Seattle Pilots Caps History

The Pilots played just the 1969 season in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee.

For a team that played one season they had a surprising array of jersey designs, cap designs and cap makers. The prototype cap had an S like a lightning bolt (with line and gold stalks). Spring training caps had the S logo as seen here but without the line across the front and the gold stalks on the bill. As for cap makers I've seen Wilson, KM Pro and New Era all game used. BUT COLLECTORS BEWARE! See warning at bottom of page.

1969 Spring Training

New Era

Spring training caps had a gold S without the line below it or the scrambled eggs on the bill.

1969

Wilson

Wilson caps have a satin undervisor. These caps were made for Wilson by New Era. This is Jerry McNerty's cap. It has a Wilson date code of APC which is November 1968. So these caps were ready long before spring training 1969; Clearly the Pilots were waiting till opening day to unveil their interesting new look.

KM Pro

Note the "S" is slightly different. A KM Pro just like this is displayed at the HOF.

And for good measure, here's an exact game-style KM Pro cap with a leather band.

New Era

And finally the New Era game used version. Note it has 8 rows of stitching on the visor. Looks just like the Wilson cap, as it should, since New Era made the caps for Wilson. The replica below, as we shall see, does not.

This cap is interesting. It came from the Don Mincher collection and with provenance of being worn by coach Frank Crosetti (thank you Dan Deking for this info - a subsequent auction had it incorectly listed as a Mincher gamer). It's different from the New Era gamer above in that there is no stitching on the visor, the gold stalks on this cap are much further from the crown, almost at the edge of the visor. Also the stitching on the leather sweatband where it attaches to the plastic reed (white ring) is not a zigzag pattern like I've seen on caps of that era. It resembles the New Era Cooperstown Collection caps of later years.

COLLECTORS SHOULD BEWARE OF ROMAN PRO CAPS LISTED AS "AUTHENTIC". ROMAN PRO DIDN'T EXIST UNTIL 1977. BE WARNED!!!

After the 1969 season the Pilots relocate to Milwaukee.