0309 - Stew Thornley
Stew Thornley is the official scorer for the Minnesota Twins, and the leading historian of Minnesota sports, including the St. Paul Saints. During our conversation, he referenced a handful of things and people upon which you may want to do more research. Consider this page to be your “liner notes” for the episode so you can follow along.
Me and Stew Thornley after recording our interview at his home in Minnesota
D&J Glove Repair is located at 3742 Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Accomplished Author
Stew Thornley is the leading historian of Minnesota sports, and has written more than 15 sports-related books for adults, over 30 more for young readers, and more than 100 articles and stories that have appeared in a variety of publications and periodicals.
A list of his writings can be found HERE.
Decorated Historian
Stew was the recipient of the National Baseball Research Award in 1988.
In 1998, Stew received the USA Today Baseball Weekly Award for best research presentation at the SABR convention in San Francisco for his presentation on the Polo Grounds.
He was the recipient of the 2010 Tony Salin Memorial Award for commitment to the preservation of baseball history, from The Baseball Reliquary.
2016 Bob Davids Award
Stew was the recipient of the 2016 Bob Davids Award from the Society for American Baseball Research, which is awarded to the member whose contributions to SABR and baseball reflect the ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice of the founder and past president of SABR, L. Robert “Bob” Davids.
It is the highest honor SABR awards, and the list of previous winners is a veritable who’s who of baseball research and writing, including the official historian of Major League Baseball, John Thorn, who won the award in 2006.
Minnesota Gophers Bat Boy
Stew was the bat boy for the Gophers in 1968 and 1969, as well as for their summer league team in 1967.
Here, the 1968 Gophers celebrate after sweeping Michigan State for the Big Ten title.
Warren Brown
Warren Brown was the bat boy for the “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds from 1970-1972.
Warren was our guest for Episode 9 of Season 1. You can listen to that episode HERE.
Cemetery Adventurer
Stew has been to the gravesites of more than 200 Baseball Hall of Famers, and 40 U. S. Presidents, including David Rice Atchison, who was president for a day when Zachary Taylor wouldn’t take office on a Sunday, on March 4, 1849.
Read Stew’s list of Hall of Fame grave sites HERE.
Read his essay about visiting those graves, which features links to photos of many of them, HERE.
Jeremy Feador
Jeremy Feador is the official team historian of the Cleveland Guardians, but he got his start researching cemeteries.
Jeremy was our guest for Episode 8 of Season 3. You can listen to that episode HERE.
My Mom
We speak with my mom after every interview of this podcast, and more often than not, cemeteries make their way into the conversation.
Here, my mom and I stop for a photo in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery and Arboretum.
Tokyo Dome
Stew went to the 2-game series between the Mets and Cubs at the Tokyo Dome to open the 2000 MLB season.
The first game on March 29 was the first time an MLB game was ever played outside North America.
Cuba
In February 2001, Stew and his wife, Brenda, attended five games in Cuba’s National Series, visited an elite sports school, and met with current and former Cuban players. They also visited the grave of Martín Dihigo, at the time the only member of the Baseball Hall of Fame who was buried in Cuba, as well the graves as José Méndez and Cristóbal Torriente, who have since been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Brenda Himrich
Stew’s wife, Brenda, is very involved in baseball, as well.
In March of 2017, while Stew was acting as the official scorer for the World Baseball Classic games in Guadalajara, Brenda did the press box announcing, relaying Stew’s scoring decisions in Spanish.
Brenda also does the field timing coordination for some of the Twins games. So if you see that clock on the wall in the bullpen ticking down the time between innings, that’s Brenda doing that.
Wild Child
Stew has been skydiving, but he has also wrestled a bear!
1968 Minnesota Gophers
Stew was the bat boy for the 1968 Big Ten Champion Gophers baseball team.
Society for American Baseball Research
Stew has been a SABR member since 1979.
If you’re not already a member, consider joining. You can do that HERE.
July 19, 1962
The first MLB game Stew attended was this 8-0 victory by the Twins over the Indians at Metropolitan Stadium on July 19, 1962.
You can read his article for the SABR Games Project on that game HERE.
The Flintstones
Stew became a Yankees fan initially to annoy his dad, who wouldn’t let Stew watch an episode of The Flintstones instead of a baseball game one night as a kid.
It turned out okay for Stew, who got to watch his adopted favorite team win a little more often than the Twins have.
Mickey Mantle
Stew may have been a contrarian, but he wasn’t silly. His favorite player growing up, like so many other kids of his age, was Mickey Mantle.
Mickey hit his 534th career home run against the Twins in Minnesota. He would only hit two more home runs in his career. His 536 home runs was good enough for third on MLB’s all-time list at the time of his retirement.
Earl Battey
Earl Battey was one of the top defensive catchers in the American League in the early 1960s. His Twins teams were in contention for the pennant in 1962 and 1967, and won the pennant in 1965, losing the World Series to Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games. Battey was also a part-time player for the pennant-winning 1959 White Sox.
Harmon Killebrew
Harmon Killebrew was the favorite player of MANY Twins fans, including Stew’s brother.
Killebrew had the fifth-most home runs in major league history at the time of his retirement. He was second only to Babe Ruth in American League history, and was the AL career leader in home runs by a right-handed batter. Killebrew was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.
Vic Power
Victor Felipe Pellot Pové played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball for the Athletics, Indians, Twins, Angels, and Phillies from 1954 through 1965. Pellot was the second Puerto Rican of African descent to play in MLB and the second Puerto Rican to play in the American League, following Hiram Bithorn.
Pellot used the name Vic Power during his major league career, but played as Victor Pellot when he played winter ball in Puerto Rico. He was an AL All-Star for four seasons, won seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards, and was Stew’s mom’s favorite player.
Jim Kaat
Jim Kaat was an All-Star for three seasons and a Gold Glove winner for 16 seasons. He was the American League leader in shutouts (5) in 1962, and the AL leader in wins (25) and complete games (19) in 1966.
In addition to his 283 career wins, he had three 20-win seasons. Kaat won 190 games with the Senators/Twins, second most in club history and has the most wins of any pitcher since the team moved to Minnesota. He also has the most Gold Glove Awards of any Twins player, with 12.
Public Address Announcing
Stew worked in radio after graduating from Marshall University High School. He started doing public address announcing around that same time.
1975 St. Louis Cardinals
Stew’s first job in radio was in a town not too far from St. Louis, which meant he got to follow the 1975 Cardinals. He remembers watching Lou Brock, Willie Davis, and Reggie Smith.
Stew was also lucky enough to see Bob Gibson’s final career start.
Stew’s First SABR Article
Stew wrote an article on the 1884 St. Paul Saints of the Union Association, which was the first major league team in the state of Minnesota. The article was published in the 1980 SABR Baseball Research Journal.
Read Stew’s article HERE.
Ted Williams
Ted Williams was chagrined when he was assigned to Daytona Beach, the spring training home of the Minneapolis Millers, Boston’s top minor-league affiliate. He’d come across as brash and cocky to manager Joe Cronin and been given some riding by his fellow outfielders, and he did admit to telling clubhouse man Johnny Orlando, “Tell them, I’ll be back, and tell them I’m going to wind up making more money in this frigging game than all three of them put together.”
Willie Mays
Halsey Hall provided the first reports on Mays in the Minneapolis Tribune: “You watch him run and throw and hit and you are on his side in a minute, although nobody has thrown many curve balls at him yet and he’s still a green pea in the organized realm. … Willie is lithe, beautifully muscled, just under six feet, weighs 170 pounds and doesn’t vary five pounds in his weight off and in season. Righthanded all the way, he has great power to right center and here the dear old memory of Nicollet’s fences in that direction come back.”
Willie Mays Had a Spectacular—But Short—Stay in Minneapolis by Stew Thornley
Carl Yastrzemski
Carl Yastrzemski was a gifted athlete, as adept at basketball as he was at baseball. He graduated from Bridgehampton (New York) High School in 1957. While there, he broke a basketball scoring mark previously held by Hall of Fame football player Jim Brown. It was his basketball prowess that earned him a scholarship to Notre Dame.
Joe Hauser
“In all my days in the majors I have never discovered a ball player who could be compared with George Sisler, but this chap Hauser is an exact duplicate for Sisler the way he handles his bat. His mannerisms are very similar.”
- Branch Rickey, President, St. Louis Cardinals
Nicollet Park
One of Stew’s first books, On to Nicollet: The Glory and Fame of the Minneapolis Millers, was published by Nodin Press out of Minneapolis in 1988 and 2000.
Stew’s love of old stadiums, and hearing stories from his father about Nicollet Park, helped him fall in love with the history of baseball.
Official Scorer
Stew has been an official scorer for Major League Baseball since 2007. As an official scorer in baseball, you are recording what happens, but you are also a judge.
The official scorer files a report after each game for documentation purposes.
Keeping Score
Stew’s mom always filled out the scorecard when they would go to games, and his dad would help explain what everything meant. The Twins’ programs also taught you how to keep score. With those examples, Stew began keeping score. Soon, he started developing his own style and shorthand. Little did he know, it would turn into a career.
Official Scorers Consider Bad Hops, Bad Throws — And Exit Velocity
Wild Child, Pt. 2 (allegedly)
This photo may or may not depict one Stew Thornley. I cannot confirm or deny his appearance in this photo, and certainly couldn’t say with any certainty that he is climbing the foul pole during this White Sox-Twins game.
But… if that is Stew Thornley climbing the foul pole during this White Sox-Twins game, this would have happened during the years when Stew was “focusing on drinking more than keeping score.”
Data Casting
Stew started data casting for Total Sports in 1998, before MLB.com even existed. When you’re following along with a game online, the data caster is the person entering the information such as “pitch in the dirt.”
Locked In
When you’re watching a game in the stands, there may be lots of things or people to distract you.
But watching a game in the press box, or keeping score from anywhere in the park, can help keep you focused on the action in a way that simply watching the action might not.
Mark Gola
Mark was the official scorer for the Phillies when the Astros threw a combined no-hitter during Game 4 of the 2022 World Series.
Mark Gola ’94 Relies On His Judgment To Create The Official Records Of Games
“Messy” Plays
Stew isn’t often left scratching his head, even on long rundowns where many players are out of their natural positions, covering bags or taking throws in places where they wouldn’t normally be standing.
Stew says plays like those are his opportunity to show everyone why he’s in the official scorer’s seat, and they’re not.
See if you can score this rundown. Who was the cutoff man?
Michael Cuddyer
In the bottom of the 6th inning of the Twins-Blue Jays game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Dome on May 14, 2008, Michael Cuddyer hit a ground ball to Scott Rolen at third base. Rolen couldn’t make the play, and Cuddyer reached first safely.
Stew was the official scorer on that play, and ruled it an error on Rolen, who was one of the best defensive third basemen of all time. Rolen won eight Gold Glove Awards over the course of his Hall-of-Fame career, the fourth-most among third basemen.
Official Scorers
The most common judgment call an official scorer makes is whether a batter reached base on a hit or an error. Other rulings made by the official scorer include whether a pitch that goes past the catcher is a wild pitch or a passed ball, and which reliever is credited with a win when the starting pitcher does not go five innings but leaves with a lead that his team doesn't relinquish.
The official scorer is permitted to change a judgment call for up to 24 hours after a game concludes or is suspended.
Sabermetrics
Advanced statistics such as catch probability may be useful to scouts and other people in determining how good a player is, Stew says official scorers aren’t necessarily using those numbers in real-time to make their judgements on calls.
Derek Jeter
Derek Jeter may have taken home five Gold Glove awards throughout his 20 year career, but the most significant defensive metrics shows us that he was perhaps one of the worst shortstops of his generation.
Sure, Jeter didn’t make many errors (fourth-highest fielding percentage on that same list), but judging a fielder’s defensive abilities based on a number of errors he didn’t make is basically like saying a basketball player is a good defender because he didn’t commit a ton of fouls.
Exit Velocity
Exit Velocity measures the speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact. This is tracked for all Batted Ball Events -- outs, hits and errors.
From recent studies calculating 90th percentile exit velocity, it appears as if a 104-mph exit velo is the level that a median MLB player will typically achieve.
EV90th ranks all batted balls (excluding bunts) by exit velocity, and takes the one that is better than roughly 90% of that hitter’s batted ball events.
The very best power hitters in baseball are seven to eight mph above 104, and the very worst power hitters are seven to eight mph below.
Using Replay
Stew always uses his real-time reaction to make his first assessment of a play, whether it was a hit or an error. However, he said the sweet spot for using replay to either reinforce or change the way he scores a play is about a 6-second delay.
Alexander Cartwright
Stew visited Alexander Cartwright’s grave on a trip to Hawaii with his wife, Brenda. While he is in the Hall of Fame, Cartwright’s contributions to the game of baseball were exaggerated.
Al López
Alfonso Ramón López played for the Brooklyn Robins / Dodgers, Boston Bees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cleveland Indians between 1928 and 1947, and was the manager for the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox from 1951 to 1965 and during portions of the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Due to his Spanish ancestry and "gentlemanly" nature, he was nicknamed "El Señor".
As a player, López was a two-time All-Star known for his defensive skills, leadership, and durability, as he established a major league record for career games played at catcher (1,918) that stood for decades. As a manager, his .584 career winning percentage ranks fourth best in major league history among managers of at least 2,000 games.
Willie Stargell
Willie Stargell is buried in Wilmington, North Carolina. With the help of a local SABR member, Stew was able to find Willie’s grave.
Rogers Hornsby
Rogers Hornsby is buried on private property in Texas. Stew wasn’t going to let that stop him from seeing the site.
Monument Park
Many kids in the 1950s and 60s believed that the three monuments which were in-play at Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park were the burial sites of the men on the plaques.
This great story about his visit to Babe Ruth’s grave can be found on Stew’s website.
Baseball In Minnesota
The roots of baseball in Minnesota are part of the post-Civil War baseball boom in America. The area’s earliest teams were amateur nines, representing cities of all sizes throughout the state, a few of them even organized before the Civil War, beginning with a sunny August afternoon in 1857 when Minnesota’s first ball club was organized in Nininger.
Read Stew’s article which appeared in the Minnesota Twins Media Guide on Minnesota’s Baseball History HERE.
Buy Stew’s book Baseball In Minnesota: The Definitive History HERE.
W.W. Fisher
W.W. Fisher was a Black second baseman and pitcher who played for the otherwise all-white Winona Clippers in 1875. He was apparently recruited from the Chicago Uniques, and was subjected to racial taunting by opposing players. Some pinned “n…..baby” badges on their shirts in hopes of provoking Fisher.
Negotiations for a game between St. Paul and Winona apparently stalled because the St. Paul Red Caps refused to play if Winona used Fisher. The Red Caps claimed its objection was not racial but based on Fisher’s being a professional.
Joe W. Miller
Joseph Wick Miller was born in Germany in 1850 and began his baseball career in 1872 as a player-manager for the Washington Nationals of the National Association.
Miller was the Captain/Manager and Second Baseman for the 1877 St. Paul Red Caps, who was the first professional baseball team in Minnesota.
The other starters for the 1877 Red Caps were Harry Salisbury (Pitcher), Emil Gross (Catcher), Ed Gault (1B), Joe Ellick (3B), Sumner Ely (LF), Birmingham (RF), Art Allison (CF) and Bill McClellan (SS).
The team ended the 1877 season with a record of 28 wins and 21 losses, finishing first in the League Alliance.
Bud Fowler
In Black baseball history, Bud Fowler is the pioneer. His resume includes a long list of firsts. He is the first acknowledged African-American professional player — way back in 1878 before there were any Black teams of consequence. He was the first to play on integrated teams. In fact, Fowler preferred White clubs because they fielded the best nines and offered the stiffest competition through much of his career. As such, he was the first significant Black player in the US. As researcher and author Robert Peterson declared, “Frank Grant, Bud Fowler and George Stovey were unquestionably of major-league star caliber.”
Fowler was the first African-American in Organized Baseball. He also had the widest traveled and longest career of the early players, by any qualification. Fowler was the first African-American to captain an integrated club. He was also one of the first significant Black promoters, forming the heralded Page Fence Giants and other clubs and leagues.
St. Paul’s Ballparks
Like any city with a blossoming baseball scene, St. Paul’s ballparks moved around quite a bit over the years.
Originally, teams would find a vacant lot or empty field to play their games, and once that spot became established, businesses and homes would pop up around the site, raising the value of the land.
Often, a developer would swoop in and buy the plot, forcing the teams to find another place to play. And so on and so on.
Sioux City Cornhuskers
The Sioux City Cornhuskers won Western League championships in 1891 and 1894 (Sioux City didn't field a team in 1892 or 1893 for a variety of reasons).
After the 1894 season, the team was purchased by former baseball player and manager Charles Comiskey, renamed the Saints and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.
Charles Comiskey
Charles Comiskey was a former ballplayer who bought the Sioux City Cornhuskers.
Comiskey was friends with Ban Johnson, who was the President of the Western League at the time. After Comiskey purchased the team, he moved it to St. Paul, Minnesota. He renamed them the Saints, where they played in the Western League.
1897 St. Paul Saints
The Saints played in St. Paul from 1895-1899 under the ownership of Charles Comiskey, before they moved again to Chicago before the 1900 season.
The 1897 team finished in 4th place with a record of 86-51.
Tony Mullane
Anthony John Mullane, nicknamed "Count" and "the Apollo of the Box", was an Irish man who pitched for seven major league teams from 1881–1894.
After his major league career ended, he continued pitching until 1902 in leagues such as the Western League, the Eastern League, the California Winter League, and the Pacific Northwest League.
He is best known as a switch pitcher who could throw with either hand, and for having one of the highest career win totals of pitchers not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
On March 22, 1899, the movers and shakers of the Western League met in Milwaukee to discuss the future of the league. The meeting’s participants included T. J. Loftus, J. F. Franklin, M. R. Killilea, Connie Mack, Ban Johnson, J. H. Manning, Charles Comiskey, G. A. Van Derbeck, C. H. Salapaugh.
1901 Chicago White Sox
Comiskey had built a great team, and they were immediately successful after the move to Chicago. They finished the 1900 season with a record of 82-53 to win the newly-renamed American League, still considered a minor league at the time.
From 1901 to 1906, they finished either 1st or 2nd in the now-Major American League, winning the World Series in 1906.
St. Paul Apostles
The St. Paul Apostles were one of several named teams during the late 19th and early 20th century. The first Apostles team joined the Northwestern League in 1884 as an expansion team.
Midway through the season, the league folded twice. After the second time, the Apostles became a barnstorming team, before they and the Milwaukee Cream Citys were invited to join the Union Association in late August. The Apostles played 9 games going 2-6-1 before folding.
The second Apostles came when the Western Association was created in 1888 season. This Apostles team was a continuation of the St. Paul Saints which had played in other leagues in previous years; in fact, the two names would be used interchangeably until the early years of the 20th century, and it is purely a modern convention to use one name at the exclusion of the other.
Thus, the Apostles are referred to as the Saints starting in 1892 when the Western League was reformed.
Lexington Park
In 1897, Comiskey's Saints began playing at Lexington Park, a ballpark commissioned by Comiskey in Saint Paul’s Midway neighborhood. The park was bounded by Lexington, University, Fuller and Dunlap.
It was far enough away outside of the city center that the team could play Sunday baseball. In 1909, the state of Minnesota changed its laws on Sunday activities, allowing sporting events to be held.
The Saints played at Lexington park from 1897 to 1956. Today, you can find a plaque commemorating the field in front of the TCF Bank branch building that now occupies the space.
Lexington Park was also the home of the St. Paul Colored Gophers.
Bobby Marshall
In 1903, Bobby Marshall became the first Black football player to play for the University of Minnesota. He also starred for the school’s baseball team and later became the first Black semipro hockey player in the nation’s history.
Shortly after graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in law, Marshall played third base for the Minneapolis "Lund-Lands" for one season, in 1906.
In 1907, he played for the St. Paul Colored Gophers, and then in 1908, he played utility for the Minneapolis Keystones and moved to first base later in the season.
In 1909 and 1910, Marshall split the season between the Colored Gophers and the Chicago Leland Giants in 1909 and the Colored Gophers and the Chicago Giants in 1910.
Marshall bought the Colored Gophers team in 1911 and used the name Twin Cities Gophers.[3][4] He played for and managing the Colored Gophers team occasionally until at least 1916.
1903 St. Paul Saints
The 1903 and 1904 Saints teams each won the pennant. Among their star players were Miller Huggins and Germany Schaefer.
Mike Kelley
Michael Kelley played only briefly in one major league season with the Louisville Colonels in 1899. Despite this lack of major league success, he was a highly respected minor league player and manager, forging a 30-year career as a manager and becoming a legendary figure in the Twin Cities.
Cy Morgan
Harry Richard "Cy" Morgan was a pitcher on the 1906 St. Paul Saints team. He also pitched in the Major Leagues with the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds between 1903 and 1913.
He helped the Athletics win the 1910 and 1911 World Series. The 1912 Reach Guide credits him with helping carry the pitching burden for the 1911 team while stars Jack Coombs and Chief Bender were less effective than usual early in the season.
John “Chief” Meyers
John “Chief” Meyers played with the St. Paul Saints during the 1908 season. He was purchased by the Giants late that season, but didn't make his first appearance in a big league game until 1909. He was the starting catcher on the Giants 3-straight pennant-winning teams from 1911-1913.
“A strong love of justice, a lightning sense of humor, a fund of general information that runs from politics to Plato, a quick, logical mind, and the self-contained, dignified poise that is the hallmark of good breeding-he is easily the most remarkable player in the big leagues,” wrote one reporter.
On the field, the strong but slow-footed Meyers was almost certainly the best offensive catcher of the Deadball Era, retiring with a .291 average for his nine-year career.
Harry Howell
Harry Howell was an infielder for the 1911 St. Paul Saints after his Major League pitching career ended.
Howell was known to throw one of the "wettest" spitballs in history as he used so much slippery elm that it appeared that he was foaming at the mouth, but he was also the best pitcher the Browns had during the deadball era as he still holds the Browns' best career team ERA record of 2.06.
The Chalmers Race
In 1910 auto magnate Hugh Chalmers offered an automobile to the baseball player with the highest batting average that season. What followed was a batting race unlike any before or since, between the greatest but most despised hitter, Detroit’s Ty Cobb, and the American League’s first superstar, Cleveland’s popular Napoleon Lajoie.
The race came down to the last game of the season, igniting more interest among fans than the World Series and becoming a national obsession. Cobb, thinking the prize was safely his, skipped the last two games of the season, while Lajoie suspiciously had eight hits in a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. Although initial counts favored Lajoie, American League president Ban Johnson, the sport’s last word, announced Cobb the winner, and amid the controversy both players received cars.
Buy Rick Huhn’s amazing book HERE.
“Ginger” Beaumont
Clarence Howeth "Ginger" Beaumont was with the Saints club in 1911 when he was at the end of his career.
In 12 seasons, he led MLB in hits 4 times; runs, total bases, and batting average one time each; and had 8 seasons with 20 or more steals, including a career high 36 in 1901.
On July 22, 1899, at the Pirates' Exposition Park, he got six infield hits in six at bats and scored six runs.
He was the first player ever to have an at bat in the World Series.
Eric Tipton
Eric Tipton was drafted in the thirteenth round of the 1939 NFL Draft by Washington, but chose to play professional baseball instead. He played outfield for the Philadelphia Athletics (1939–1941) and the Cincinnati Reds (1942–1945).
Tipton then played with the St. Paul Saints (1946–1951) of the American Association, and the Portland Beavers (1952) of the Pacific Coast League.
Hooks Dauss
George August "Hooks" Dauss pitched for the 1911 and 1912 Saints before his 15-year MLB career. His real name was George, but he was called "Hooks" or "Hookie" because he had such a great curveball.
Dauss had 223 career wins, and is still the Detroit Tigers' all-time winningest pitcher. He is also the Tigers' all-time leader in losses, hits allowed, and hit batsmen
Everett Scott
Everett Scott was an infielder on the 1913 Saints team. He had a 13-year MLB career after he left the Saints. His streak of 1,307 consecutive games played lasted from June 20, 1916 until May 5, 1925, when Scott was benched in favor of Yankees teammate Paul “Pee Wee” Wanninger.
At the time, Scott’s consecutive games streak was the longest in history. To this day, only Lou Gehrig (2,130) and Cal Ripken, Jr. (2,632) have ever played more games in a row than Scott.
On June 1, 1925, Lou Gehrig’s streak began when he pinch-hit for the same man who ended Scott’s streak, Pee Wee Wanninger. This story wouldn’t be complete without telling you that Wanninger later went on to play for the St. Paul Saints in 1926.
“Lu” Blue
"Lu" Blue was a switch-hitting outfielder on the 1918 Saints. He interrupted his baseball career for military service in World War I and was later honored with burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Leon Wagner
Leon Wagner is a name not well-remembered today, unless you old enough to have seen baseball in the 1960s. But those who did follow the game at that time will never forget Wagner. He was one of those guys who could not pass through the major leagues without leaving an imprint.
With his high cheekbones, the rhythmic wiggling of his lower body at the plate, and his thunderous swing, Wagner became a memorable fan favorite.
Chuck Schilling
Charles Thomas “Chuck” Schilling was right-handed, stood 5-feet-10, and was listed at 160 pounds. He wasn’t flashy. Indeed, sportswriter Ed Rumill dubbed him “a quiet little fellow, colorless in uniform but all business and every inch a ballplayer.”
Red Sox coach Billy Herman said, “You forget he’s out there until they hit the ball to the right side of the infield. Then Chuck goes and gets it. He just doesn’t miss.”
George Halas
George Halas played for the 1919 Saints. He started the year with the Yankees, but a hip injury making a slide trying to stretch a double into a triple during a spring training game derailed his promising baseball career.
By July, he was hitting just .091 in 12 games. Manager Miller Huggins gave him the news that he was being sent to the Saints. The reason wasn’t what Halas said for the rest of his life – that Babe Ruth was now New York’s starting right fielder; Ruth didn’t join the team until the next year.
This unbelievable painting by former My Baseball History guest Graig Kreindler is on display at the City of Baseball Museum at CHS Field.
Rube Benton
John Cleave "Rube" Benton pitched for the 1921 and 1922 Saints. Benton was tangentially involved with the Black Sox Scandal, having knowledge of the fix.
Shortly thereafter Benton was demoted to the minors - not banned from the game as the Black Sox players were. After a successful season with the St. Paul Saints, the Cincinnati Reds wanted to bring him back up. Both National League president John Heydler and American League president Ban Johnson protested that there was no place in either big league for him.
Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis intervened, however, arguing that if Benton was eligible to play for St. Paul, then he was also eligible to play for Cincinnati. Benton was allowed to re-join the Reds, where he pitched until 1925.
Dutch Leonard Affair
In May of 1926, Dutch Leonard contacted the office of the Tigers and informed Detroit owner, Frank Joseph Navin, that he held proof that Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker had fixed and bet on a game played on September 25, 1919.
Leonard contacted Ban Johnson's office, as well. Navin and Johnson believed Leonard's story and agreed to buy him off for $20,000, the amount that Leonard argued Detroit owed him. So, Dutch surrendered his two letters of proof to them. They, in turn, notified Commissioner Landis of the events, as a courtesy.
Next, Johnson contacted the two players and called them into his office. Cobb and Speaker denied the charges. Johnson, not believing them, told them they had to quit. On November 2, Ty left a letter of resignation at Navin's office. On November 29, Speaker's resignation was announced, with no explanation given.
Leo Durocher
Leo Durocher played Shortstop in St. Paul during the 1927 season.
From the book "The Lip" by Gerald Eskenazi:
"Leo had gone into professional baseball with this admonition from his father: 'Keep your mouth shut. Just listen.' But it was at St. Paul that he began yakking up on the bench and in the field. His manager there, Nick Allen, used to tell him, 'Talk it up. Show 'em you're alive. Make some noise. This is baseball, not a church.' And his teammates on the bench supposedly told him to start gabbing. As if Leo needed encouragement."
Miller Huggins’ Financial Stake
This is the original document proving Miller Huggins actually did personally own shares of the St. Paul Saints. It is on display at the City of Baseball Museum at CHS Field.
Jack Saltzgaver
Otto Hamlin "Jack" Saltzgaver was on the 1930-1931 editions of the Saints. The Saints and the New York Yankees worked out a deal that would send Saltzgaver and Johnny Murphy to the Yankees after the 1931 season. The Saints got back three players and $60,000.
He was on the Yankees teams of 1932 and 1934-1937 playing in 20, 94, 61, 34 and 17 games as an utility infielder batting .128, .271, .262, .211 and .182. His major league career ended on the war-time Phillies team of 1945 when he was in 52 games hitting .325.
In his MLB career, he played in 278 games and had 764 at bats batting .260, with a .351 OBP and .347 slugging. Defensively, he was at third for 119 games, at second for 78 and at first for 18 - all with a combined fielding average of .957.
The St. Paul-New York Underground Railroad
The Saints player pipeline with Miller Huggins and Bob Connery began while they were in St. Louis. It continued when Huggins went to the Yankees. During Bob Connery's presidency, the Saints and Yankees transferred 29 players between the two clubs. The total amount the Yankees paid the Saints for those players was about $300,000.
Pictured here is Miller Huggins and Yankee Owner, Colonel Jacob Ruppert.
Mike Kelley
Mike Kelley played for the Saints in 1902-1905 and managed them from 1902-1905, 1908-1912 and 1915-1923. Overall, he managed five American Association pennant winners (all in St. Paul), and was employed in baseball for 52 years.
It is said that all 16 Major League owners loved Mike Kelley and would literally jump to help him out. When he wanted to sell a player, they would be happy to give him an extra good price.
Michael Kelley’s 1906-08 Woes with Organized Baseball by Dennis Pajot
Streetcar Series
Independence Day and Labor Day would bring a streetcar double-header. It was called this because fans rode streetcars between the team’s day/night doubleheaders (first night game in 1937). Imagine yourself in the late 1930s. During a day game, you’d witness a hard-fought game at Lexington Park. Then you could take a streetcar over to Nicollet Park and watch a wild night game.
Oscar Roettger
“A little more experience is all you need,” wrote Brooklyn Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson to Oscar Roettger of the St. Paul Saints before the 1927 season.
It didn’t quite happen — Roettger played in five games for Uncle Robbie’s squad and 37 games in the major leagues over four seasons. A substantial minor-league career included eight seasons with the Saints, three with the Double-A Montreal Royals, and a brief experience in the minor-league managerial realm.
Roettger remembered the intensity of the crowds at the Streetcar Series games between the St. Paul Saints and the Minneapolis Millers long after his career was over.
Gene Mauch
During the July 4, 1959 Streetcar Series game at Midway Stadium, St. Paul booster and well-known heckler Chuck Van Avery was located strategically with a few pals near the visitors' dugout. His taunts got a little too personal for Millers manager Gene Mauch that day, and Mauch went into the stands to let him know.
1924 Little World Series
The series was supposed to be best of 9, but Game 3 ended in a 6-6 tie after 13 innings. St. Paul won the series in 10 games (5 games to 4, plus that one tie) despite going down 3 games to 1 and being outscored by Baltimore, 38-37 over the course of the series.
Mark Koenig
One of Babe Ruth’s former Yankee teammates, Mark Koenig, had joined the Cubs in late August of the 1932 season and batted .353 in 33 games to help propel Chicago to the National League pennant.
Although Koenig had been a catalyst, his teammates felt he was deserving of just a half-World Series share because he had been with the team for such a short time.
When Ruth heard that Koenig wasn’t voted a full share, he lambasted the Cubs in a story published in the Chicago Daily Tribune. “Sure, I’m on ’em; I hope we beat ’em four straight,’’ he was quoted as saying. “They gave Koenig a sour deal in their player cut. They’re chiselers and I’ll tell ’em so.”
Ben Chapman
Ben Chapman played 3B for the 1929 Saints. He then played for the Yankees from 1930-1936. He was moved to LF by manager Joe McCarthy to take advantage of his speed and arm. Chapman led AL Outfielders in assists in 1933, was moved to CF in 1934, and led the league in OF assists again in 1935.
Two weeks after Chapman was traded to the Phillies in 1945, he was named their manager. His spirited leadership brought initial improvement, but soon his temper and poorly timed comments, especially his widely publicized vicious baiting of Jackie Robinson in 1947, exasperated owner Bob Carpenter. The scene in the movie "42" depicts that moment and some of the fallout. Chapman was fired in 1948.
Howie Schultz
Howard Henry Schultz, nicknamed "Stretch" and "Steeple", was a baseball and basketball player from St. Paul. Schultz played in both Major League Baseball and in the National Basketball Association, one of thirteen athletes to do so. Schultz won an NBA title with the Minneapolis Lakers in 1952.
Angelo Giuliani
Angelo John "Tony" Giuliani was a catcher from 1936–41 and 1943. Born in St. Paul, he attended Saint Thomas Military Academy and has been selected to its Athletic Hall of Fame.
Giuliani threw and batted right-handed. His pro career, curtailed by injury, extended for 12 seasons (1932–43) with a one-game appearance in 1949 as a member of the Minneapolis Millers.
During his 243-game MLB career, Giuliani collected only 157 hits, with 18 doubles and three triples. After his playing career, he became a longtime scout.
Branch Rickey
In 1944, the Saints became the top affiliate of Brooklyn. Dodgers President Branch Rickey began acquiring players from the Saints in the early 1940s and bought the team outright in 1947, folding it into the Dodgers’ first-class farm system.
Duke Snider
The 1948 Saints featured Duke Snider, who batted .316 with the team, and hit a home run that a batboy said was "the longest ball [he] had ever seen."
He went on to have a pretty decent MLB career, too.
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella was 25 years old when he appeared as a catcher on the 1948 St. Paul Saints. He was the American Association's first Black player, and no hotel in St. Paul would rent him a room.
He was a three-time MVP in the Major Leagues and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jackie Robinson in Montreal
Montreal was the Dodgers’ other top farm club. Jackie Robinson seemed to have a fairly smooth experience there, all things considered. But his team still had to travel to play away games in cities such as Louisville, where racism was a much bigger problem than it was in the international city north of the border.
March 17, 1946: Jackie Robinson plays his first exhibition game for Montreal Royals by Bob Webster
Lexington Park
In 1957, Lexington Park, the home of the Saints, was replaced by Midway Stadium. Pictured here is Lexington Park in 1952.
Twin City Ballparks by Stew Thornley
Midway Stadium (I)
Saint Paul Saints baseball players in 1960 at the old Midway Stadium at 1000 North Snelling Ave.
MLB in the Twin Cities
In 1961, the Washington Senators become the Minnesota Twins, and chose the Minneapolis stadium to be their home, so the St. Paul Saints moved to Omaha, which left St. Paul without its own professional team for the first time in decades.
Metropolitan Stadium
Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, served the Minnesota Twins for 21 seasons. However, it was originally the home of the minor league Minneapolis Millers of the American Association.
The drive for a new ballpark for the Millers began in the 1940s. In June of 1948, the Millers, affiliated with the parent New York Giants, and the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners agreed on a 17-acre tract near Theodore Wirth Park, slightly less than three miles west of downtown Minneapolis, for a new ballpark.
It was the intention of the Millers/Giants to purchase the property, reroute a stream to its natural channel, and construct a stadium with a seating capacity between 20,000 and 30,000.
Metropolitan Stadium by Stew Thornley
Black Baseball in St. Paul
There is a rich history of Black baseball in St. Paul, as well, dating back over a century. The first recorded African-American baseball player in the state of Minnesota was Prince Honeycutt, in Fergus Falls in 1872. But Black players faced abuse from the fans, their opponents, and sometimes even their own teammates.
By the end of the 19th century, Black players were completely banned from the game. Even in 1899, when the state of Minnesota enacted a law prohibiting racial discrimination in public places, that law did not apply to professional baseball.
Billy Williams
Billy Williams starred in multiple sports — but baseball was his favorite. Even in high school, he played for several town semipro teams, including the Spaldings and the Hamm's Exports. His reputation as a power-hitting first baseman and outfielder grew, and he was regularly recruited to play for teams across the region — often the only Black player on the squad.
Eventually, Williams would play for more than 30 teams, and he was even hired for games against the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints.
But while Williams likely had the talent to make it to the big leagues, organized baseball's prohibition against Black players meant his future was limited. Williams declined an offer from one team executive willing to sign him, provided he told people he was Native American. Williams refused.
Walter Ball was a member of the Keystone Tigers.
Walter Ball
Right-hander Walter Ball was one of the top pitchers in early black baseball, often being favorably compared with a contemporary, Hall of Famer Rube Foster. In the prime of his career, the Indianapolis Freeman remarked, “everyone knows that Walter Ball and ‘Steel Arm’ Johnny Taylor are the most sensational pitchers of the race.”
Lacking great speed, Ball found success with his smarts, control, and frequent use of the spitball. Off the field, the stylish Ball had a reputation as a gentleman and “the swellest dresser,” often wearing tailored suits.
John Donaldson
In 1908 John Donaldson was a tall, slender young man from small-town America with a strong left arm and the hand/eye coordination required to squarely hit a round ball with a round bat, yet there was no place for him in Organized Baseball. Because he was a black man.
But using his talent and personality, he made a place for himself in segregated baseball as the star of various black and mixed-race barnstorming teams in the Midwest.
Later in his career he also played as the only black man on small-town Minnesota teams. He drew a blueprint on how to make money in baseball outside of the major leagues that Satchel Paige followed 20 years later.
Pete Gorton and Sam Sinke have helped to document 430+ wins and 5,300+ strikeouts in Donaldson’s amazing career.
Chappie Johnson
Walter Johnson, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, had one of the greatest seasons ever in 1913, going 36-7 with 11 shutouts. That fall, the Mohawk Colored Giants, a Black baseball team, added an unofficial loss to Johnson’s tally when he and an all-white team of major leaguers came to town as part of a barnstorming tour.
On the Giants team was Chappie Johnson, seated second from the left.
The Quebec Adventures of Chappie Johnson’s All-Stars by Christian Trudeau
Early Black Baseball In Minnesota
Though they played in the years before Rube Foster formed the first Negro League, the St. Paul Gophers and their bitter crosstown rivals, the Minneapolis Keystones, had the talent, bench depth, and determination to rival many of those later, better known teams. The Gophers, in fact, beat Chicago's celebrated Leland Giants in 1909, laying claim to blackball's western championship.
Focusing on these two clubs, author Peterson lays out the early history of African American baseball in the Upper Midwest. Included are new statistics and more than 50 rarely seen photographs.
Buy Todd Peterson’s book HERE.
They Played For The Love Of The Game
During the many decades that Major League Baseball and its affiliates imposed a strict policy of segregation, Black ballplayers in Minnesota were relegated to a haphazard array of semipro leagues, barnstorming clubs, and loose organizations of all-black teams—many of which are lost to history.
They Played for the Love of the Game recovers that history by sharing stories of African American ballplayers in Minnesota, from the 1870s to the 1960s, through photos, artifacts, and spoken histories passed through the generations. Author Frank White's own father was one of the top catchers in the Twin Cities in his day, a fact that White did not learn until late in life. While the stories tell of denial, hardship, and segregation, they are highlighted by athletes who persevered and were united by their love of the sport.
Buy Frank White’s book HERE.
Rondo
For much of the 20th century, the Rondo neighborhood was an important cultural and residential center of the Black community in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan region. The core of Old Rondo was demolished between 1956 and 1968, to make way for the construction of the Interstate 94 freeway.
At least 650 families were displaced from the neighborhood, as well as many businesses and community locations.
Toni Stone
Toni Stone grew up in Rondo, playing pickup games with neighborhood boys. She convinced St. Paul Saints manager Gabby Street to let her work out at his baseball school.
At 16, she became the only girl on the Twin Cities Colored Giants, a semipro team. She made history in 1953 with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League by becoming the first woman to play professional baseball in a men's league.
Minneapolis Millerettes
The Minneapolis Millerettes represented Minnesota in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1944. However, like in the men’s Major Leagues at the time, Black players were not allowed to play. Eventually, a lack of local support contributed to the Millerettes moving in 1945 — just a year after their debut — to become the Fort Wayne Daisies.
New Saints
In 1993, the St. Paul Saints appear once again, formed as part of the new independent Northern League. The primary ownership of the team is shared by Marvin Goldklang, Mike Veeck and Bill Murray. The Saints gained national acclaim after winning the Northern League title and becoming well known for over-the-top wacky promotions. Mike Veeck’s mantra is “fun is good".
Mike Veeck
Mike’s grandfather, William Veeck Sr., was president of the Chicago Cubs from 1919 until his death in 1933, leading the club to two NL championships.
Mike's dad, Bill Veeck Jr., grew up in the baseball business, beginning his career as a popcorn vendor for his dad’s team. He went on to own a string of major league franchises, including the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns, and Chicago White Sox.
Mike Veeck’s career was nearly derailed by a 1979 stunt he orchestrated, “Disco Demolition Night.”
Mike was our guest for Episode 4 of Season 3. You can listen to that episode HERE.
Ila Borders
In 1997, the Saints signed pitcher Ila Borders, becoming the first professional men’s baseball team to have a female on their roster. Ila made her debut on May 31, 1997, and played for a total of 4 seasons, pitching in 52 minor league baseball games with four different teams. In 1999, her best year, she had an ERA of 3.63.
Borders had made her historic collegiate debut on Feb. 15, 1994 when she became the first woman to pitch in a men’s college baseball game. She pitched a five-hitter for Southern California College against the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a 12-1 victory.
She retired in 2000 to pursue a career in firefighting and in 2003 she was elected to the Baseball Reliquary Shrine of the Eternals for her unique contributions to the game of baseball.
Target Field is an absolutely beautiful stadium, but charging $20 minimum per ticket the last week of the season when your team has been eliminated from playoff contention is going to result in some empty seats. Who benefits from that?
Minnie Miñoso
Saturnino Orestes "Minnie" Armas Arrieta Miñoso prepares to swing at a pitch as he plays for the St. Paul Saints on July 26, 2003 at the age of 77. Miñoso became the first player to play professional baseball in seven different decades when he was in the lineup for the team’s annual Negro League Tribute. Acting as Designated Hitter, Miñoso walked in the first inning.
Bill Veeck
Before they had a Major League franchise, Milwaukee had a team in the American Association, called the Brewers.
Bill Veeck bought the team in 1940. They won 3 pennants in 5 years, and Bill sold the franchise in 1945.
He riled up the St. Paul Saints fans by saying his Brewers teams wouldn’t stay “in a jerk town like St. Paul” when on the road, opting instead to stay at a hotel in Minneapolis. It was purely a show to sell more tickets, and it worked like a charm.
Merkle’s Boner
Merkle's Boner refers to the notorious base-running mistake committed by rookie Fred Merkle of the New York Giants in a game against the Chicago Cubs on September 23, 1908.
Merkle's failure to advance to second base on what should have been a game-winning hit led instead to a force play at second and a tied game.
The Cubs later won the makeup game, which proved decisive as they beat the Giants by one game to win the National League pennant for 1908. It has been described as "the most controversial game in baseball history."
1962 Mets at the Polo Grounds
Original Mets Frank Thomas, Gil Hodges, Don Zimmer & Roger Craig jump for joy at the Polo Grounds, where they played for the first two years of their franchise’s existence.
AFL at the Polo Grounds
At their first home stadium, the New York Jets, originally known as the Titans, often played in front of sparse crowds from 1960 to 1963.
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Official Scoring
My mom acted as official scorer for many of the vintage base ball games I played from 2009 to 2021. Even though those games were incredibly low stakes compared to an official MLB game, sometimes it could still get pretty nerve-wracking!
Official Scorers Consider Bad Hops, Bad Throws... And Exit Velocity
Joe Anders
A great player in his own right, Joe Anders was a member of the 1940 Brandon Mill team which won the Textile League Championship.
Anders, who played and coached between 1938 and 1955, is considered the greatest Textile League player ever. He signed with the Yankees in 1942 and was scheduled to be their starting 3B within a week, but two days later he got his WWI draft papers and never played in the majors.
In 1955, Anders was the Cottonwood League's MVP, hitting .505 and compiling a 30-game hitting streak at the age of 34. He had 3 hits in the All-Star Game that year, leading his team to a 4-0 victory. He was inducted into the Greater Greenville Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.
Anders "remembered seeing Joe Jackson pinch hit in a mill league game at the age of 56. Already weakened by the first of several heart attacks, he nevertheless smashed the ball off the centerfield fence, 415 feet from home plate."
"Anders' stories were instrumental in preserving the history of textile baseball. He also contributed to several unsuccessful attempts to persuade Major League Baseball to reinstate [Joe] Jackson."
Bobby Richardson
Bobby Richardson is a Yankees legend who played 2B for the team from 1955-1966.
Bobby Richardson’s SABR Biography
Bobby was our guest for Episode 5 of Season 2. You can listen to that episode HERE.
Sam Allen
Sam Allen is a former Negro League player who spent time as a member of the Kansas City Monarchs, the Raleigh Tigers, and the Memphis Red Sox. He led the Negro American League in runs scored in 1957, helping the Monarchs win the championship.
Sam was our guest for Episode 2 of Season 3. You can listen to that episode HERE.
Ange Armato
Ange Armato is a former player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who spent time playing with the Rockford Peaches and the Kalamazoo Lassies.
Ange was our guest for Episode 7 of Season 3. You can listen to that episode HERE.
Marjorie Adams
Marjorie Adams was the great-granddaughter of Doc Adams, who wrote The Laws of Base Ball in 1857 which set many of the primary rules of the sport still followed to this day. He also invented the position of Shortstop during his playing career.
Marjorie was our guest for Episode 2 of Season 2. You can listen to that episode HERE.
The Mike Wallace Interviews
In an interview which was conducted on August 4, 1957, Bob Feller talks to Mike Wallace about ballplayers' salaries, the reserve clause, rich ball clubs, Pay TV, beer companies as sponsors, bean balls, gambling, and Joe DiMaggio versus Ted Williams.
Watch the interview HERE.
Learning How
Many programs will teach you how to keep score, educating the reader what symbols to use and how to interpret plays on the field and on the page in front of them.
Doris Kearns Goodwin
“My father taught me how to keep score when I was six so I could recount that afternoon’s Dodgers game when he came home from work.”
“So what would happen when I first was learning how to do this, and he would come home from work — I was too excited, so I'd blurt out, "the Dodgers won," or, "the Dodgers lost," which, of course, took much of the drama of this two-hour telling away. So I finally learned that you had to tell a story from beginning to middle to end.
“In fact, he already knew who won. That's what's so crazy, right? He never even told me when I was young that all of this would be in the newspapers the next day. So at first I thought he wouldn't even know what happened to the game without me.”
Buy Doris’ book Wait Till Next Year HERE.
The Dangers of Grave Hunting
On a recent trip to Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, my mom and I were less than 30 feet away from a coyote, who was thankfully more well-behaved than the shepherd my mom ran into while searching for a grave on private property another time.
Catch Probability
Catch Probability represents the likelihood that a batted ball to the outfield will be caught, based on four important pieces of information tracked by Statcast.
1. How far did the fielder have to go?
2. How much time did he have to get there.
3. What direction did he need to go in?
4. Was proximity to the wall a factor?
War On The Diamond
War On The Diamond is a documentary which tells the story of how the death of Ray Chapman in 1920 sparked a 100-year rivalry between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians.
You can watch it HERE.
Target Field
Target Field opened in 2010 as the new home of the Minnesota Twins, but it has also served as the home of other local and regional baseball events.
Though originally designed for baseball, it has also hosted football, soccer, hockey games, and concerts.
In 2010, ESPN The Magazine ranked the open-air venue as the number one baseball stadium experience in North America. The stadium hosted the 2014 MLB All-Star Game.
The City of Baseball Museum is located inside CHS Field, the home of the St. Paul Saints. It’s amazing.
Ruth’s Record(s)
The 29 home runs that Babe Ruth hit in 1919 broke Ned Williamson’s 1884 record of 27. Williamson set his record playing in Lake Park, the Chicago White Stocking’s home field that featured a right field wall just 196-feet from home plate.
When Babe homered on July 18, 1921 for the 139th time in his career, he surpassed the mark previously held by Roger Connor. Though at the time, no one really knew the historic import, because no one was quite sure who did hold the record.
Connor had 124 home runs in the National League and 14 in the Players’ League, which existed for only one season (1890). Those 14 home runs existed in limbo until Commissioner William Eckert ruled in 1968 that the Players’ League was, in fact, a Major League for record-keeping purposes.
SABR 52
The 52nd SABR Convention will be in Minneapolis from August 7 through August 11 at the Hyatt Regency.
Learn everything you need to about the convention, including how to register so you can attend, HERE.
Toni Stone Field
Toni Stone, the Rondo neighborhood kid who shattered racial and gender barriers, once took the roster spot of Hank Aaron and proved over and again she could play the game.
A second baseman in the Negro Leagues in the 1950s, she’s considered the first woman to play professional men's baseball. More than two decades after her death, her efforts are slowly being recognized.
Women In The Negro Leagues
For decades, women's baseball was just as segregated as the men's game. But Toni Stone, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson and Connie Morgan enjoyed professional opportunities in the Negro Leagues, blazing a trail for the women who would come after them.
Black Women Playing Baseball: An Introduction by Leslie Heaphy
Playing With The Boys: Gender, Race, and Baseball in Post-War America by A.J. Richard
Rube Foster
Andrew “Rube” Foster is perhaps the person with the greatest impact upon Black baseball. Not only was Foster one of the best pitchers and best managers of the early twentieth century but he also was the architect of the Negro National League. Despite facing immense racial prejudice, Foster carried out three distinctive baseball positions during his lifetime and is often known as the “Father of Negro Baseball.”
Minnie and Paul
The Twins’ original logo was created by illustrator Ray Barton. The iconic image featured two mammoth twins, Minnie and Paul, eternally shaking hands while spanning the Mississippi River. Minnie and Paul, of course, represent the great Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, respectively.
The logo has gone through changes over the years, being phased in, phased out, and updated several times.
Brian Bernardoni
Brian Bernardoni is the Official Historian of Wrigley Field, and has been a tour guide at the park since 1998.
Brian was our guest for Episode 6 of Season 1. You can listen to that episode HERE.
Alex Cheremeteff
Alex Cheremeteff is a writer, researcher, and historian who is an expert on the Philadelphia Athletics.
Alex was our guest for Episode 4 of Season 2. You can listen to that episode HERE.
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SABR 52’s Scheduled Featured Speakers
SABR 52 will feature a Hall of Fame speaker lineup you’ll love — including Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Bert Blyleven, and Jim Kaat.
You’ll also hear from Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey, General Manager Thad Levine, former pitchers LaTroy Hawkins and Glen Perkins, and more.
You can see a list of scheduled featured speakers HERE.
The National
The 44th National Sports Collectors Convention will be held at the I-X Center in Cleveland from July 24th through July 28th, 2024. Follow The National on twitter HERE.
If you’re planning on being in Cleveland for that, come see me at the Love Of The Game Auctions booth!
But also, carve some time out of your Friday night plans to come watch the 1860s style vintage base ball game I’m hosting at League Park.
RSVP on the Facebook Event Page for the vintage games by clicking HERE.
Baseball Heritage Museum
Entrance to the game will be $10 per person, but that price will also get you free admission to the Baseball Heritage Museum, which operates out of the original ticket office at League Park. All proceeds from the game will be donated to the museum, as well.
Make a donation toward the game HERE.
My Summer Plans
MLB Game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham
HOF Induction Weekend in Cooperstown
The National Sports Card Convention in Cleveland
My vintage games at League Park in Cleveland
SABR Convention in Minneapolis
Maybe a little sleep? Maybe?
Get ready for Season 4 of the podcast, which begins Wednesday, October 9th, 2024!