The American League's expansion to Seattle in 1969 was a mistake in many ways.  The ownership group was underfunded, and the stadium was an unimproved minor league park.  Assurances were given that the the park, Sick's Stadium, would be enlarged temporarily, that voters would approve a $40 million bond issue for a new, domed stadium, and that the owners would indemnify the Pacific Coast League for the loss of their monopoly on the territory, but none of these assurances were ever met.  And that was just the start.  Lacking television revenues, the owners set ticket prices which were the highest in the league, and bills on the club's training facilities in Tempe, AZ were ignored. 

 

On the field in 1969, the brand new Seattle Pilots won 64 games, not terrible for an expansion club, and third baseman Tommy Harper led the league with 73 stolen bases.  When time came for spring training in 1970, however, the club was in such financial disarray that the other A.L. clubs had to chip in $50K each to finance their time in Tempe.   As was probably inevitable, the team entered bankruptcy proceedings in March of 1970 and on  April 1st - 6 days before opening day - the club was sold to a Milwaukee-based car dealer named Bud Selig, re-branded the Brewers and moved to Milwaukee.  So hasty was the move the club's 1970 uniforms were clearly renovated Pilots outfits. 

 

Milwaukee was a city with a long baseball tradition, and the Brewers were welcomed with open arms.  Playing in County Stadium (vacated by the Braves in 1966), fans tolerated initial losing seasons and were rewarded with a competitive club by 1978.  Always a power-hitting team, they lacked pitching until acquiring Pete Vuckovich for the rotation and Rollie Fingers for the bullpen in  the early '80s.  The club nabbed the A.L. pennant in 1982, coming back from 0-2 to the Angels in the ALCS, and took the eventual champion Cardinals to 7 games in a tightly contested Series.  Things were looking up!

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Unfortunately, despite having 2 Hall of Famers in their prime (Paul Molitor and Robin Yount) and other stars over the years, the club wouldn't see the post-season again until they managed to grab a wild-card berth in 2008.   The intervening years saw a few winning seasons, but mostly not, including a 106 loss campaign in 2002.  In 1998, the team moved to the National League to accommodate the need for an even number of teams in each league with the addition of an expansion club in each league that year.  

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By the mid-teens, the team had begun an upward climb back to competitiveness which included a number of consecutive post-season appearances.   

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The main purpose of this page is to illustrate those players, managers and coaches who have been the most prominent in the franchise's history.  Links below will take you to galleries highlighting each, by position.  Generally, an individual is included if he spent at least 2 full seasons (consecutive or cumulative) as a starter, relief pitcher, closer or manager. For coaches, I've generally used 5 years of service as the bar.  None of this is scientific, though, so there are exceptions.  Where possible and practical, I used pictures of actual baseball cards because that it is the medium through which I, and I suppose many others, first discovered the game. Where necessary, I designed my own images.  Images of actual baseball cards were obtained at the Card Cyber Museum, and for my own designs I used photos found at host of different sites, but none moreso than the wonderful forum at Out of the Park Developments.  

 

I claim no rights to, or ownership of, any of the photographic images I've used on these pages.   You are welcome to use them yourself.  All I ask is that that if you use any of my personal creations, you give credit to this site.