Thanks for an excellent Web site…I hope it grows and grows! I never
went to a Pilots game with my dad, either. For whatever reason, he
just didn't like to go, so I went two or three times with the neighbors. My first game was against Detroit, and it was NBC's "Game of the Week"
with Tony Kubek and Curt Gowdy calling it. I've still got a ticket
stub, a pennant, a yearbook and a couple of game programs autographed by Ray
Oyler, Marty Pattin and Gene Brabender. My son, who
is a National Merit Scholar and a sports buff, has some 1970 cards from
the "phantom" Pilots and thinks that is rather cool.
Appreciated your shots from the hardware store. I had no idea they had
home plate set up in the store—that is way cool. I remember Bat
Day at Sick's: thousands of kids pounding on those wooden bleachers
and making QUITE a racket.
—rneese
Gene Brabender was my uncle, and
we lived two blocks from each other in Black Earth, Wisconsin when I was in
high school ten years ago.
I have talked to many relatives and friends and looked up some
information about Gene since he died in December, 1996. It really bothered me
knowing I only lived two blocks away from Gene and did not talk to him very
much about his career. I appreciate the fact that he
was a professional baseball player more now than I did when he was living so
close. I pretty much knew him as just my uncle then.
I am a big baseball fan, especially of the Milwaukee Brewers. When the
Brewers had "Turn Back the Clock Night," we had about 150 friends
and relatives of Gene's there. I honestly think I was the proudest one of the
group when they annouced Gene's name over the loud speaker, and when Bob
Uecker mentioned that my other uncles and aunts had made it to the game over
the radio. Also, during that ball game, Kyle Peterson
made his major league debut pitching. If you look at a picture of him from
the side from that game, he looked incredibly like Gene.
Thanks for making a great website. I have told some of my relatives about it
already.
—Bigred0172
On top of all that, I found your Web site devoted to Expo '74. I was in high
school in Spokane then, and visited the fair almost daily. Hey, have you
stolen ALL my childhood memories???
The first major league baseball game I ever went to was in Sick's Stadium, to see the Pilots play the Washington
Senators. I was only 12 at the time, but remember the experience to
this day.
Somewhere, packed safely away, I still have a Pilots hat my dad bought me at
that first game (in less than pristine condition, alas), and a pretty good
copy of a program.
They say life goes in cycles. My 15-year-old son is in the process of
joining a Connie Mack team here in Arizona. The team name? "Pilots," of
course, named after the Seattle team.
—keith
I remember at one Pilot game my friend and me were walking around Sick's
Stadium before the game. He points up toward a location in the centerfield
section and says, "see that blue painted seat way up there? That's where
Frank Howard hit that big shot few weeks back, so they marked it with blue
paint." It had to be at least 440 to 450 feet.
Was wondering if you had heard of this story? It sounds feasible to me, old
Frank had biceps like tree trunks.
—ProSports
NOTE FROM MIKE: I haven't heard this story. If you know it to be true or false, please e-mail me.