‘We’re all Brewers fans today’: Seattle’s link to the World Series

The former Seattle Pilots are in the World Series!

The franchise is now the Milwaukee Brewers, who face the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 on Friday, Oct. 23.

Sure, that’s not quite a Seattle World Series appearance. But until the Mariners get there, the one-time Pilots will have to do.

“So if you want to look at it that way, then I suppose yes, we’re all Brewers fans today,” Allie Delyanis, a digital media specialist for Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), said.

One season, plenty of problems

The Pilots arrived in 1969 as Seattle’s first Major League Baseball team. The American League awarded Seattle the expansion franchise in 1967 with plans for a future domed stadium.

Their stay lasted just one season, with home games at Sick’s Stadium, a minor league ballpark that wasn’t ready for the big leagues.

“There were benches still being installed during the home opener, so a lot of fans didn’t actually get into the stadium and take their seats until the third inning,” Delyanis said.

Then there was the plumbing.

Delyanis said the stadium’s system struggled when crowds reached about 10,000 people. Visiting players had their own complaints.

“They never wanted to actually shower at the clubhouse,” she said. “They had to go back to the hotel because the water pressure was so bad.”

Stadium troubles were only part of the problem. The franchise ran out of money, went bankrupt, and was sold to a group led by Bud Selig, a future MLB commissioner. The Pilots moved to Milwaukee before the 1970 season and became the Brewers.

A settlement eventually paved the way for another expansion franchise: the Mariners, who began playing in 1977. They remain the only current MLB franchise never to appear in a World Series.

Permission to join the Brewers’ bandwagon

Delyanis isn’t suggesting Mariners fans trade in their Mariners loyalties, but she said there’s room to enjoy the connection.

“I think it’s fun to explore sort of the origins of how the Brewers came to be the Brewers, and that it all kind of started with a small sort of ragtag team out here in Seattle,” she said.

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