Up and Away Part II

After the 1968 season, Major League Baseball not only expanded with four teams, bringing the total to 24, but it split each league into two divisions, east and west; the division winners would play each other in a best of three series with the winner going to the World Series. This was an idea former Commissioner Ford Frick proposed in 1959, but it took a decade for it to happen.

The Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos and the Seattle Pilots began playing in 1969.

As with the previous expansions, there was a draft of players from existing teams. The Padres and Expos could select players from other NL clubs; the Royals and Padres selected from their AL opponents.

THE SAN DIEGO PADRES

On April 8, 1969, when San Diego Padres starter Dick Selma struck out Houston third baseman Dennis Menke to end the ballgame, the expansion team had its first-ever victory in its first-ever contest, 2-1. A home crowd of more than 23,000 saw Selma give up a run on two hits to the Astros in the first inning, then shut them down the rest of the way. Padres third baseman Ed Spiezio hit a solo home run in the fifth inning for the winning run. A great way to start a franchise.

That, unfortunately, was the Padres’ highlight of the season.

According to an article by Gregory Funk for the Society of American baseball Research (SABR), “the National League announced the awarding of expansion teams to Montreal and San Diego, beating out Buffalo, Milwaukee and Dallas. Less than a year later, the Padres were playing their first game, debuting at home in recently built San Diego Stadium, hosting the Houston Astros.

“Former Dodgers General Manager E. J. “Buzzie” Bavasi  partnered with San Diego businessman and financier C. Arnholt Smith to secure the franchise. Smith became two-thirds owner and supplied the bulk of the capital, with Bavasi owning the other third, serving as president, and providing the experience. Smith had owned the Pacific Coast League Padres and, although at the time he was known for his banking and financial empire, he also preferred to stay out of the spotlight, and was something of a mystery man to all but his closest friends,” wrote Funk.

Bob Chandler, a longtime Padres broadcaster, said, “The roster was filled primarily through an expansion draft, during which each team received 30 players from the existing clubs. Winning a coin toss, the Padres selected right fielder Ollie Brown (from San Francisco) as the first choice. Montreal went after veterans, but Bavasi’s plan was to draft plenty of young talent with a sprinkling of experienced players, and therefore he expected some possible lean seasons at the start.”

The Padres held their spring training at Keegan Field in Yuma, AZ. The facilities were primitive. A former youth baseball field in shabby condition, the entire infield and outfield needed to be leveled, and the mound elevated to major-league standards. It also lacked basic amenities, such as bleachers, showers, locker rooms, a press box, a PA system, and concession stands. “We showered in a city gym in a recreation center,” said first baseman Nate Colbert. But the 23-year-old slugger noted “we survived.” Padres players dressed and showered at a city swimming pool, while visiting players traveled across town to do the same in Municipal Stadium, the former spring home of the Baltimore Orioles, which was in even worse shape than Keegan.

If Bavasi expected some lean seasons, 1969 was a starvation.

San Diego finished with a record of 52-110, the same record as its expansion brethren Montreal Expos.

Selma collected the franchise’s fifth win on April 22 before Bavasi sent him to the Chicago Cubs three days later for two younger pitchers.

The Padres finished last in attendance, drawing only 522,0222 fans (while the Expos, playing in a creaky stadium in sometimes bitterly cold weather, drew 1.2 million fans).

No one expects an expansion team to play above .500, but is having a bad major league expansion team better than no big league team at all?

“Home attendance was awful the first five seasons in San Diego with a season high of 644,000 the best – until Ray Kroc bought the team and brought in some legitimate major league players like Willie McCovey and Bobby Tolan,” said Bob Chandler, who was a broadcaster in 1970 and 1971, and joined the team’s regular broadcasting crew in 1972.

“The fans were enamored with Kroc, and the Padres in 1974 drew over one million fans despite another bad team that lost 102 games.  The Padres were under-financed the first five seasons as the original owner, C. Arnholt Smith, was having money issues and eventually presided over the largest bank failure ever in the United States – U.S.National Bank– at that time—-eventually selling to Kroc in January 1974,” said Chandler.

“The Padres and Montreal Expos … took opposite strategies to build their clubs. The Padres drafted all young players while the Expos went for older, name players with the idea of trading them to contenders for better prospects. Which team did better? Ironically both the Padres and Expos had identical records in 1969;  52-110,” note Chandler, who authored the book, Tales from the San Diego Padres Dugout.

Unlike the New York Mets who played in the ancient Polo Grounds or the Houston Colt 45s, whose home was a temporary ballpark that was an abode to huge mosquitoes, the Padres played in a relatively new stadium it shared with the San Diego Chargers of the AFL. Definitely a few steps above the spring training facility in Yuma.

According to Chandler, San Diego Stadium had a seating capacity of about 50,000. and “The facility was in excellent condition for the major league Padres first season in 1969,” he said.

One of the few bright spots for San Diego was the emergence of Colbert as a top power hitters in the league. Despite showing home run potential in his final minor league seasons, Houston left him unprotected in the expansion draft. In a SABR profile by Gregory H. Wolf,  Colbert said Houston manager Harry “The Hat” Walker wanted Colbert to be like him, a slap hitter to all fields. Hardly the approach Colbert was suited for as a batter.

“The Astros were legitimate contenders for the 1969 season, but I don’t remember why he (Colbert) was available,” said Chandler. “I know the Padres were not counting on Colbert to be their first baseman….6-foot 7-inch Bill Davis was the opening day starter, but was a dud until mid-April when Colbert took over and led the team with 24 homers. Nate hit 38 home runs in 1970 and 72, including one magic doubleheader in Atlanta on August 1, 1972 when he hit five homers with 13 RBIs.  He was a big-time power hitter until back issues led to his demise”.

THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS

When Harry Dunlop returned home in 1968 after his 20th season playing and coaching in the minors, his next-door neighbor told him Joe Gordon, a friend of Dunlop’s, was named manager of the new Kansas City Royals.

“I called Joe and congratulated him,” said Dunlop. Years before, Gordon told Dunlop that if he ever got another job managing in the big leagues, he’d hire him as a coach.

“I didn’t even remember what he had said to me, to tell you the truth,” Dunlop recalled. “I was so happy for him. He says, are you gonna be free tomorrow morning? Could you come over? I got a couple of things (I’d) like you to do for me.

“I’d done some handy work for him, and I said, yeah, no problem – and he says, why don’t you come over about 10 o’clock. So I go over to the house and his wife Dorothy lets me in and says Joe’s in his room. I go in and he’s talking on the phone, and he says, Harry there’s a manila envelope there. Why don’t you take a look at it? And so I went over and I opened it – it was a major league coaches contract!

“I’m standing there, probably with my mouth wide open. He turns around and says, what do you think? And I said, you want me to kiss you now or later? And the first thing I did was call my wife Joanne and told her, honey, you won’t believe this, but we’re in the big leagues. So we’ve finally made it.”

Dunlop passed away on November 16, 2022, but he talked extensively about the first year of the Royals.

“Oh, we had so many guys in spring training it was unbelievable.  They had (the expansion draft) in San Francisco in the winter meetings. I was invited there and I was involved” with the selections, Dunlop noted.

“They asked my advice about the guys in the (Pacific) Coast League (PCL). We had loaded up on left-handed hitters, and were talking about maybe we could make a trade with somebody. So, Seattle had drafted Lou Piniella. Well, Piniella was leading the PCL in hitting the year that year I was up there (with the Seattle Angels), and he broke his ankle by kicking the bag. He was leading the league and didn’t get enough at bats to win the batting title because he didn’t play the second half of the season.  I said, you can’t throw a fastball by him. I mean, he’s got a lot of work to do in the outfield, but he’s a real good right handed hitter and he’d be a real asset,” said Dunlop. “And of course Lou turned out to be the American League Rookie of the Year that year.”

(Piniella batted .282 with 11 home runs and 68 RBI – and is the only player on an expansion team win the ROY award.)

The Royals won a coin toss for the first pick in the expansion draft. They selected Roger Nelson, a right-handed pitcher from the Baltimore Orioles.

“The Kansas City Royals pulled a major surprise today in making Roger Nelson, a young, right-handed pitcher their number one choice in the American League’s Expansion Draft,” reported the Associated Press.

“Nelson, 24, spent most of the 1968 season with Rochester in the International League. He was drafted from the Baltimore Orioles. “’He has a fine arm,” a Kansas City spokesman said. “He has a good fastball and curve as his strike out pitches and could win 12 or 15 games for us in our first year.’”

Nelson made 29 starts for the Royals in 1969 going 7-13 with a more than respectable 3.31 ERA.  He pitched 193.1 innings with eight complete games.

The Royals did their first spring training in Fort Myers, Florida. “It was real nice set up. Of course, I thought it was great because it was a big league, (facility),” said Dunlop.

Their home for a few years would be Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, which opened in 1923.

“It was run down. It was old and the air conditioning didn’t work half the time in the summer and they didn’t have a lounge for the family, the wives, and that after ball games,” Dunlop recalled. “And it wasn’t in the greatest section of town. But you know what, the neighborhood there, those people were great. They’d leave their porch lights on at night and the people really took care of watching (the ballpark area). There was nothing bad went on or anything like that. They hired some of the local kids there, the college kids. They made sure they protected the wives when they were outside of the ballpark after the ball games.”

After two decades playing and coaching in the minors, Dunlop said reaching the majors was indescribable: “It was a great feeling. You really felt like you accomplished something. All those years I spent in the minor leagues playing and instructing and managing paid off because that experience really helped.”

On April 8, 1969, the Royals played their first game at Municipal Stadium, where the Kansas City A’s played their last game on September 27, 1967. Wally Bunker, a 25th round pick in the expansion draft, started for the Royals.

Piniella led off for the Royals in the bottom of the first by doubling, the franchise’s first hit.  It was his first of four safeties. The hometown team won 4-3 in the bottom of the 12th on an RBI single by pinch hitter Joe Keough.

The Royals drew 902,414 fans, finishing seventh out of 12 teams in attendance.

With 69 wins, they not only finished ahead of their co-expansion team Seattle Pilots, but were a game ahead of the Chicago White Sox for fourth place in the AL West. It was the best finish by any of the eight major league teams that joined baseball since 1960.

The Royals did not engage in signing big name free agents, but built their club through a farm system, which included a baseball academy. In 1971, they drafted a third baseman in the second round. George Brett would go on to a Hall of Fame career and the Royals won their first AL West title in 1976 but then lost that series and two more to the New York Yankees. In 1980, the Royals swept the Yankees and went to the World Series, but lost to the Phillies in six games. Five years later, they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to become only the second expansion franchise to win a championship. The other three expansion teams that year have yet to win one.

THE MONTREAL EXPOS

Elroy Face led the National League in saves several times and saved three of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ four victories in the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees. At the trade deadline in 1968, he was acquired by the Detroit Tigers, who were fighting for the pennant.

The next spring, he thought his career might be over, as the Tigers cut him at the start of April.

Then he got a call from Gene Mauch, the first-year manager of the first year Montreal Expos. The pitcher, known for his forkball, joined the club a few weeks later.

The Expos were going to play in Jarry Park, built in 1960. It was supposed to be a temporary stadium for four years. When the Expos joined the majors, it was expanded to hold 28,500 fans.

Face said the facilities at Jarry Park were fine. “The only thing was in the spring the frost in the ground (would melt) and the ground was loose in spots, but other than that, there was no problem,” he said.

Asked if it was difficult playing in the cold spring in Montreal, Face, now 97 who lives near Pittsburgh, said, “it’s cold here!”

On April 8, 1969, the Expos played their first game against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium.  Jim “Mudcat” Grant started for the Expos, and faced the Mets’ Tom Seaver in front of 44,541 fans at Shea Stadium.

In the top of the first, a Mets error and walk put runners on first and second, then first baseman Bob Bailey (the 1962 Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year) doubled to score two unearned runs; it was the Expos’ first-ever hit, first-ever RBIs and first-ever  lead.  In five innings, Seaver was charged with four runs (two earned).

The Mets, who would become the “Miracle Mets” when they won the World Series that year, committed three errors.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Expos held an 11-6 lead.  Montreal’s Don Shaw started his fourth inning for Montreal, but after giving up a run and putting on two runners with two outs, pinch hitter Duffy Dyer hit a three-run home run making the score 11-10. Carroll Sembera relieved Shaw and promptly gave up a hit and walk before striking out Rod Gaspar to end the game and earn Montreal its first victory.

Despite the bad play and cold weather, the Expos drew more than 1.2 million fans, the most of any of the eight expansion teams added to baseball, a record that would stand for more than 20 years.

In a SABR biography of Mauch, John Vorperian wrote, “On August 22, the 39-87 Expos extended Mauch’s contract for two more years. Montreal finished 52-110 in 1969, which included a 20-game losing streak. Mauch remarked on the number of club records that had been set—most bases on balls, most wild pitches, most passed balls, most hit batters, saying something along the lines of  ‘We can’t be this worse again.’ He promised the club would win at least 70 games the next year.

“Indeed, the 1970 Expos went 73-89. Mauch’s pact was further extended. In 1973 he topped the league champion New York Mets skipper Yogi Berra for his third Sporting News National League Manager of the Year award. On October 1, 1975, after Montreal finished with a record of 75-87, Mauch was fired.”

Vorperian quoted Bob Dune from a Sporting News article: “When called to be told he was gone, Mauch was playing golf. He returned the call, received the message, talked to the people involved, and went back on the course for another 18.”

Mauch was succeeded by Karl Kuehl, who lasted less than a full season. The team was 55-107 and drew only 646,704 fans. From 1969 to 1975, the Expos drew a million fans every year but one. In 1977, the club hired Dick Williams as manager. Two years later, the club won 95 games and finished second in the NL East. In 1980, the team moved to Stade Olympique, where the 1976 summer Olympics were held. They again won 95 games, but lost the NL East division to the Phillies on the next-to-last day of the season.

Montreal had success for most of the next 24 years, but the only time it won the NL East was the strike-shortened 1994 season, in which the post-season was cancelled. Attendance was spotty as the 21st century began, and after the 2004 season the team relocated to Washington, D.C. and became the Nationals.

THE SEATTLE PILOTS

Encouraged by New York Yankees owner and brewer Col. Jacob Rupert in the 1930s, Seattle native and fellow brewer Emil Sick bought the Seattle franchise in the Pacific Coast League. A few years later, he opened a new stadium named after himself. Sick’s Stadium, however, had issues: only half the grandstand was covered and water pressure was a problem. By 1969, these and other mistakes were still there for the Seattle Pilots.

In 1968, Sick hired Dewey Soriano as the club’s general manager. Soriano was a baseball lifer, and with brothers Milton and Max formed Pacific Northwest Sports, Inc., and pushed for a major league franchise. At the 1968 baseball winter meetings, the Sorianos were accompanied by U. S. Senator Warren G. Magnuson, chairman of the Senate Commerce Commission that oversaw baseball’s antitrust exemption. “Was it any surprise when Seattle was awarded the second expansion franchise with Pacific Northwest Sports being the owner?” asked author Bill Hogan in his book, The 1969 Seattle Pilots: Major League Baseball’s One-Year Team.

The Soriano brothers hired Marvin Milkes, another Seattle baseball lifer, to be general manager and Joe Schultz, a long-time minor league skipper, as manager. “Schultz, he was a dandy. He’d been around the game a long time and most of his career was with the St. Louis Cardinals,” said John O’Donoghue, a left-handed pitcher on the Pilots who had six saves and a 2.96 ERA.

A key part of Seattle having a team was it would build a new domed stadium. The Seattle ownership was pushing for a $40 million bond issue for construction, but it was never approved. When the team began playing, Sick’s Stadium was far below major league standards. Attendance was less than estimated. The club was unable to secure a deal with local television to broadcast its games.

Sick’s Stadium had a seating capacity of only 25,000, and after 30 years the ballpark was not in good shape.

“My college baseball field was better, and believe me, that wasn’t good,” said O’Donoghue, who was traded to the Pilots from the Baltimore Orioles on April 30, 1969. “I guess (the locker room) was a step above a AAA locker room. They tried to do the best they could, so you really couldn’t complain because you were still in the big leagues.”

The Pilots had two distinctions: they played only one season in Seattle, and they were the subject for Jim Bouton’s tell-all book, BALL FOUR, published in June, 1970.  A one-time New York Yankees star, Bouton was trying to resurrect his career as a knuckleball pitcher. He was also keeping a journal recording on-field and off-field actions of his teammates, which included drunken womanizing, his fights with Schultz and pitching coach Sal Maglie and how former teammate Whitey Ford scuffed the balls he threw to cheat.

“Yeah, I read it,” said O’Donoghue. “You know, most of the stuff in there was second hand, third hand, 10th hand passed down. The way he crucified Mickey Mantle was terrible. Mickey was one of the nicer guys going, but Bouton did not like him. Well, that’s the way it was. It’s a shame.”

The club finished the season 64-98, last in the AL West but ahead of the Cleveland Indians for the worst record in the league. They drew 644,000, good for 10th out of 12 clubs.

General Manager Milkes kept shuffling players from one club to another, and promoting and demoting players from the major league roster to its AAA team. The Vancouver Mounties. The 1969 Pilots used 53 players, the most in a season since the 1915 Philadelphia Athletics used 56.

“Some of the Pilots said this did not help the team’s cohesiveness,” wrote Hogan in his book. “The roster was in a constant state of flux.  In some cases management did not realize what they had in some of the players that were traded away. Others were never able to settle in; they were given too quick of a hook after just a brief look.”

After the season, Schultz and his staff were fired, and Dave Bristol was hired as skipper. The team began spring training in Arizona, but a return to Seattle was not guaranteed as the club was on the verge of bankruptcy.

“It was a scary thing for all the players because we didn’t know where we were going until the last day of spring training. Our cars were all packed, everything was packed inside of them. It just depended on where we were going to go,” said O’Donaghue.

Then Wisconsin auto dealership owner Bud Selig purchased the team and moved it to Milwaukee. The team was so caught off guard that clubhouse personnel had to stitch Milwaukee onto the Pilots uniforms.

(The city of Seattle and King County filed an antitrust suit against the American League. In an out-of-court settlement, the league agreed to award another expansion franchise in Seattle.)

There were a few Pilots highlights. Outfielder Tommy Harper led the American League with 73 stolen bases. The Pilots named Diego Segui their most valuable pitcher. He was 12-6 with an ERA of 3.35, and led the club with 12 saves, pitched in relief 56 times and made eight starts with two complete games. According to a SABR biography by Joanne Hurlburt, “When the Seattle Mariners began organizing their roster for their inaugural 1977 season, Segui’s memorable year with the Pilots was recalled, and he not only made the Mariners, he was anointed the Opening Day starter.

On April 5, 1977, Segui faced the California Angels with a crowd of over 57, 000 in the Kingdome loudly applauding his return to Seattle.”

Forty five years later, this Seattle team is still alive and well in the Emerald City.