one season, 1969, and then "poof, they were gone," in the words of first baseman Greg Goossen, one of many zany characters from that team.
Considering the way they've played this past week, today's "Turn back the clock" day with the Pilots suits is appropriate timing.
"Ball Four" wouldn't have worked nearly as well without Bouton's having spent time with the '69 Mariners. It made for some inside ancedotes that were similar to the ones in Jimmy Breslin's book on the 1962 New York Mets.
Posted by: John at July 9, 2006 11:27 AM