Thursday, December 09, 2004

Forgotten Sports Teams: Seattle Pilots


There was once a doomed baseball franchise in Seattle that only lasted 6 months. SIX MONTHS.

How often do you buy mustard? Once a year? That means your mustard lasts LONGER than the Seattle Pilots!

The Pilots then moved to Milwaukee where they became the Brewers.

As Brewers they have maintained the ability to suck for many years, but as Pilots they could suck for just 6 months.

Oddly enough, the Pilots were only the second team to disappear in one season. The other team was the 1901 MILWAUKEE BREWERS (who became the St. Louis Browns.)

If this coincidence is not enough for you, I off you these other coincidences:

The names Brewers and Brewers each contain seven letters.

The 1901 Brewers had a secretary named Cook
The 1970 Brewers had s cook named Secretary

The Pilots ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
The Browns ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Forgive me; I seem to have lost my mind.

Back to the Pilots.

The logo of the Pilots was kind of weird. It looks normal at first glance but upon closer inspection I found it rather odd.

It looks like a baseball stuffed into a boat's steering wheel that has sprouted wings. It's as if every other team’s logo was stuffed into a blender and pureed.

The team was sanctioned to play in the American League in Sicks Stadium. One of the stipulations was that the team would build a new stadium to play in.

Sicks was built in 1938 and only held about 10,000 fans. MLB asked for that to be expanded to 28,000 as the new stadium was being built. Eventually it was expanded, but the increased attendance brought MAJOR problems.

The water pressure was so low in the stadium that with peak attendance the toilets in the stadium would not flush. EVEN IN THE LOCKER ROOMS.

The Pilots were a bad team and they ended up in last place and at the end of the season they were gone.

Sicks Stadium stayed for another 10 years, and then was demolished. Today it is the site of a Lowes Improvement Warehouse.



EPILOUGE

Sadly I never came up with a good joke about the stadium being named 'Sicks,' but I tried really hard!

Here are some of attempts:

Toilets that wouldn't flush! That is pretty sick even for Sicks!

The pilots were playing at Sicks! I hope they didn't get airSICK!

At least Lowes sells toilets that flush, unlike the sick un-flushable ones at Sicks.


Yeah, I wasn't even trying with that last one; I didn't even end it with an exclaimation point.

11 comments:

  1. Gene Hackman is so cool baseball teams root for him!

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  2. Today's Obvious Joke of the Day:

    Although the Pilots haven't played baseball in 35 years they still have a better chance of winning the World Series than the Mets!!

    Today's Obvious Joke of the Day is sponsored by the CBS Monday night comedies. Tonight on Still Standing...uh who cares?? Then guess who's stoping by on "Yes Dear"? CBS prays its a viewer!! Tonight only on CBS.

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  3. You know what would be AWESOME?? If the Pilots had a promotion where Evel Knievel had to jump over Sicks stadium and was at the ballpark. But the Pilots star pitcher got hurt, so they had to use a curveball throwing, tobacco chewing monkey to start against the Minnesota Twins. The monkey walks the bases load in the first inning, but strikes out the dangerous Harmon Killebrew with 2 outs in the first. Then the Monkey pitches a no hitter, including a diving grab of a Rod Carew line drive. But in the 7th, Cesar Tovar hits a double. Pilots left fielder, Tommy Harper dives for the ball and injures his leg. He is replaced by a ball-catching minature schnauzer. The schnuazer then makes an amazing catch to prevent the run from scoring. The Pilots win 1-0 and after the game, Evel Knievel puts the dog and monkey on the back of his motorcycle and jump over Sicks Stadium. Oh man that would be SSSWWWWEEEETTTT!!!!!!

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  4. THE PILOTS NO LONGER EXIST?!?!?!JUST BET $100,000 ON THEM TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!!! OH NO!!! I'N A LOT OF TROUBLE NOW!!! HOPEFULLY I CAN WIN IT BACK BY BETTING ON THE DOUBLE ON THE SEATTLE METROPOLITANS TO WIN THE STANLEY CUP!!!!! WHAT??? THEY NO LONGER EXIST EITHER??? I AM IN SOME SERIOUS TROUBLE!!!!

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  5. Anonymous12/07/2004

    I never heard of this! Very cool.
    ...BANE

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  6. Anonymous12/07/2004

    Guy Who Looks Like The Seattle Pilots Groundskeeper said:
    I am so glad they finally tore down Sicks. I had people coming up to me all the time saying 'Please trim the weeds, the stadium is a real mess.'

    Then I would have to say, 'I'm sorry, I just look like the groundskeeper.'

    What a bunch of jerks.

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  7. That stadium is just sick.
    How's that?

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  8. Sick comment, Nettie, very sick.

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  9. I'm sick of portraits of Mike Hegan being used to defame this legendary player. Also I am sick of all these blogs making fun of him. Hegan was one of the all time greats. How many other greats can boast of a .242 liftime average, while averaging 9 HR's a year. All that and he played first base!!! He very well may be in the top 2,000 players of all time!! - Not counting pitchers of course!!

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  10. I don't know what I was thinking, T-Bone. Shame on me.

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