1970 Milwaukee Brewers season
| 1970 Milwaukee Brewers | |
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| Owner(s) | Bud Selig |
| General manager(s) | Marvin Milkes |
| Manager(s) | Dave Bristol |
| Local television | WTMJ-TV |
| Local radio |
WEMP (Merle Harmon, Tom Collins) |
| Stats |
ESPN.com BB-reference |
| < Previous season Next season > | |
The 1970 Milwaukee Brewers season was the second season for the franchise. The team finished fourth in the American League West with a record of 65 wins and 97 losses, 33 games behind the Minnesota Twins. This was the team's inaugural season in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after spending its first year of existence in Seattle, Washington.
During the offseason, Dewey Soriano, president of the financially strapped Seattle Pilots, crossed paths with Bud Selig, a Milwaukee car dealer who had been working to bring baseball back to Milwaukee since the Braves (of which he'd been a minority owner) left for Atlanta after the 1965 season. They met in secret for over a month after the end of the season, and during Game 1 of the World Series, Soriano agreed to sell the Pilots to Selig for $10 million to $13 million (depending on the source). Selig would then move the team to Milwaukee and rename it the Brewers. However, the owners turned it down in the face of pressure from Washington's two senators, Warren Magnuson and Henry (Scoop) Jackson, as well as state attorney general Slade Gorton. MLB asked Soriano and chairman William Daley to find a local buyer.
Local theater chain owner Fred Danz came forward in October 1969 with a $10 million deal, but it fizzled when the Bank of California called in a $4 million loan it had made to Soriano and Daley for startup costs. In January 1970, Westin Hotels owner Eddie Carlson put together a nonprofit group to buy the team. However, the owners rejected the idea almost out of hand since it would have devalued the other clubs' worth. A more traditional deal came one vote short of approval.
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Wikipedia