Brewers 101: The Logos

The Seattle Pilots (1969)

This is Gabe Brabender posing in his awesome home Pilots uniform – and those ridiculous glasses. (photo from: seattlepilots.com)

1969 brought another wave of expansion in Major League Baseball. The Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots, along with their new fans, were hopeful for a long and fruitful relationship between the city and professional baseball.

One of those teams would be right. The other would be the Seattle Pilots.

The team finished with a 64-98 record, good for the basement of the American League West. The team drew one of the lowest attendances in the American League with under 700,000 fans through the turnstiles. It’s little wonder that the team found itself in hot water financially to the point that they had to uproot and move to Milwaukee.

The team decided on the name Pilots as a nod to Seattle’s culture – the Pilot’s wheel represents the marine trade and recreational activities, while the gold wings pay homage to the aeronautic industry that found a home in the Pacific Northwest.

The Pilots were on the forefront of a lot of changing trends in baseball uniform

This is the Seattle Pilots hat. It’s seriously awesome. (photo from: shop.mlb.com)

design – they adopted a more ‘modern’ script for their lettering, used different shades of blue and those hats. The leaves on the bill and gold band on the bottom of the cap were reminiscent of a military uniform design that set the apart.

The teams also wore their logo patch on the chest of the jersey – a pilot’s wheel surrounding a baseball adorned with wings.

Though the team only survived for one season, the design of the Pilots would have lasting impressions on the Milwaukee Brewers.

(sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)