June 4, 1969...GAME 48 (CLE 6, SEA 0)

Marshall was the sacrificial lamb being sent to the slaughter as Sudden Sam McDowell threw a 2 hitter and recorded 11 strikeout. After 2 straight games filled with offensive fireworks the Pilots were grounded tonight. Dick Simpson and Wayne Comer had both hits. Talbot relieved Marshall and threw 3 scoreless innings. He also mentioned to Joe and Sal that his arm feels real good and he's ready to start anytime the need him. Great, a lobbyist !

June 3, 1969...GAME 47 (SEA 10, CLE 1)

The Pilots scored 9 runs off of El Tiante', who is having a down year (1-7, 4.52). Marty Pattin again got pulled early, even though he was tossing a shutout. Looks like Joe and Sal saw Marty laboring and didn't want to risk that 9 run lead. The recipient of the "gimme" win was Bouton, who did throw 4 innings of 1 run / 1 hit ball. Of course that run turned out to be a homer by Lee Maye. Bouton notched his 4th win of the season against 1 defeat. Steve Whitaker had 3 hits and 2 RBI's and Mincher had 4 RBI's. Both homered. Gosger got in again as a pinch hitter and walked which did not help his .063 average. Gut feeling here is that he is not going to be around much longer with numbers like those. Oyler finally got a hit to boost his average to .164. Good thing he's got a great glove.

June 2, 1969...GAME 46 (SEA 13, CLE 5)

An almost 90 minute rain delay coupled with a 13 run offensive explosion by the Pilots combined to make the evening both enjoyable and frustrating. Seattle spotted Cleveland 5 runs in the first. By the time the rain hit in the third the score was 5-1 and most fans, not that there were a lot attending, decided to not return when the clouds cleared. What they missed was one of the finest offensive explosions the Pilots put together all year. 3 runs in both the fourth and fifth innings respectively gave the Pilots a 2 run lead that was never challenged. 1 run in the sixth helped out and 5 in the 8th made it a laugher. Both Mincher, and Rich Rollins had 3 hits apiece. Rollins and Whitaker had 4 RBI's each. Not wanting to risk hurting Barber's sore arm, Joe Schultz removed him from the game and Brabender took the hill after the rain ended. Newcomer John Gelnar tossed 4 innings of 1 hit ball to notch the "W" and Talbot handled the mop up duties in the 9th.

Bouton Bits: (Fred) Talbot is in rare form these days. Like he was telling us how it used to be in the sheet-metal shop of the industrial school he went to. When they were taught how to weld, the first thing they did was weld the door shut when the teacher left the room. the next thing they did was weld every tool in the place onto a metal tractor, which was kept in the center of the room. And for kicks, they heat a steel bar until it was red hot, let the color cool out of it and then ask the new boy to bring over the metal bar. All it would cost was the skin off his hand.

Why Baseball Didn't Make it in Seattle: The team agreed (against Bouton's suggestions) that they accept nothing less than $100 for personal appearances and autograph sessions. They also agreed to stand by the MLB rule that states that players should not sign autographs while in uniform and on the field. Bouton makes the case that they need to be more fan friendly and that the lesser known players should charge less or they would not receive any invites for personal appearances. In a related story the team was asked to participate in a clinic for underprivileged kids in D.C. Bouton said sarcastically, "Well, isn't there some way we can get these kids to kick in their lunch money or something to us ?" Surprisingly almost everyone laughed !

June 1, 1969...GAME 45 (DET 13, SEA 6)

Second bad outing in a row for Brabender, who gave up 11 runs in 4 innings worth of work. On the bright side, only 8 were earned. The fielding has been less than stellar as of late. The offense came to life, as it seems to do one out of every three games...but the pitching (sorry Gene) and the fielding took the night off vs the defending World Champs. Norm Cash again came to work. Tonight he went 3 for 4 and hit a solo shot in the 5th to help chase Brabender. Fred Talbot again got some work, throwing 5 innings and giving up 2. Seems the newcomer is already ahead of the Bulldog on the depth charts.

Beaver Shooting Tale: Jim Gosger, hiding in a closet to shoot a little beaver while his roommate made out on the bed with some local talent. Nothing sneaky about it, the roommate even provided the towel for Gosger to bite on in case he was moved to laughter. At the height of the activity on the bed, local talent, moaning, says, "Oh darling, I've never done it that way before," Whereupon Gosper sticks his head out, drawls "Yeah, surrrre," and retreats into the closet. "Yeah surrre" is now the official watchword on the club.

May 31, 1969...GAME 44 (DET 8, SEA 2)

Gary (Bell) didn't have it from the beginning and Joe Schultz left him out to dry to take one for the team. 8 runs (5 earned) over 5 innings helped drop his record to 3-4 and balloon his ERA to 4.28. Talbot came in to throw 2 scoreless innings of relief and so did Bouton, who isn't thrilled about mop up work. Norm cash had a big 4-5 day. The Pilots whole team had just 4 hits. Joe Sparma won the game for the Tigers and increased his record to 4-0 with a 1.69 ERA. Is he really that good ?

Bouton Bits: Tony Kubek and Mickey Mantle were here to do the TV broadcast for NBC and before the game Mickey was down in the clubhouse. With me (Bouton) standing right there, Joe Schultz says, "Mickey, what do you think of a guy who comes to a ballpark fifteen minutes before the game starts?" Mickey shook his head sadly. "I know he's got some strange ideas," he said.

May 30, 1969...GAME 43 (DET 5, SEA 2)

Chuck Hiller of all people holds Seattle to 2 runs over 7 innings. Patting had a shutout going for 5 innings then was removed a pinch hitter (Rich Rollins), who promptly got out. Seattle brass told the press that Pattin's arm seized up. Pattin had no comment. New arrival (from the Yankees) Fred Talbot surrendered all 5 runs in two innings worth of work as Detroit won 5-2. Dick Simpson went 3-4 with a key RBI for the Pilots. Simpson was acquired from New York for Jose Vidal.

Bouton Bits: Never assume that since it's Friday that you are playing a night game. That kind of logic almost got Bouton in trouble. At 1:30pm Gary Bell called his house to find out where in the hell he was. The clever Bouton replied, "where the hell are you?". Thankfully the Bouton clan pitched together to get Jim out the door. A standing ovation awaited him as he entered the clubhouse. Back in his Yankee days he came late for a World Series game that he wasn't starting. The team had a meeting, which he missed, and boy did he hear it. Of course if he showed up early, but hungover that would be ok (I wonder what former superstar he was referring to ?)

May 28, 1969...GAME 42 (BAL 8, SEA 5)

Dave McNally couldn't find his control and was gone by the 4th inning. Marcellino Lopez gave up 3 runs in 3 innings of work, but it didn't matter as the Pilots lost 8-5 to the dominating O's. Boog Powell hit 2 more homers, one off of starter Mike Marshall and one off of this burgeoning author named Bouton. The knuckleball didn't knuckle and when it doesn't knuckle fans in the bleachers need to take cover. Bouton gave up 3 runs in only 2 innings of work and saw his ERA rise to 2.00. Funny how management notices one poor outing, yet forgets all of the other really good one's. Frontrunning at its finest !

Bouton Bite: Jim Pagliaroni joined the club tonight and is going to be a welcome addition. He was describing a girl that one of the ballplayers had been out with and said, "It's hard to say exactly what she looked like. She was kind of a Joe Torre with tits." This joke can only be explained with a picture of Joe Torre. But I'm not sure any exist. He dissolves camera lenses.