Max Soriano

Max Durban Soriano

• School University of Washington
• High School Franklin High School (Seattle)
• Born October 31, 1925 in Prince Rupert, BC Canada
• Died September 15, 2012 in Seattle, WA USA

Biographical Information

Max Soriano was co-owner of the Seattle Pilots, along with his brother Dewey Soriano.

Born in Canada, Soriano moved to Seattle as an infant and called the city home for the rest of his life. A pitcher in high school and college, he did not play professionally due to a sore arm, though the San Francisco Seals sought to sign him. Instead, he became a lawyer. During World War II, Soriano served in the Merchant Marines. He later served in the Korean War.

Max served as legal counsel for the Pacific Coast League when his brother was league president in the 1960s. He became co-owner of the expansion Pilots for their sole season of 1969, after he and his brother managed to convince the American League's expansion committee to award them with one of two available franchises at the winter meetings in Mexico City in 1967. The Pilots were an infamous baseball fiasco, documented in Jim Bouton's book Ball Four. Among other problems, the franchise was under-capitalized, it played in an obsolete ballpark, Sicks Stadium, that lacked all modern amenities, and attendance was poor. The club went into receivership at the end of its maiden season, until Milwaukee, WI car dealer Bud Selig purchased it during spring training of 1970 and moved it to his hometown, where it became the Milwaukee Brewers and leaving a flurry of lawsuits in Seattle in its wake. The Soriano brothers were reviled in Seattle for a time, although most of the hard feelings went away when the city received another expansion team in 1977, the Seattle Mariners. Soriano held season tickets for the new team and was a regular sight at their ballpark for years.

After his ill-fated stint with the Pilots, he founded and ran a shipping company, the "Alaska Ship Supply" company, which also includes a line of clothing.

Related Sites

• Obituary from the Globe and Mail­­