Don't miss the next page of letters!
In 1990 I started a scrapbook. It contains some autographs, every Pilots baseball card I know of, a copy of the
game program, and photocopied info from books about the the team and Sicks
Stadium. I've contacted several people in Seattle to help me becasue
the local resources here only have limited information. One person I
contacted in Seattle was Ray Madeiros, referred to me by Bob Bluthardt of
SABR. Mr. Madeiros seemed to think that maybe I had more information than he
did, so he couldn't help me much. I used to think the same thing about my
scrapbook: what will I do when nothing else is left to add? There will
always be something to add!!! Just when you think you have it all, you'll
find out there's still more out there to consider. I have thought about doing my own website devoted to the Pilots.
I applaud what you have done. For the longest while (before the Internet), I
thought I must be one of a handful of people interested in this team. It's
good to see that I'm not the only devoted Pilots fan! Thanks, Mike, for the
wonderful resource you've created! 
I've been interested in the Pilots since 1987 when some friends of mine and
I were trying to think of existing teams that nobody in Cincinnati
knew much about. Before Ken Griffey, the Mariners were hardly known here; we never heard the
final scores of night games from Seattle or Anaheim or Oakland because we would be in bed by the time the games out
there would be in the fifth inning. I started thinking of the old Seattle
Pilots and asked if my friends who could name at least one Pilot. We couldn't!
That started my interest: to find out who they were, what the team was like,
and why they moved to Milwaukee.
—CDrew
I remember getting to one game early to see the world champ Detroit Tigers. They were taking batting practice and when I walked in there was this guy hitting balls out to every field with power. Who was this guy? Why it was none other than Denny McLain, the 31 game winning pitcher. I woulda thought it was Babe Ruth! On another game I got a ball in BP in the right field bleachers. I later used it to play with my pals. Other than all that I remember the smells at the ball park. The fresh-brewed coffee, the roasting peanuts, the hot dogs, the smell of cigarettes ( I know it's not politically correct but that's what I remember). I remember the pennant stands underneath old Sicks. Finally the team was leaving. The owners were broke. I felt betrayed because we had voted to build a new domed stadium with Forward Thrust 1968. Losing the team was like losing a family member to an accidental death. I think now that I love the game more than ever because you don't know what you got 'til it's gone.
It was 1969. I was a 13-year-old boy with a paper route and a love for Northwest sports and especially baseball. We had hit the big time. Never mind that "The Mick" had retired the year before, we had big league ball. Every morning I couldn't wait to get the P-I, as I saved every copy of that inaugural season. Reggie Jackson was a phenom. As the season started, Sick's wasn't even converted yet. I had been to Seattle Angels games before but the renovation/expansion of Sicks was still under way. Early in the season the team did well in the standings. I hated that Lou Piniella with Kansas City cuz he was so damn good. 'Why did we trade him?' I thought to myself. I had nobody to take me to the games so I went with my buddies mostly on Saturday or Sunday day games - we took the bus down Rainier and tried to get there early for batting practice. If we got hungry we hit McDonalds next door for those great 25 cent hamburgers. In those days we got 1/2 price off the seats so for a couple bucks we got great seats.
—John
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