1970 Topps - John Kennedy (Expansion Seattle Pilots)

Description: 1970 Topps - John Kennedy (Expansion Seattle Pilots) - #53. On this date in 1968 the Seattle franchise chose its name: they’d be the Seattle Pilots. The name was inspired by Seattle’s long association with the airplane industry — the Boeing Airplane Company had been founded in Seattle in 1916 and was booming in the jet age of the 1960s — and because team owner Dewey Soriano was a part-time harbor pilot.Dewey Soriano had played minor league ball and had been the president of the Pacific Coast League. Despite his baseball pedigree and his love for the game, his Pilots club was a profoundly undercapitalized operation. He ran the team along with his brother Max, who also had worked for the PCL. In order to add some liquidity and major league expertise to the operation they hired William Daley, the former owner of the Cleveland Indians, to help run the team and, more importantly, to put up a 47% financial stake in the team.The Pilots were probably doomed from the start. As a condition of getting the expansion franchise, the city had to agree to build a domed stadium within three years — and a bond to that effect passed — but the Pilots would begin play in old Sick’s Stadium, which had been the home to the PCL’s Seattle Rainers. The place held only 11,000 fans and could only be expanded by 6,000 more before the inaugural Pilots season began. Just before the inaugural Pilots season began the team’s general manager Marvin Milkes traded away the best player who ever had a claim to being a Pilot: Lou Piniella. Piniella would go on to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award for the Royals.The Pilots began play on April 8, 1969 and beat the California Angels 4-3. Their home opener was April 11, and the Pilots won again, shutting out the Chicago White Sox, 7-0. The high point of the team’s entire existence had already been reached. Soriano and Daley quickly realized they had no way of making money given how inadequate Sick’s Stadium was for major league baseball, so they jacked up ticket and concession prices. That backfired, and attendance dropped quickly. The actual stadium facilities were terrible too. Players would take showers at their hotels or their homes after games due to low water pressure. If attendance reached 10,000 or more the toilets wouldn’t flush.As the season wore on, the city and the team owners were openly feuding about where and when the new domed ballpark would be built. The Soriano's and Daley were losing money hand over fist due, in large part, to their mismanagement, but publicly they blamed the city. Late in the season Daley said in a press conference that “Seattle has one more year to prove itself.” That didn’t go over well at all, and attendance dropped even further. On October 2, 1969 the Pilots played their final games on a rainy evening before 5,473 souls. They witnessed the Pilots lose 3-1 to the Oakland A’s. The Pilots finished the campaign 64-98. There remained considerable acrimony after the Pilots left town. The City of Seattle was still legally on the hook to build a stadium — and construction actually began — but they had no team for it, so they sued the American League in an effort to recoup costs. The matter dragged on for several years but, eventually, the case was settled when the AL agreed to give Seattle another expansion team. This one, the Mariners, would begin play in the Kingdome in 1977. They’d end up lasting. John Edward Kennedy (May 29, 1941 – August 9, 2018) : Kennedy grew up as the shortstop and pitcher on his high school and youth teams. “I had a good arm, so they put me at shortstop and when we needed someone to pitch I went in there and threw fastballs,” He said. He was a good enough player that when he was about 15 he told a group of friends during an outing to Comiskey Park in Chicago, “I’m going to be out there one day.” Kennedy said the friends thought he was crazy, but six years later the dream came true. On September 7, 1962, in Kennedy’s first big-league start, he went 3-for-4 at Comiskey Park against Eddie Fisher and Don Zanni of the White Sox. Kennedy played his first game in the big leagues on September 5, 1962, and in his first at-bat, pinch-hitting for Senators pitcher Ed Hobaugh in the sixth inning, he hit a home run that broke up a no-hit effort by pitcher Dick Stigman of the Minnesota Twins. Kennedy had been called up following a .302/.390/.419 season at Class B Raleigh of the Carolina League. He got into 14 games before the end of the season and batted .262. Back in the minors in 1963, Kennedy had a .290/347/.440 season split between Double-A York (Eastern League) and Triple-A Hawaii (Pacific Coast League). In 1964 he settled in as the Senators’ regular third baseman.Unfortunately for Kennedy, his solid numbers in the minor leagues did not translate to major-league hitting success. He appeared in more than 100 games each season from 1964 to 1966 and had batting averages of .230, .171, and .201. And while he played in all or part of 12 seasons in the big leagues, accumulating an impressive 2,210 at-bats, it was as a utilityman. Except for a couple of stretches with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he never had another shot as a regular. “I don’t know why I didn’t hit,” Kennedy, a right-handed batter, said. “Preston Gomez (a coach for the Dodgers while Kennedy was with the team) said he couldn’t understand it because I had such quick hands. I think maybe my swing may have been too big. In Boston I switched to a bigger bat, choked up, and shortened my swing and hit a little better. By then, though, I was labeled as a guy who was good enough for somebody to want but not good enough to keep.” Condition is good with dog ear on upper right corner and slightly on the bottom left. See photos to determine condition & thanks for looking. Card will be shipped in a penny sleeve then placed in a top loader & finally shipped in a plain envelope.Card will be shipped using USPS Standard Shipping with tracking provided.

Price: 1.25 USD

Location: Warrington, Pennsylvania

End Time: 2024-02-03T22:38:01.000Z

Shipping Cost: 1.12 USD