Prototype Pilots jersey and cap?

[six4three]

I don't know if we've really talked about this photo of Joe Schultz before:

http://seattlepilots.com/schulbio.jpg

It's what he's wearing that interests me. The cap, with its stylized "S" based on the Pilots wordmark, has been talked about before as a prototype of some kind.

But the jersey - that's the city-name version of their home script. I think I've only seen that one other place, on the fight song record sleeve:

http://www.brandx.net/pilots/gogoyou.jpg

By the time the Pilots took the field, they were wearing a unique arched lower-case wordmark on their road uniforms:

http://mlb.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pMLB2-2379603dt.jpg

So the entire uniform he's wearing may be an unused prototype.

Wonder when that photo was taken. I'd love to get a look at the microfiche archives of the Seattle papers. Schultz was hired October 10, 1968. It must have been sometime between then and the start of Spring Training (when they would have the regular uniforms ready). From the coupe, I'd guess it was some sort of reception or other public event. Joe was known for his drinking, but unless there's Budweiser in that glass it had to have been a special occassion. :D

Does anybody know why the Pilots ran through so many uniforms - the plain Spring Training uniforms with block lettering, the plain blue caps with solid gold "S", these prototypes - in addition to the ones they actually wore in 1969?

[Tailwind Tommy]

Here are some excerpts from my newspaper microfiche research:

3/26/69{The Columbian, Oregon} Brighter than bright! That’s… It may be that I owe Dewey Soriano an apology for predicting last year that his baseball team--the Seattle Pilots, in case it slipped your mind--would be clad in the sport’s traditional tattle-tale gray. Right now the team is wearing near but uninspiring blue-white outfits and the official home uniforms are stored somewhere in Seattle awaiting the April 11 launching date against the Chicago White Sox. And I have it on good authority whose name is General Manager Marvin Milkes that the opposition may beat us, but in first they’ll salute us. Now don’t get the idea the Pilots have gone Finley. Once I told you about the Hollywood fashion designer who had the simply delightful thought of introducing distinctive dress for each baseball position. She believed the fans should be able to identify the players at a glance by what they were wearing--pink for pitchers, for instance, and something like soothing cerise for shortstops and puce, perhaps for pinch hitters. The idea won immediate disapproval. Charley Finley didn’t go quite that far when he dressed his Athletics, but his Oakland team in the American League gives you an eyeful of Kelly green and Ft. Knox gold, plus shoes of purest white. Stodgy baseball traditionalists paled in shock at first, but they got used to the Finley colors and some may even have gotten used to Finley. Road uniforms of the Pilots will be an ordinary all-over blue, but the home colors will give you an urge to stand and sing “Anchors Aweigh” or “Off We Go Into the Wild, Etc. These garments will be white with blue-gold stripes on the sleeves and the word “Pilots” in blue across the chest, outlined in gold. Sweatshirt sleeves will be true blue too. The pants will be white with blue-gold piping and the stockings blue with four gold stripes. Caps of blue will bear a golden “S” and--this is the touch that will grab you--a pilot’s golden scrambled eggs upon the bill. To underline the notion that Seattle is Queen City of sea and air, the team insignia combines a ship’s wheel with airplane wings in blue and gold upon the chest and that’s the end of the style show.

The Pilots had interesting spring training uniforms. I thought it interesting that another expansion team {San Diego Padres} had about the same simple design.

I would think that the Pilots wanted to save their newly designed uniforms especially for opening day for use during the regular season. I don't know why the Pilots didn't go back to wearing their "near but uninspiring blue-white outfits" {as mentioned in the previous article} for the 1970 exhibiton season. Instead, they wore their 1969 regular season home whites and road blues.

The pictures and articles here indicate that the prototype uniform Joe Schultz wore was for the purpose of promoting the new Pilots expansion team during his goodwill tour. Here is Joe Schultz' uniform {front and back}, and some other Pilots items {souvenirs} that display the lightning 's' design:

[Tailwind Tommy]

Joe Schultz' hiring as the new Pilots skipper was announced at the close of the 1968 world series.

2/22/69 {The Sporting News} Joe Wins Northwest on Triumphal Tour

[PlayJay]

Does anybody know why the Pilots ran through so many uniforms - the plain Spring Training uniforms with block lettering, the plain blue caps with solid gold "S", these prototypes - in addition to the ones they actually wore in 1969?

I think an answer could be provided by the fact that the whole 1969 season, with everything related to it, was such a disaster, that the uniform thing plays right along.

As ludicrous as I thought the caps with the underscores and the fratting were...they clearly weren't nearly as silly as the Expos.

[six4three]

Schultz' hiring as the new Pilots skipper was announced at the close of the 1968 world series.

43994


That's great - thanks!

I understand why they didn't go back to the block-letter uniforms for Spring Training in 1970 - they were placeholders, something to wear while keeping the actual uniforms under wraps before the official unveiling. No sense going back to them later.