Seattle Pilots Lasted Only One Season
ALSO: HIGH TIME FOR MLB TO FIX SELF-INFLICTED TROUBLES WITH TIME
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Reader Reacts
On Opening Day, ESPN had a Brewers-Yankees game at 3 PM ET, followed by Tigers-Dodgers at 7 PM ET. The second game competed against the NCAA Basketball Regional Semifinals. Two days later, Fox had a 7 PM ET game between the Mets and Astros, up against the NCAA Regional Finals. ESPN Sunday night game was Cardinals-Red Sox at 7PM. The first two weeks have seen scheduled night games in weather so cold that the Tigers have moved their times against the Yankees to the afternoon from 6:30 PM, and the Mets moved up today's (4/8) game up three hours. Somebody has to do better.
— Brian Greenberg, Long Island, NY
Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
San Diego starter Dylan Cease, earning $13.75 million in the walk year of his contract, has been traded twice but never to a New York team, though he’s heard rumors about the Yankees’ interest and loves the Metropolitan Museum of Art [MOMA] . . .
Well-traveled outfielder Kevin Pillar, back in the big leagues with Texas at age 36, has 50 chickens and six llamas — one of them named Betty White . . .
The autistic daughter of Astros manager Joe Espada threw a perfect strike to her dad when asked to throw out the first pitch on Autism Awareness Night at Daikin Park . . .
Seattle started a pitcher named Luis Castillo in consecutive games, though one of them was a rookie just called up and inserted into the rotation . . .
Even with Tropicana Field getting funding to repair its imploded roof, the Tampa Bay Rays rejected their proposed $1.3 billion new stadium and seem to be on the fast track to relocation . . .
The Rays are playing home games this season at George M. Steinbrenner Field, normally the home of the Tampa Tarpons of the Single-A Florida State League.
Leading Off
The Greatest Pilots (All-Time): Part 1, Position Players
By Paul Semendinger
The Seattle Pilots existed for only one major-league season (1969), but because that season is chronicled in Jim Bouton's famous book Ball Four, the team lives on forever in the hearts of many baseball fans.
While many of the Pilots had careers that were not all that noteworthy, there were a few players on the team who went on to have somewhat lengthy and significant careers. In this article, I will rank the top five greatest position players to have played for the Seattle Pilots.
Honorable Mention: Jim Pagliaroni (C, 1B, OF)
Jim Pagliaroni appeared in 40 games for the Pilots, batting .264. In his 11-year major league career, played with the Red Sox, Pirates, A's, and Pilots, Pags appeared in 849 games. He caught Bill Monbouquette's no-hitter and Catfish Hunter's perfect game. Overall, Pagliaroni batted .252 with 90 home runs and 326 runs batted in. He accumulated 15.8 WAR in his career.
5th Place: Mike Hegan (OF, 1B)
Mike Hegan appeared in 95 games for the Pilots and was an All-Star for them (although an injury kept him out of the game). That season, he batted .292 with 8 home runs and 37 runs batted in. Hegan clubbed the first home run in Pilots' history. In his 12-year Major League career, played with the Pilots/Brewers, Yankees, and A's, Hegan played in 966 games. He once held the record for the most consecutive errorless games (178) at first base. Overall, Hegan batted .242/53/229 and accumulated 8.3 WAR.
4th Place: Rich Rollins (3B)
Rich Rollins played 58 games for the Pilots, batting .225 with 4 home runs and 21 runs batted in. Rollins played in 1,002 games, mostly for the Minnesota Twins, in his 10-year big-league career. In 1962, Rollins was an All-Star for the American League. That year, he batted .298/16/96 and finished 8th in the American League voting for Most Valuable Player. Two years later, in 1964, Rollins led the A.L. in triples with 10. Overall, Rollins was a career .269 hitter with 77 home runs and 399 runs batted in. Rollins accumulated 11.8 WAR in his career.
3rd Place: Don Mincher (1B)
Don Mincher played in 140 games for the Pilots, batting .246 with 25 home runs (to lead the team) and 78 runs batted in (second on the team). Mincher was the only Pilot to ever appear in an All-Star Game. In his one at-bat, as a pinch-hitter, he struck out. Mincher enjoyed a 13-year big-league career spent with five different clubs. Of note, Mincher played for the original Washington Senators and then the Twins, the team the Senators became, and the second Washington Senators and then the Texas Rangers, the team the second-edition Senators became. Mincher was an All-Star for the American League in 1967 and 1969. Overall, he played in 1,400 games, batting .249/200/643 accumulating 23.1 WAR.
2nd Place: Tommy Harper (3B, 2B, OF)
No player played more games for the Pilots than Tommy Harper, who appeared 148 times in their lone season. His double on Opening Day was the first hit in the team's history. That year, Harper hit .235 with 9 homers and 31 runs batted in, but more significant were his 73 stolen bases, which led all of Major League Baseball. Harper would later lead the A.L. in steals again in 1973. While with the Reds in 1965, he led the National League in runs scored. Tommy Harper was an All-Star for the American League in 1970. Overall, Tommy Harper played in 15 big-league seasons, appearing in 1,810 games, and batting .257/146/567 with 408 stolen bases. Of all the players to ever play for the Pilots, Harper's 25.7 career WAR was the best.
1st Place: Tommy Davis (LF, 1B)
Of all the players to play for the Pilots, Tommy Davis came to the team as, and remains, their biggest star. In 1962, Davis led the National League in batting (.346), runs batted in (153), and hits (230). In 1963, he again led the N.L. in batting with a .326 mark. For the Pilots, Davis appeared in 123 games before being traded to the Houston Astros. Davis batted .271/6/80 for Seattle. In his long career, 18 seasons, Tommy Davis was a three-time All-Star. Overall, he played in 1,999 games, batting .294 with 153 home runs, 1,052 runs batted in, and 136 stolen bases. Davis spent his career with 10 different clubs, but none more than the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tommy Davis accumulated 20.3 WAR across his career.
In my next article, I will rank the five greatest pitchers to have played for the Seattle Pilots.
Paul Semendinger, Ed.D. is a retired school principal who now serves as an educational consultant and also teaches as an adjunct professor at Ramapo College. The author of a host of books, Paul gives engaging presentations, motivational talks, and has the privilege of serving as a lay minister on occasion in local churches. Paul was supposed to be the Opening Day starting pitcher for his baseball team on April 6, but the game was rained out. He is hoping to again get the nod when the season opens on April 13.
Cleaning Up
“Time Is Passing — Are You?”
By Dan Schlossberg
When I was a student at Lincoln Junior High School in Passaic, NJ, music teacher Luke Raviella loved to tell the class, “Time is passing. Are you?”
Too bad Rob Manfred wasn’t in the class.
The current Commissioner of Baseball brought a pitch clock to the big leagues and urged teams to wear retro threads for regular weekend “Throw Back the Clock” games.
But he also presides over a game that needs to reach a rudimentary understanding of time.
Too many showcase games — including All-Star, playoff, and World Series games — start at such ridiculous times that young viewers can’t or won’t be awake to see their conclusions.
Saturday games that start at 4:00 routinely eat into family time, delaying dinner, dates, or movies for those who watch or costing baseball millions of potential viewers.
Moreover, 4:00 starts invariably result in poor performances directly related to the setting sun — depending upon location and month of the year.
Creeping shadows create poor playing conditions, especially for hitters unable to time their swings while aiming at speeding, rotating white balls coming out of crowds clad in white shirt-sleeves during summer.
For the past couple of years, MLB has mandated 3:00 EDT starting times for the season’s final games. This year, it’s done the same to Opening Day — delaying traditional 1:00 starts by a couple of hours.
The result is a flood of inebriated fans hitting the road in the middle of rush hour. Not everybody has too much beer at the ballpark but asking fans to abstain is hardly a workable solution.
Charlie Finley, the innovative owner of the former Oakland Athletics, was the one who urged MLB to stage World Series games at night. He meant weekday games, not those played on weekends. But Official Baseball swallowed the concept and now plays the most important games of the year in unpleasant conditions — for players, fans, and anyone else at the ballpark.
As for Sunday Night Baseball, here’s hoping the pending end of ESPN’s involvement ends the practice of playing after dark on Sundays, when there’s considerable competition from television, movies, and the demands of family and friends.
A clever commissioner would move the All-Star Game to a weekend afternoon, where it could get the largest possible audience, and encourage teams to play all weekend games by daylight too.
Officials who say they like the game’s traditions should realize that baseball by daylight tops the list.
If sponsors and broadcasters don’t agree, that’s just too bad. They shouldn’t be calling the shots anyway. Not if baseball truly wants to be a sport and not a business.
Getting and keeping future fans is essential to the long-term success of Major League Baseball. But depriving them of games because of poor time management is definitely not the way to do that.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ grew up with two eight-team leagues whose pennant winners went directly to a World Series played entirely in daylight. He says those were “the Good Old Days.” Disagree? Email him at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: L.A. Hitters, Pitchers, Runners
“I know Shohei puts his pants on just like we all do, one leg at a time. But if there’s ever a superhero, I think Shohei just seems like a superhero. In the biggest of games or the biggest of moments, he seems to always deliver.”
— Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on pitcher-DH Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani’s 50/50 season in 2024 earned him a unanimous MVP award (his third) even though he had a better slugging average (.654 to 6.46) and OBP (.412 to .390) the year before, when he was still with the Angels . . .
In 2024, his first with the Dodgers, the fleet Ohtani pilfered 59 bases — 22 per cent of all stolen bases by designated hitters and more than five times as many as runner-up Brent Rooker, who swiped 11 . . .
Ohtani teammate Clayton Kershaw, still on the Dodgers injured list, proved the ultimate control artist in 2016, when he had 172 strikeouts and just 11 walks, a 15.64 ratio that was the best single-season showing in baseball history . . .
Atlanta’s Chris Sale, who won the pitching Triple Crown last year, has the best career ratio (5.31, with 2,414 whiffs against 455 free passes) . . .
Freddie Freeman, who has played for both the Braves and Dodgers, is the only active player with 300 homers and a .300 lifetime average, though his .2999 had to be rounded up to push him over that threshold . . .
Teammate Blake Snell, signed as a free agent by the wealthy Dodgers, has more Cy Young trophies (2) than complete games; he went the route for the only time in his life when he no-hit the Reds last Aug. 2 for the Giants.
Ex-Dodger Zack Greinke had a higher winning percentage than his team for a record 16 years in a row, according to Cooperstown-based author/historian Bill Deane. Thanks, Bill, for the nuggets printed in this section today.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
I saw the Pilots debut at Anaheim Stadium. Mincher was my favorite player with the Angels, was crushed when they let him go.