The arrival of a new baseball team to a city, whether by relocation or expansion, I would imagine, is a permanent parade for kids, new friend to teenagers, companion for adults, medicine for an elder. I was born in July, 1970, a few months shy of witnessing the birth of the Milwaukee Brewers, not that I had any idea what a baseball was at birth. That took a few years, maybe five, when my dad came home with a pack of 1975 Topps and it was probably more the wild, psychedelic colors than anything about baseball that sucked me in, but I do remember one of the cards – Jim Brewer of the Dodgers which probably struck me as strange, a player named Brewer on the Dodgers?
Later in life, I learned the creation story of the Brewers, of them actually being born in Seattle, as the Pilots and that team going bankrupt after one season, yes, one and done. In that spring of 1970, the truck driver was instructed to head northeast, not northwest, to go to Milwaukee, not Seattle, to become the Brewers, not the Pilots. The Brewers retained the Pilot’s blue and yellow uniforms that continue to this very day, a somewhat superficial reminder, but there was more….there was the player the Pilots selected in the 1969 amateur draft. More on that famous pick a bit later.
Firstly, the Pilots added to their roster in the 1968 expansion first, winning the mini lottery, but choosing to pick second, rewarding them both the second and third picks. The Royals, the other American league expansion team that season (The Padres and Expos were the NL expansion teams) picked first, among the American League teams, selecting Roger Nelson from the Orioles. Nelson didn’t pitch too bad in 1969 for the Royals. He gave up 170 hits in 193.1 innings, but it kind of paled in comparison to the production the Pilots got from their first 2 picks….Don Mincher and Tommy Harper. They got Mincher from the Angles. I mean the Angels. I always screw up their name when typing. Anyway, Mincher hit 25 homers and drove in 78 runs and made the all-star team. However, I’m not sure if the rule back then was that at least one player from every team made the all-star game? The other player the Pilots got, in the expansion draft, 3rd over all, from the Indians, was Tommy Harper. He had a .349 OB% and led the league with 79 steals.
The following year came the amateur draft and for some reason that I don’t know, none of the new teams picked first. The Pilots had the 21st pick followed by the Expos, Royals, Padres. The Pilots picked shortstop/pitcher Gorman Thomas out of James Island, high school in Columbia, South Carolina and eventually turned him into an outfielder, a centerfielder. Like every other player back then, Thomas had to dig in and work hard (there was no pampering first round picks). Thomas was called up to the crew in 1973, and hit 2 homers in 155 at bats. Over the next four years he was up and down, AAA minors to majors. Limited playing time and get this, he hit a whopping 51 homers in 1974 as a member of the Sacramento Solons in the Pacific Coast League and yet, he didn’t even lead the team in homers! That honor went to Bill McNulty with 55. On that same team Sixto Lezcano hit 34 and Tommie Reynolds hit 32. As a team they hit a stunning 308 homers which begs the question what professional baseball team has the record for most homers in a single season? The Twins hit 307 in 2019.
In 1978, Thomas got 482 at bats and made the most of it, hitting 32 homers. He became a strikeout/home run machine, leading the league with 45 bombs in 1979 and 39 in 1982. He was also a damn good centerfielder, but more than anything else he became a symbol of hard working Milwaukee and all its breweries and manufacturing plants.
The face of the franchise Gorman Thomas. Even to this day, mostly amongst the older crowd, Gorman remains that face, more than Yount, certainly more than the lier, I mean liar Braun and more than today’s struggling star Christian Yelich.
brewers baseball and things 
May 1, 2022 at 8:57 am
Fantastic history lesson about the Brewers. I had no idea they were originally in Seattle. Reading your posts I am flooded with memories of being a kid and collecting sports cards (I still have them!). Or cutting out every day the baseball standings from the newspaper. I kept them in folders for each year. Sadly, those are lost.
May 1, 2022 at 9:06 am
Thanks Bob. The one and done Pilots has me wondering how many other teams suffered a similar fate, kind of a tragic one. I know Milwaukee had a team in 1901, also called the Brewers who played just one season before relocating to St. Louis to become the Browns.
I’m glad the posts are activating sports card collecting memories for you and your wonderful habit of clipping the daily standings, back before the internet.
May 1, 2022 at 9:53 am
For a lark check out the St. Paul Apostles of the 1884 Union Association. Less than 20 total games.
v
May 1, 2022 at 10:05 am
Great to hear from you v and as is often the case, you have provided some wonderfully, obscure historic baseball note. I took a quick look at baseball reference and if I have it right, it appears that the entire Union Association folded after the 1884 season which I think was common in the 19th century. Another interesting tidbit is that no one hit a homerun for the Apostles, less than 20 games, as you mentioned, but still, hard to imagine a team in today’s game going homerless for 20 games unless the team was filled up with Duane Kuipers.
May 1, 2022 at 10:23 am
Correct; the Union folded after 1 season. The Apostles are also the only team to never play a home game. Strange stuff going on in 19th Century baseball.
V
May 1, 2022 at 12:59 pm
I guess the Blue Jays 2020 doesn’t count since they technically had a home, Buffalo, but still not their true home in Toronto.
May 1, 2022 at 10:51 am
Bill McNulty was born in the same hospital I was and had ONE major league hit. It was off none other than Nolan Ryan.
May 1, 2022 at 1:06 pm
That is awesome Gary, both that you and McNulty were born in the same hospital and that his only hit was off of Ryan! I wonder if any other player has that distinction? These virtually unknown baseball facts…man, I love them.
May 1, 2022 at 12:29 pm
Fun stuff, Steve.
Jim “No Milwaukee” Brewer got traded by the Dodgers to the Angels in that 1975 season and finished his career with them in 1976. He faced the Brewers twice. The last time was April 23, 1976, at County Stadium. With the Angels ahead, 2-1, Brewer entered in the bottom of the 8th. The Brewers had two runners on, one out. Darrell Porter hit a sacrifice fly against Brewer, tying the score. After a Sixto Lezcano double, two runs scored on an error. In the 9th, Gorman Thomas came in as a defensive replacement in right for Bobby Darwin.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/384857715104?hash=item599b4eb1a0:g:U9EAAOSwTN5h8fqR
May 1, 2022 at 1:14 pm
There it is! THE BREWER CARD!! He looks ready for action despite it not being an in-game photo. I wonder what stadium they are in? Thanks for posting the link Mark and the history of Brewer’s appearance at County Stadium. Any mention of Lezcano I love…brings back the memory of his opening day grand slam. I forget what year. I didn’t see it, but I think it was a walk-off slam? That musta been quite the thrill for the sell out crowd at County Stadium.