Twin Cities Rivalry Feeds New York Rivalry, 1946–57

 

During the years following World War II, the minor leagues evolved to a formal affiliated status with the American and National Leagues. This was especially true in the American Association. The Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints became affiliated with the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, respectively. St. Paul began its affiliation with Brooklyn in 1944. In 1945, the St. Paul staff included 19-year-old Ralph Branca, who went 6–5 with a pair of shutouts for the fourth-place Saints. The following season, Minneapolis began its affiliation with the Giants, and for 12 seasons, the rivals in Minnesota fed players to the New York teams fighting for National League supremacy.

In 1946, St. Paul had the early lead in the American Association. Their shortstop was Gene Mauch, the Dodgers farmhand who would gain notoriety as a major-league manager. The Saints faltered in July and August, finishing the season in third place, four games ahead of the fourth-place Millers.

Wes Westrum joined Minneapolis in 1947. The catcher had served three years in the military during the war and, after a season at Jacksonville in the Class A South Atlantic League, batted .294 with 22 home runs and 87 RBIs for the Millers in 1947, getting a late season call-up to the Giants. Duke Snider had started that season with the Dodgers but needed more seasoning. He joined the Saints in July, put together a 15-game hitting streak, and batted .316 before heading back to Brooklyn in September.1 On August 16, Westrum and Snider each homered as Minneapolis defeated St. Paul, 16–7.2 In his last appearances with the Saints in a doubleheader on September 3, Snider belted two homers, two triples, and a single.3 One of his victims was Marv Grissom, who posted a 9–16 record for the Millers, but had greater success later in the big leagues, winning 47 games and saving 57 in a 10-year career, mostly as a reliever and mostly with the New York and San Francisco Giants, with brief stops with the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals. He went 10–7 with a 2.35 ERA and 17 saves in 56 appearances for the Giants in 1954, when they won the World Series.4

In 1948, the Saints improved to 86–68, finishing third and earning a playoff berth. In the postseason they defeated Indianapolis and Columbus to claim the league title. They advanced to the Junior World Series, which was an all-Dodgers affair, Brooklyn’s International League affiliate, Montreal, defeating the Saints, four games to one.

One month into the 1948 season, the Saints became the first team in the American Association to break the color barrier. Roy Campanella, who had started the season with the Dodgers and had played in only three games, joined St. Paul on May 18.5 He was with the Saints for 35 games and made a remarkable contribution to the team, hitting 13 homers and batting .325, a performance that earned him a promotion on July 1. He would never return to the minors.

In 1949, the Millers acquired two players from the New York Cubans of the Negro American League. Ray Dandridge, who would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987, batted .362 in his first American Association season at the age of 35. In his four seasons with the Millers, he batted over .300 on three occasions, but never got a call-up. His age worked against him. Dave Barnhill was another player who never got a promotion. In three seasons with Minneapolis, he went 24–18, but, like Dandridge, he was 35 when he first put on a Minneapolis uniform. Despite the presence of Dandridge and Barnhill, the Millers posted a 74–78 record, good for fourth place.

St. Paul integrated further in 1949 with the acquisition of Jim Pendleton from the Chicago American Giants. Although Pendleton performed well in St. Paul, batting .300 or more in two of his three seasons with the Saints, the Dodgers did not have an opening in their outfield for him. Brooklyn traded him to the Braves prior to their first season in Milwaukee, 1953, and he spent parts of eight seasons in the National League.

With Pendleton in the lineup, the 1949 Saints finished first in the league with a 93–60–1 record. Walter Alston was the manager and standouts included infielder Danny O’Connell, who batted .314, and pitcher Clem Labine, who posted a 12–6 record in 64 appearances. After the season, the Dodgers were hungry for cash and the Pirates sent $50,000 to Brooklyn as part of a deal for O’Connell. Labine made it to Brooklyn in 1950 and, after a couple of seasons splitting his time between the minors and majors, was with the Dodgers to stay in 1952. In 13 big-league seasons, he was 77–56 with 94 saves.

The 1950 Millers were the class of the American Association, posting a 90–64 record and finishing in first place. 27-year-old Hoyt Wilhelm went 15–11. Barnhill, in his second year in the Twin Cities, posted an 11–3 record with 128 strikeouts in 140 innings. Davy Williams led the league in runs scored and joined the Giants during their pennant-winning 1951 season. Dandridge was MVP. The Saints also put a good team on the field in 1950, finishing in fourth place in the eight-team league with an 83–69 record. Their lineup included George Shuba, who rotated between St. Paul, Montreal, and Brooklyn. The lineup also featured All-Stars Jim Pendleton and Lou Limmer.

In 1951, two players destined for a Rookie of the Year Award spent part of the season in the Twin Cities. Willie Mays started the year with Minneapolis and tore up opposing pitchers. His average stood at .477 in 35 games when he joined the Giants in May. Pitcher Joe Black played a portion of the year with St. Paul. The following season, he joined the Dodgers and won the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

St. Paul’s Don Hoak found success once he left the Dodgers organization. He batted only .257 in 126 games with St. Paul in 1951 but would go on to play a part in two World Series titles. After playing a supporting role in Brooklyn’s 1955 win, he earned himself another ring with the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. The durable third baseman did not miss a single game in 1959 and 1960 with Pittsburgh.

Sandy Amoros exploded for the Saints in 1952. He batted a team-high .337 and led St. Paul with 19 home runs. Patrolling the outfield with Amoros was Gino Cimoli, who batted .319. The third outfielder was Bill Sharman, better known today for his exploits as a player, coach, and general manager in the NBA. Bob Wilson, who had played in the Negro Leagues, was at third base for the Saints, batting .334. He finally earned a cup of coffee with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. The Saints finished in third place that year, a game ahead of the Millers.

Neither team was in contention in 1953, but they each featured players who would advance to their parent clubs. Ray Katt was in his third season with Minneapolis and batted .326 in 114 games behind the plate. He was part of New York’s championship team in 1954. Don Zimmer was at shortstop for the Saints in 1953 and batted .300 in 81 games. On July 7 at Columbus, his season ended abruptly when an errant pitch struck him in the head, breaking his skull.6 The following season, after batting .291 in 73 games, he joined the Dodgers.

A couple of newcomers were in the lineup for the Saints in 1954. Charlie Neal was at second base and played in 146 games, batting .272. Dick Williams, who had played briefly with Brooklyn in each of the three prior seasons, played 49 games with St. Paul in 1954, batting .247. His major-league playing career lasted for parts of 13 seasons. He joined the managerial ranks in 1967 and led the Boston Red Sox to the American League pennant that year. His Hall of Fame credentials were earned in Oakland, where he led the A’s to three straight division titles and two American League pennants in 1971–73, as well as the World Series title in the last two of those years.

In early August 1954, the Dodgers optioned Bob Milliken to St. Paul. He had posted a modest 13–6 record in two years in Brooklyn, and the Dodgers wanted him to get more work. Besides, they wanted to look at one of their Montreal pitchers, Tommy Lasorda.

Although the Giants had a great 1954, their Minneapolis affiliate could do no better than third place and a first-round loss in the playoffs. They had few players who would succeed at the major-league level. Ramón Monzant (11–7) led the pitching staff. In parts of six big-league seasons, he was 16–21.

The Millers put things into high gear in 1955, finishing in first place in the regular season (92–62–2) and sweeping through the playoffs to the American Association title. In the Junior World Series, they defeated Rochester, champions of the International League.

A couple of players who had earned great fame during their time in New York were finishing their careers in Minneapolis. Monte Irvin, who’d started his career with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League in 1938, batted in 121 runs for the 1951 Giants as they won the National League pennant. In his last full season with the Giants in 1954, he was part of their championship team. In 1955, Irvin batted .352 with the Millers. The other Minneapolis player that year with ties to the Giants-Dodgers rivalry was Branca, back in the Twin Cities 10 years after he’d pitched for the Saints. He had won 21 games with the Dodgers in 1947. He went 3–3 for the Millers in 1955.

St. Paul’s 1955 roster included first baseman Norm Larker, a three-year standout for the Saints. He batted .302 in 1955 and followed that up with averages of .309 and .323. But he never got to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. By the time he made it to the majors, the Dodgers were in Los Angeles. His best year there was 1960, when he batted .323.

Willie Kirkland arrived in Minneapolis for a handful of games in 1955. He blossomed in 1956, batting .293 with 37 home runs and 120 RBIs. He also stole 15 bases. He was slated for bigger things in 1957 but got his draft notice and missed the entire season. He finally caught up with the big-league team in 1958, when he joined the Giants in San Francisco.

In 1956, the Millers moved into Metropolitan Stadium, located south of Minneapolis. On April 25, Kirkland hit the first Millers home run at the new ballpark. Bill White homered the following day. White joined the Giants a month into the season and hit 22 home runs and batted .256. His best years were with in St. Louis. In his time with the Cardinals, he played in eight All-Star games and was a key player on the Cardinals’ 1964 championship team.

The last year the Twin Cities teams would be affiliated with Brooklyn and New York was 1957. That season, St. Paul featured power hitting Don Demeter, who had 28 home runs to go with a .309 batting average. Demeter never caught on with the Dodgers, and they traded him to Philadelphia early in 1961. In 1962 with the Phillies, he had 29 home runs, 107 RBIs, and a .307 batting average. St. Paul finished in fourth place and won the first round of the playoffs before losing the league championship series.

The Millers lineup included four players who joined the Giants the following season, but not in New York. In August 1957, the Giants announced that they were moving to San Francisco the next season, and it was in San Francisco where Orlando Cepeda, Jim Davenport, Felipe Alou, and Bob Schmidt became starters in 1958. The Millers finished the season with an 85–69 record.

In 1958, the Giants switched their Triple-A affiliation to Phoenix and Minneapolis became a Red Sox affiliate. The Saints continued their affiliation with the Dodgers through 1960 and sent the likes of Jim Gentile, Ron Fairly, and Bob Aspromonte to Los Angeles. But with the migration and expansion of the big leagues, the era of Triple-A rivalries grabbing the headlines in newspapers in the Twin Cities was drawing to a close. And the door was slammed shut when the Twins debuted in 1961, displacing both the Millers and the Saints. Instead of watching prospects like Snider, Campanella, and Mays develop and move on, Minnesotans could cheer for the likes of Killebrew, Oliva, and Carew during their prime.

ALAN COHEN chairs the BioProject fact-checking committee, and is a datacaster (MiLB stringer) with the Eastern League Hartford Yard Goats. He also works with the Retrosheet Negro Leagues project and serves on SABR’s Negro League Committee. His biographies, game stories, and essays have appeared in more than 70 baseball-related publications. He has four children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, and resides in Connecticut with his wife Frances, their cats Zoe and Ava, and their dog Buddy.

 

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the endnotes, the author used Baseball Reference, and

Johnson, Lloyd and Miles Wolff, eds. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd ed. Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2007.

Thornley, Stew. “Twin Cities had True Rivalry in Early 1900s.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 25, 1999: C11.

 

Notes

1 Tom Briere, “Seeger Says Club is Still for Sale,” Minneapolis Daily Times, July 30, 1947, 11.

2 “Millers Take a Batfest,” Kansas City Star, August 17, 1947, 24.

3 Bob Beebe, “Hurling Slips, Millers Falter,” Minneapolis Star, September 4, 1947, 37.

4 Save totals prior to 1969, when the rule was adopted, have been calculated retroactively by baseball researchers. see “Save,” Baseball Reference, undated, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Save.

5 “St. Paul Gets Campanella, Negro Ace, from Brooks,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 18, 1948, 15.

6 “Zimmer Beaned, Saints Fall 7–4,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, July 8, 1953, 21.