The Seattle Pilots were an American League MLB franchise that played only one year, 1969, before they were forced to file for bankruptcy and be bailed out by then Milwaukee, Wisconsin car dealer Bud Selig. The team left Seattle in the spring of 1970 to become the Milwaukee Brewers.

At the 1967 Baseball Winter meetings brothers Dewey and Max Soriano were awarded one of four expansion MLB franchises, and one of two to play in the American League.

To secure the new franchise the brothers had to get King County, Washington to agree to build a domed stadium within three years. After an all-star tour that included Mickey Mantle, the county finally agreed. However the brothers were forced to make other concessions to get their team.

The Pilots, along with the Kansas City Royals, were forced to not partake in the League’s TV revenue for the 1969, 1970, and 1971 seasons. That total worked out to be 2,062,500 dollars. In exchange for this concession the brothers Soriano only had to pay a 100,000 dollar franchise fee.

It seemed that Dewy Soriano was the perfect man to become a new MLB owner. He had been a minor league pitcher, he had owned the Yakima Bears, and served as President of both the Pacific Coast League and the Western International League. However when it came time to pay the fee’s to make the Pilots a reality Soriano nor his brother had all of it.

In addition to the 100 grand franchise fee, the Pilots were to pay 175,000 for 30 players from the other teams in the American League. This would bring the total startup costs for the Pilots to 5,250,000 dollars plus the missed revenue from the TV deal. Is essence the Pilots start up costs were 7,312,500 dollars.

Since the Soriano Brother did not have this money, they sold 47% of their new franchise to former Cleveland Indians owner William Daley. Ironically Daley had once tried to move his Indians to Seattle but the city of Cleveland made him an offer he could not refuse.

With the lack of TV revenue and poor attendance, the Pilots were only able to draw 677,944 fans in 1969; the team was strapped for cash. Now here is the rub, for the most part the attendance problems were the fault of the ownership.

Daley, growing upset with the lack of cash flow, told the fans they had one more year to shape up of the team would fail. This did not inspire many Seattle baseball fans to buy tickets.

The Pilots had a solid rookie in one Lou Piniella, who was set to make 175 grand in 1969. After a strong pre season Piniella, either due to a feud with Pilot’s manager Joe Schultz, or as a cost cutting move Piniella was traded to the Kansas City Royals and became the AL Rookie of the Year.

After a horrendous first season, the Pilots finished 1969 with a 64-98 record good enough for last place in the AL west, local theater chain owner Fred Danz agreed to purchase the club for 10 million dollars. This change in ownership was approved by MLB, but the Bank of California demanded that he team immediately pay back the f million it had loaned the origination for its start up costs. This news came on Christmas day of 1969, and since Nanz did not have the additional 4 million the sale was nullified.

Westin Hotels President Eddie Carlson tried to put together a Non Profit group to but the Pilots, but the American league ultimately decided to vote against selling the team to them.

During the World Series of 1969 the Pilots reached an agreement with Selig to sell the team to him for 10.8 million dollars so that he could bring the team to Milwaukee to replace the Braves.

After a court fight to keep the team in Seattle, and since no local owner could be found, the team was finally moved to Milwaukee right as Spring Training was ending for the 1970 season.

In the aftermath of the move the City of Seattle, King County and the State of Washington sued the American League for 32 million dollars related to the Pilots move to Milwaukee. While baseball offered to move the Chicago White Sox, Oakland A’s, and the San Francisco Giants to Seattle the case eventually ended up in court.

As the plaintiff’s laid out their case, it started to appear that they would win, so the MLB decided to settle the case out of court by giving Seattle another expansion team for the 1977 season.

Although the played just one season the Pilots had many contributions to the pop culture of baseball. Tommy Harper led the league in stolen bases with 73, while Pitcher Jim Bouton kept a daily diary during his stint with the Pilots that later became the book Ball Four.

In the end, incompetence by the folks who were purchasing the Pilots and the failure of American League owners to more closely examiner the amount of finances the owners were bringing to the table were the biggest reasons the Pilots were only able to last one year.