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1969 Bill Henry Seattle Pilots Game Worn Jersey
Presented is a 1969 Seattle Pilots jersey used in spring training by left-hander Bill Henry. The reliever was on the Seattle Pilots' roster in spring training and was let go during that time, one of the last cuts for the Pilots before the regular season began. The Seattle Pilots were an American League expansion team in 1969, achieving delayed fame because pitcher/author Jim Bouton (who wrote Ball Four with Leonard Schecter) was on the Pilots for most of the '69 season, and the on-and-off field trials and tribulations of the struggling Pilots were well documented in Bouton's Ball Four, a 1970 bestseller and a ground-breaking book that changed forever the innocence with which ball players are viewed by the public. The '69 Seattle Pilots had a season record of 64-98, sixth in the American League West Division, and after only one season in Seattle, the franchise moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Brewers. Seattle regained Major League baseball in 1977 with the expansion Seattle Mariners. Bill Henry pitched for 16 seasons in the Major Leagues and had a 45-50 career record, with 90 saves and a 3.26 ERA. Later in the '69 season, he was signed by the Houston Astros, and he finished his career with them. In 2007, a paid obituary of Bill Henry appeared in the Ledger, a Lakeland, Florida, newspaper, It turned out to be false, innocently placed by the family of a Bill Henry imposter, actually named Bill Henry, and eerily resembling the ball player both facially and in his build. The ball player Bill Henry, instead of being outraged, called the widow of the imposter, and offered condolences to the widow and assured her that everything would be all right. The baseball player's wife said, "He was kind of laughing about it." The "real" baseball player passed away in 2013. The jersey appears to have restored pilots' wings on the sleeves, with all original front and back numbers. The neck has "Henry" embroidered in blue thread. A Pilots logo patch is on the left chest. "51", in blue numerals with gold trim, is sewn on the right chest, and "PILOTS," in blue letters with gold trim, is sewn-on the left chest. The jersey has seven buttons down the front, with the top button (apparently replaced) being white and the remaining buttons silver. The lower left tail has a Wilson manufacturer's tag showing "42" for size. Below the manufacturer's tag is "1969," embroidered in blue, scripted stitches. The back shows "51" in sewn-on blue numerals with gold trim. The jersey is in excellent condition, and it represents both Bill Henry, and the one-year famous, or infamous, Seattle Pilots.
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