The First Pennant for Minneapolis

Even though Minneapolis had been home to a professional club for most of the previous 20 years, it would not be until 1896 that it won its first pennant. The closest any club had been to a flag was in the 1890 Western Association, when Minneapolis finished a game back of Kansas City. After not having a team in 1893, Minneapolis joined Ban Johnson’s Western League in 1894. Two fourth-place finishes resulted, but 1,282 runs scored in 123 games (10.4 runs per game) in 1895 led to high hopes for 1896. Chart 1 shows Western League team averages for 1895, and despite outscoring the next team by a half-run per game, the Millers were only a few games over .500. Millers fans were optimistic that several changes made over the winter would improve the club. When several midseason moves during 1896 paid immediate dividends and resulted in a winning streak for the ages, the Millers had a season worth remembering.

The 1896 Western League season of 140 games began on April 22 and it became clear that several Millers pitchers would not last long.1 Jesse Duryea would get two starts (0–2, 11 innings) and “Deacon” Rice would appear in seven games (1–3, 43 innings).2 Egyptian Healy and Bill Carney, holdovers from 1895, would pitch in 16 and 25 games respectively. Healy pitched into mid-July with a record of 6–6 and Carney into early August with a record of 9–9. Carney would finish the season with Kansas City. Of the 11 pitchers the Millers would use, only Bill Hutchison would play the entire season. His 49 complete games in 52 starts and 37–13 won-loss record over 442 innings were critical to winning the pennant.3

Other pitchers used were Varney Anderson (9–4 between June 6 and August 28) and Kirtley Baker (3–3 from August 16 to the end of the season). Baker started the season with Milwaukee. Charlie Hastings, on loan from Pittsburgh, would win four games between June 25 and July 7 with a 1.70 ERA in 37 innings. He also had six hits with four of them going for extra bases. Not surprisingly, he was recalled by the Pirates.

Two pitchers acquired during the 1896 season paid immediate dividends. While Frank Figgemeier would lose his first three and his last two decisions for the Millers, between August 9 and September 8 he would win 10 consecutive games. Earlier in the season, while with Des Moines of the Western Association, Figgemeier won 13 games in a row, en route to a 15–3 record.4 Part of his streak was part of a 25-game win streak by Des Moines.5 Another pitcher who helped put the Millers over the top was Harley “Doc” Parker, acquired by Minneapolis in early August from Grand Rapids despite his 0–10 record for the tailenders. He would match Figgemeier with 10 straight wins, only to drop his last two decisions.6

Rosters were limited to only 14 or 15 players at any one time, meaning the only substitutes were the second catcher and pitchers between starts. Catcher Pop Schriver, first baseman Perry Werden, third baseman Bill Kuehne, and left fielder Dan Lally played almost every inning of every game. Art Ball would lead the league’s shortstops with 120 games played. Jim Conner played most of the innings at second base until he was hurt on August 23. John Pickett was acquired from St. Paul to fill in for 26 games while Connor was on the shelf. Player-manager Walt Wilmot played 115 games in center field. The right fielders were Charlie Frank through July 19 and Walt Preston for the remainder of the season. Low roster sizes were the norm throughout baseball at this time, and players played until they were hurt or until their performance demanded a change. Pinch-hitting was rare (one pitcher for another), and position switches during a game were usually the result of an ejection or injury.

Though the Millers’ home run total dropped by half between 1895 and 1896 (from 215 to 107), they still had a potent offense. Werden led the way with 217 hits, 42 doubles, and 54 stolen bases, followed closely by Wilmot, with 204 hits and 54 stolen bases. Schriver contributed 203 hits and Lally scored 153 runs. Accurate statistics are difficult to find and those found in Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide and Reach’s Official Base Ball Guide and SABR’s own Minor League Stars I and II contain only a few categories per player or only a few players with lengthy careers. My own totals, derived from the daily box scores from the St. Paul Globe, sometimes did not match the season totals published by the same newspaper. Even though their runs scored dropped by 158 runs, the Millers scored 10 or more runs 41 times in 1896.

The team would play in three home parks in 1896. Athletic Park, their home since 1889, was only a block west of the main business district. Businessmen long eyed the property and in May the park was sold and the Millers were given 30 days’ notice to vacate.7 Fortunately, they had a long road trip and three weeks to locate a plot of land and erect a ballpark. Their first game at their new park in south Minneapolis was on June 19. Initially called Wright Field, it quickly became known as Nicollet Park and would remain their home for the next 60 years. However, because baseball games weren’t allowed on Sundays in Nicollet Park’s neighborhood, Sunday games continued to be played at Minnehaha Park until the issue was settled in 1909. Overall, their record was 12–5 at Athletic Park, 7–3 at Minnehaha Park and 35–9 at Nicollet Park, giving Minneapolis an outstanding 54–17 home record in 1896. They outscored opponents 668–396 at home. St. Paul, the Millers’ Twin City rivals, also had an outstanding home record of 51–17–3 and outscored opponents 866–494 at home during 1896.

While the reasons for the home dominance of the Twin Cities clubs are largely unexplainable, the reasons for the high run totals across the league are a bit clearer. Small ballparks throughout the league led to many extra base hits and baserunners were extremely aggressive. Instances of teams having eight or more extra-base hits or eight or more stolen bases in a single game are too numerous to mention.

Stolen base totals should be taken with some skepticism and can vary widely depending on the source. The definition of the stolen base wasn’t narrowed until 1898, and baserunners were often credited with a stolen base when advancing an extra base on a teammate’s hit. Judging by the high assist totals by the outfielders, runners often tried for an extra base when it was unwise. Fields were not as well manicured as today, nor fielders as skilled. A few players still played barehanded, and gloves were small with little padding or webbing.

The change in the pitching distance to 60 feet, 6 inches was several years in the past but pitchers were still adjusting. It ended the career of several major league pitchers, and it is not unreasonable to assume that minor-league pitchers faced an even more difficult and lengthy adjustment. Pitchers often had more bases on balls than strikeouts, and wild pitches and hit batters were numerous. Home teams usually batted first and thus batted in the top of the ninth inning with a lead, often adding to their run total. Pitchers were expected to finish their games and often tired in the later innings. With a lead, it was not unusual for them to ease up and gave up a few meaningless runs. A 12–7 win counted just the same as a 12–2 win.

The 1896 Western League season saw multiple clubs post long winning streaks. Early in the season Detroit won 12 straight games followed by a tie. St. Paul would reel off a 16-game streak between July 5 and July 22, followed by a tie on July 23. The Millers would top both these streaks. Between August 8 and September 15, they would win 36 of 38 games to turn a four-game deficit into a 12-game lead. They waltzed to the pennant. The streak began with 11 straight wins before a loss to Kansas City in the second game of a double-header on August 19. Another 19 wins in a row followed. A loss at Grand Rapids on September 11, by one run in eight innings, ended the streak. No reason was given in the press for the short game. Another six straight wins followed. Hutchison led with 12 wins in 14 decisions during the streak. Figgemeier and Parker each had 10 wins, Baker added three, and Anderson one. The Millers’ final record was 89–47–4 even though they lost seven of their last nine games.

By winning the pennant, the Millers qualified for the tournament for a trophy sponsored by the Detroit Free Press. They would face the second-place Indianapolis Hoosiers, a team they had beaten by nine games. The best-of-seven series started immediately after the end of the regular season. Fortunately for the Millers, they finished their season in Columbus, so they had only a short train ride to Indianapolis for the first game on September 24. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t help, as they dropped the opener behind Parker, 9–7, and the second game behind Figgemeier, 19–7. Hutchison stopped the losing funk (nine losses in the last 11 games) with a 6–3 win in Game Three.

The series switched to Minneapolis and the Millers tied the series with a 7–6 win in Game Four behind Parker. Hutchison shut out the Hoosiers on four hits in game five, 4–0. On October 1, the season ended with a 13–11 Millers win in Game Six. Figgemeier started the game and was replaced after two innings with the game tied, 5–5. Parker pitched the final seven innings.

The Millers would not be able to repeat their success. Several players moved on, some to the major leagues. They lost over 90 games each of the next two years. After the Western League was rechristened the American League and included a Minneapolis entry for the single year of 1900, Minneapolis became a charter member of the American Association in 1902. They would not see another pennant until they won three in a row (1910–12) when managed by “Pongo Joe” Cantillon, who would stay on as manager for 14 years, during which time the Millers captured four pennants and finished as league runner-up three teams. Cantillon was also a part owner of the team with his brother Mike and a revolving cast of investors.

RICH ARPI is a reference librarian and archival cataloger for the Ramsey County Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has been a SABR member since 1982 and is an active member in Minnesota’s Halsey Hall Chapter, giving numerous presentations on Minnesota baseball history over the years. He has been active in several SABR committees and written several biographies for the BioProject, articles for The National Pastime, and book reviews for various SABR committee newsletters.

 

Notes

1 Since the Spalding and Reach Guides provide only limited player and team statistics, I compiled my own from the box scores in the St. Paul Globe, the Minneapolis Tribune, and The Sporting News. Baseball-Reference provides only rosters for the 1896 Western League season.

2 “Great Team Won First Pennant for Minneapolis,” Minneapolis Journal, September 26, 1910. The article recaps the 1896 season, and details that the team “got hold of two ‘finds’ that year, Deacon Hutton and ‘Deacon’ Rice. Anson predicted that Rice would be the greatest pitcher in America.” From the use of quotation marks in the article, one must assume “Deacon” was not Rice’s real first name, but none other has been discovered.

3 Some sources credit Hutchison with a 38–14 record. His 37–12 record in his 49 complete games should not be in question. Of his other six appearances the Millers only won two of those games. On August 26, he was knocked out in the second inning trailing, 6–1. The Millers won the game, 11–10. On June 4, he pitched the final two innings in relief of Egyptian Healy, entering the game with an 8–4 lead. On July 15, he was clearly the loser, taken out after three innings trailing, 8–2, in a 10–3 loss. On May 9, he was taken out after eight innings with a 14–13 lead. Bill Carney gave up the final seven runs in a 20–14 loss. On May 22, he pitched the final inning of a 7–5 loss, entering the game when the score was 7–4.

4 Larry DeFillipo, “Frank Figgemeier,” SABR BioProject, accessed July 1, 2024, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/frank-figgemeier/. The Minor League Encyclopedia lists Figgenmeier with a 17–3 record.

5 DeFillipo, “Frank Figgemeier.”

6 On August 9, Parker relieved Figgemeier in the ninth inning and got the final three outs after Figgemeier had allowed two runs to tie the score. The Millers won the game with a run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Figgemeier was granted the win under scoring rules of the time. Modern rules, if applied, would have given Parker the victory and 11 straight wins. Figgemeier’s streak would have ended at nine wins.

7 Stew Thornley, “Athletic Park (Minneapolis),” SABR BioProject, accessed July 1, 2024, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/athletic-park-minneapolis/.

8 Henry Chadwick, ed., Spalding’s Base Ball Guide and Official League Book for 1896 (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1896), 133.