Editor’s note: Throughout this year Press Room Pass will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1969 baseball season with a variety of stories from the covering personal accomplishments, unique moments, major league expansion and the amazing New York Mets. This is the latest installment of that series.
Swapping lesser known players is always a gamble. If an organization is lucky, there will be a payoff at the end.
It was 50 years ago that the Seattle Pilots sent a rookie to the Kansas City Royals for a pitcher and an outfielder before the expansion teams ever played an official game.
Steve Whitaker and John Gelnar became Pilots, while Lou Piniella joined the Royals.
Whitaker played in 69 games for the Pilots with six homers and 13 RBI. He began his career with the New York Yankees (1966-1968) and ended with the San Francisco Giants (1970).
Like Whitaker, Gelnar also played in five major league seasons. He was with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1964 and 1967. Making 10 starts in 1969, he was 3-10 for the Pilots with a 3.31 ERA. After appearing in 53 games in 1970 for Milwaukee with a 4-3 record and four saves, Gelnar’s career ended with just two games for the Brewers the following year.
Neither one of those players made the impact that Piniella was able to have on the game.
Piniella played 18 years in the big leagues for Baltimore (1964), Cleveland (1968), Kansas City (1969-1973) and the New York Yankees (1974-1984).
He was an all-star in 1972 when he led the American League with 33 doubles. With the Yankees, he was a part of world championship squads in 1977 and 1978.
After managing the Yankees in the 1980s, Piniella led Cincinnati to a 4-0 sweep over the Oakland A’s and his former American Legion teammate Tony LaRussa in 1990.
Piniella also managed the Seattle Mariners to a record tying 116 wins in 2001. He spent 10 years in Seattle and was the AL Manager of the Year twice with the Mariners. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2014. He also led the Tampa Bay Devils Rays and Chicago Cubs, where he was National League Manager of the Year in 2008.
Rookie of the Year in 1969
Piniella made his big league debut in 1964 with the Orioles as he played in four contests. He was back in the majors four years later with the Indians for six more games.
The Pilots picked Piniella in the 28th spot of the expansion draft after the 1968 season before the trade sent him to Kansas City.
A native of Tampa, Fla., Piniella finished the year with 11 homers, while driving in 68 runs with a .282 batting average. He was named the AL Rookie of the Year in a close vote ahead of Boston’s Mike Nagy, Chicago’s Carlos May and California’s Ken Tatum.
Piniella’s first game for the Royals went well as he collected four hits in 12-inning affair that the Royals won 4-3 over Minnesota in Kansas City on April 8.
Starting in centerfield and leading off Piniella doubled against Minnesota’s Tom Hall for the first hit of his career. He would add three more hits including a RBI single in the sixth.
He also had four hit games against Washington and the Yankees that season.
The first major league homer of his career 102 was at home against the former tenant of Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium, the Oakland A’s.
In the first game of a doubleheader, Piniella hit a solo shot off Jim Nash. He then hit two-run blast off future Yankees teammate Catfish Hunter.
Of the 11 long balls he hit that season, five of them would be off eventual teammates in New York.
He hit a walk-off against Rudy May, who was with California. He also got Cleveland’s Sam McDowell and New York’s Fritz Peterson. One of the two against Peterson was an inside-the-park homer in Yankee Stadium.
The Other Guy
Marv Staehle, who shared the 1969 Topps rookie card with Piniella, never played for the Pilots.
Staehle appeared in a few games with the Chicago White Sox from 1964 to 1967 before being traded to Cleveland. He was later purchased by the Pilots and sent to the minors.
In September of 1969, he was sent to the Montreal Expos and played in four contests.
One of those games for Montreal turned out to be a great moment Staehle. With the score tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth, he hit the only homer of his career off Philadelphia’s Lowell Palmer, which turned out to be the game-winner for the Expos on Sept. 21.
The outfielder had his best year in the majors during the 1970 season with the Expos as he played 104 games and drove in 26 runs. He finished his major league career with Atlanta in 1971.