The first game played in a new ballpark is always noteworthy. Minneapolis Millers manager Eddie Stanky helped ensure that the Millers’ debut in their new home in suburban Bloomington was memorable.

After playing the first six games of the 1956 American Association season on the road, the Millers returned home to christen the yet-to-be-named ballpark in a game against the Wichita Braves.

The Millers, who had won the American Association title and the Junior World Series in 1955, featured a young lineup. Stanky’s batting order for the home opener had an average age of 24. Three of the starters – Joey Amalfitano, Bill White, and Willie Kirkland – were 22. Starting pitcher Jim Constable, who was starting his third consecutive Millers home opener, was 23.

Wichita, which was in its first season in the American Association after relocating from Toledo, brought a 2-5 record into the game. The Millers were 3-3.

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon (it was 56 degrees at the game’s 2:30 P.M. start), an American Association record crowd of 18,366 was “thoroughly entertained, however, by more than umpires’ decisions.”2

Wichita left-hander Charlie Gorin, who was 10-12 with a 4.15 earned-run average for Toledo in 1955, pitched a complete game in the Braves’ 5-3 victory. Gorin allowed just six hits and two earned runs to earn his first victory of the season. He struck out five while overcoming seven walks.

The Braves, who had 10 hits off Constable and four Millers relievers, opened the scoring in the first inning on a double to right-center by Vin Garcia and a single by Bob Thorpe.

The Millers got the run back in the third inning when Amalfitano walked, stole second, and scored on White’s single to right.

The Braves scored twice in the tumultuous fifth inning. Bob Hazle walked and Joe Koppe reached on an error by Millers third baseman Ozzie Virgil on a potential double-play grounder. Garcia struck out but Hazle scored and Koppe took third on Thorpe’s single to right.

With Billy Queen batting, Koppe broke for home. Millers catcher Vern Rapp took Constable’s pitch “and made a great glove-hand stab to tag out Koppe.”3

Home-plate umpire Bob Phillips initially signaled Koppe out. That brought Wichita manager George Selkirk out of the dugout. After conferring with third-base umpire John Mullen, Phillips changed his call and signaled that Koppe was safe.

Stanky rushed out to argue. Phillips and Mullen conversed again, and Phillips reversed his call and again ruled Koppe out.

That brought a return of Selkirk. The two umpires again conversed, and Phillips again changed his call. This ruling was final: Koppe was safe, which gave the Braves a 3-1 lead.

That brought Stanky, who had been ejected 27 times during his 11-year major-league playing career and 16 times during his time (1952-55) as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, for an encore that eventually saw him “set the record for drop-kicking his baseball cap after he had slammed it to the ground.”4

Stanky and catcher Rapp were both ejected by Phillips.

“I hated to get run out of my first game in Minneapolis, but I couldn’t help it,” said Stanky.5

Apparently the disagreement was fueled when Phillips misheard Selkirk’s original argument.

“I protested on the basis of catcher Vern Rapp of Minneapolis dropping the ball, and Phillips thought I was asking for a balk to be called,” Selkirk said.6

That is why Phillips changed his call the first time. After Stanky objected to that, Phillips said, “Then I went down to ask John [Mullen] if he had called a balk.”7

Mullen told Phillips he hadn’t called a balk, so Phillips called Koppe out again.

Selkirk then told Phillips, “I didn’t say he balked, he dropped the ball.”8

Phillips went back to Mullen and asked him if Rapp had dropped the ball. Mullen said he had.

After the game, Mullen said, “Phillips wasn’t in a position to see the ball, so I reversed the decision when I saw that Rapp dropped the ball.”9

Rapp acknowledged that he had dropped the ball, “but after I held it long enough for the putout.”10

Stanky, who had managed the St. Louis Cardinals for 3½ seasons before being fired in late May of 1955, said after the game, “I hate indecision on the baseball field. I can excuse young umpires for indecision, but we had an experienced group, including chief umpire John Mullen. I hate passing the buck. I’m glad this happened in the presence of league president Ed Doherty.”11

The Millers regrouped and scored two runs in the sixth inning to tie the score. After Virgil reached on an error, Jake Jensen, who had replaced Rapp after Rapp was ejected, hit a long home run to left center. It was his first home run of the season.

The Braves regained the lead with two runs in the eighth inning. Ed McHugh singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch, and Ben Taylor singled and eventually scored on a squeeze-play bunt by Koppe.

Gorin shut down the Millers over the final three innings.

“Charlie Gorin had good stuff,” said Selkirk, who spent nine seasons in the major leagues with the New York Yankees. “He used his fastball and curve to advantage; this was his first start since coming down from Milwaukee. We used him in relief for an inning last week against Omaha. Gorin never had much luck against Minneapolis in that bandbox at Nicollet Park. But it’s a lot different pitching in this beautiful park. We used to throw the bunt and squeeze out the window at Nicollet. Here you can play baseball like it should be played.”12

Gorin said, “I pitched only 2⅔ innings in spring training with Milwaukee, so I’m a little wild. This is a great place to pitch in, quite a bit different than Nicollet Park.13

Thorpe had three hits and Hazle had two for the Braves. Jenkins, the only Miller with more than one hit, was 2-for-2.

Doherty, who spent nearly 50 years in professional baseball including 7½ as the president of the American Association before becoming the first general manager of the “second” Washington Senators, enjoyed the day despite the controversy. He said, “This is one of the greatest days in my life, a chance to see stands filled with baseball fans cheering for two minor league teams.”14

Longtime Minneapolis sportswriter Halsey Hall summed up the day by mentioning perhaps the oldest fan in attendance: “Probably no one in the crowd or anywhere else could match the record held by John McHugh, who lives at the Masonic home. McHugh, formerly of Red Wing, [Minnesota,] is a jolly 98 and he played in the first game he ever saw. That, mind you, was in 1878. ‘I was a catcher,’ he recalled in his ground floor box seat right in back of home plate. ‘See.’ And, with a chuckle he showed twisted fingers. ‘Yes, it’s better now, certainly for the catchers. We didn’t have much protection.’”15

The Play of Four Decisions still fell short of a greater rhubarb at the Millers’ previous home in 1932.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, Retrosheet.org, and sabr.org.

Notes

1 The new stadium did not become Metropolitan Stadium until July 1956.

2 Tom Briere, “Gorin Stingy with 6 Hits,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 25, 1956: 13.

3 Briere: 15.

4 Briere: 15.

5 Bob Beebe, “Umpire Claims Two Decisions,” Minneapolis Star, April 25, 1956: 69.

6 “Voice-by-Voice on Play at Plate,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 25, 1956: 16.

7 “Voice-by-Voice on Play at Plate.”

8 “Voice-by-Voice on Play at Plate.”

9 Sid Hartman, “Umps Indecision Irritates Stanky,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 25, 1956: 14.

10 Hartman, “Umps Indecision.”

11 Hartman, “Umps Indecision.”

12 Sid Hartman, “Selkirk Hails the Return of ‘Baseball,’” Minneapolis Tribune, April 25, 1956: 15.

13 Hartman, “Selkirk Hails the Return of ‘Baseball.’”

14 “One of Greatest Days of My Life: Doherty,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 25, 1956: 16.

15 Halsey Hall, “Major Openers,” Minneapolis Star, April 25, 1956: 70.

Only 21,690 of the planned 30,000 seats were installed in time for the game. Undaunted, Millers business manager George Brophy expressed confidence that fans would buy as many as 2,000 standing-room tickets to congregate behind the chain-link outfield fences for the third annual Giants-Millers showdown.4 Alas, just 142 fans invested in the $1.10 SRO ducats, including a group who took in the action while seated on wooden crates behind the right-field boundary.5 In all, 21,832 fans paid to see the game. Workers spent the days and hours before the game touching up paint and preparing for the largest crowd ever to assemble for a baseball game in the Upper Midwest.6 The final number for the $100,000 scoreboard was put in place just an hour before the first pitch.7

The towering, triple-decked stadium didn’t rise from 164 acres of farmland8 to accommodate the Triple-A Millers. They were merely short-term tenants whose residency (and existence) might expire at any time. The easily expandable ballpark was erected to sell Major League Baseball on the viability of Minneapolis as a major-league city, and the exhibition was a chance to show how good it looked with big-league talent on the field.

Giants owner Horace Stoneham vented publicly about his displeasure with his club’s New York home, the Polo Grounds, and, like Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, he lobbied for a new ballpark while threatening relocation. A move to Minneapolis made sense. The Giants owned the Millers, so supplanting them would be a simple in-house transaction. On a boozy night in a Minneapolis hotel suite in January of 1954, he allegedly told Brophy and other Millers employees that he had plans to move the Giants to Minneapolis as part of a scheme that would also relocate the Cincinnati Redlegs to New York.9 A year and a half later, Minnesota’s major-league-ready ballpark beckoned.

A move to the Minneapolis metropolitan area was an enticing proposition for many reasons in 1956. With a population approaching 1.5 million, the Twin Cities metropolitan area was growing quickly and had established its baseball bona fides, supporting two top-notch American Association clubs for more than 50 years. The Millers won the American Association pennant and the Junior World Series in 1955. The University of Minnesota baseball team was on a roll in 1956, too.

Just days before the Giants-Millers game, the Gophers defeated Ohio University to advance to the College World Series, a tournament they would win a week later. Minnesota’s politicians and titans of business lobbied aggressively for the Twin Cities to join the roster of major-league cities. Newspaper coverage of the exhibition made it clear that the Giants were the primary target of the campaign to replace the Millers.

Stoneham had flown into Bloomington for Opening Day in April, the first game ever played at the new ballpark, and he would return for its dedication game on June 27, but he skipped the exhibition. Instead, the Giants sent a clutch of executives to Bloomington to attend the game and attend to some urgent business beforehand. Vice president Chub Feeney, farm director Carl Hubbell, and chief scout Tom Sheehan met up with rookie Giants manager Bill Rigney the day before the exhibition. The group huddled with Millers general manager Rosy Ryan for much of the afternoon to discuss potential trades.

The Giants needed help. They’d slumped into Minnesota as losers of nine of their previous 12 games, in sixth place, nine games under .500, and 8½ games behind the first-place Cardinals, Pirates, and Redlegs.10 The exhibition provided the New York club a brief but much-needed respite from major-league competition.

Eager though the fans may have been to see the Giants, “it was a late crowd that came from all over the state” for the 8:00 P.M. start, according to Minneapolis Star and Morning Tribune executive sports editor Charles Johnson. “There were slowdowns in traffic and some late arrivals in the stands, but the combined efforts of police, sheriffs, civilian defense, Shriners and private individuals took it in stride to move more than 9,000 cars into the huge parking area with much less delay than anyone expected.”11 Once settled in their seats, they witnessed a good game.

The Millers initiated the scoring with a long Gail Harris home run to right off Ramon Monzant in the second inning. In the fourth, Al Dark doubled for the Giants and Willie Mays followed with “a towering blast which cleared the left field fence and landed at the base of the outer fence up a high embankment,” according to Bob Beebe. It was the farthest Mays had hit a ball in 1956 and his first home run since May 15.12

Mays famously spent a little more than a month with the Millers five years earlier, abusing American Association pitching to the tune of a .477/.524/.799 slash line in 35 games to force his ascension to the Giants at age 20. On this night, of the 16 Giants to appear in the game, the “Say Hey Kid” was one of 13 who had previously played for the Millers.13 Additionally, rookie Giants manager Rigney was the Millers player-manager in 1954-55 and Sheehan pitched for the team in 1931 and managed them from 1939 to 1943 and in 1946-47.

Most in the crowd had come to watch Mays, and he delivered again in the sixth, crushing his second circuit clout of the game to punctuate the two-run inning. The Millers responded in the seventh, plating three runs to tie via Willie Kirkland and Bob Lennon singles, a fielder’s choice grounder by Willie Harris, and Jake Jenkins’s homer. The Giants answered with a run in both the eighth and ninth innings, and knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm stymied the Millers to lock down the 6-4 win for the big leaguers.

Although the Minneapolis club lost on the field, its new home won over all the right people and secured a victory for the future of baseball in the Twin Cities. Joe King of the New York World Telegram asserted from his seat in the press box, “If Horace Stoneham had this Bloomington stadium in New York, just as it is, mind you, he’d draw over 1,250,000 people” per season. “Nobody likes to go to the Polo Grounds,” he continued. “It’s a freak and it’s rather old and run down.”14

Giants players were likewise impressed, stopping short of besmirching their New York home while drawing a clear distinction. “Great lights,” said outfielder Dusty Rhodes. His compatriot George Wilson completed the sentiment, “Yeah, easy to pick up the ball in the outfield.”15 In the next morning’s Minneapolis Tribune, sportswriter Sid Hartman quoted King, who echoed what Twin Cities locals insisted: “The folks here are in the big league business now because they have the stadium. If the Giants aren’t forced to come here, another team may gratefully take advantage of the facilities.”16

Notes

1 The new stadium did not become Metropolitan Stadium until July 1956.

2 Jim Klobuchar, “Bloomington Stadium Nears Readiness for Miller Opener,” St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times, April 9, 1956: 5.

3 Bob Beebe, “Triple-Decked Stadium Is a Construction ‘Miracle,’” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, April 22, 1956: 16.

4 Donald Brostrom, “Record 23,000 to See Millers Play Giants,” Minneapolis Star, June 7, 1956: 1.

5 Bonham Cross, photographer, “Giants Fill Stadium – and Then Some,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, June 8, 1956: 18.

6 Charles Johnson, “21,832 See Stadium Pass Another Test,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, June 8, 1956: 1D.

7 Bob Beebe, “White: Never Can Let Down in Major League,” Minneapolis Star, June 8, 1956: 4D.

8 Pat Borzi, “The Giants Almost Headed Not Quite So Far West,” New York Times, June 17, 2005.

9 Jay Weiner, Stadium Games: Fifty Years of Big League Greed and Bush League Boondoggles (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 11.

10 Chris Kieran, “Wanted: Some Hits! Giants in the Market,” New York Daily News, June 7, 1956: C24.

11 Charles Johnson, “21,832 See Stadium Pass Another Test,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, June 8, 1956: 43.

12 Bob Beebe, “Millers, Giants Both Profit from Game,” Minneapolis Star, June 8, 1956: 43.

13 Bob Beebe, “White: Never Can Let Down in Major League.”

14 Halsey Hall, “Stadium, as Is, Would Attract 1,296,000 in New York,” Minneapolis Star, June 8, 1956: 1D.

15 Hall.

16 Sid Hartman, “Stadium Praised; Move Speculated,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, June 8, 1956: 24, 26.

As the first season of play at Metropolitan Stadium neared its end in 1956, the Minneapolis Millers continued a tradition from Nicollet Park days by holding an “Appreciation Night” on August 27, when they played the Omaha Cardinals. In previous years the event showed appreciation for the team members by presenting them with gifts, but this time it was billed as “Stadium Appreciation Night,” with fans urged to turn out “in appreciation of the 1956 Millers and also in appreciation of the first season in the new stadium.”1

The ballpark didn’t receive any gifts that night, but all the players and team staff members did, with such goodies as a box of fishing plugs (given to manager Eddie Stanky), an electric frying pan (Ed Bressoud, Ozzie Virgil), socks (Dick Strahs), and a steam iron (business manager George Brophy).2 That was part of a 90-minute pregame show that included a celebrity slow-pitch softball game (in which Minneapolis Lakers basketball great George Mikan hit a home run), a 100-yard race between Millers outfielder Gil Coan and a horse (given a 20-yard head start, Coan held on to win), an exhibition by golf trick-shot artist Chuck Lewis and his daughter Linda, an award of a plaque to Dick Siebert, coach of the University of Minnesota’s 1956 College World Series champions, and the presentation of a $1,000 savings bond to Patricia Healy in honor of her winning essay in the “Name-the-Stadium” contest.3 One event had to be called off: Millers catcher Vern Rapp was slated to try to catch a baseball dropped out of a Navy helicopter from 600 feet above the field, but the chopper was sidelined with “motor trouble.”4

One of the pregame events went into the history books, if only briefly, as Millers outfielder Don Grate extended his own world record for the longest baseball throw.

Grate was a two-sport star at Ohio State during World War II. He was twice named second-team All-America in basketball and was selected for the 1944 US Olympic team (although the Olympics were canceled because of World War II). He also played baseball for the Buckeyes and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies after his junior year in 1945, going straight to the big leagues as a pitcher.

Grate was hit hard in his first two appearances in the majors and was sent to the minors, but he returned to the Phillies in September and got another call-up in September 1946. In what turned out to be his final big-league appearance in 1946, “something snapped” in his pitching shoulder.5 He bounced around the minors for four years after that, then got a job as a high-school teacher and basketball coach and filed his voluntary retirement from baseball.

But Grate changed his mind and gave baseball another shot after the school year ended, when he was acquired by Chattanooga of the Southern Association. Not long after joining the team in 1951, he asked for a chance to play the outfield, and when he hit two inside-the-park home runs in his first game in the garden, his days on the mound were essentially over.6

Despite the injury that diminished his pitching ability, Grate still had a fine arm, which he showed off before Chattanooga’s final game of the season in 1952. In a pregame exhibition he made a throw measured at 434 feet, 1 inch, the longest ever recorded. And he extended his record the next year with a heave of 443 feet, 3½ inches.

Grate spent five seasons in Chattanooga before moving up to Louisville of the American Association in 1956. In June of that year he was traded to Minneapolis, and on August 27, his 33rd birthday, the Millers gave him a chance to break his own record again.

“Tell the folks I can’t be sure [about breaking the record],” Grate told the Minneapolis Star. “I’ve been pitching a lot of batting practice lately and working off that mound is very different from the outfield throw.”7

The center-field fence was 405 feet from home plate. A gate in the wire fence was opened to give Grate a six-step running head start on his throws. “Don fired two almost to the stands,” Halsey Hall wrote in the next day’s Minneapolis Star. “And then he hurled one that landed in Chuck Lewis’ golf bag dead against the box seat backstop.”8

The throw was measured at 445 feet, 1 inch – a new record. But the fact that it landed in the golf bag may have kept it from going even farther. “That [throw] hit eight or ten feet up on the backstop,” Grate said years later. “They only measured it to the bottom of the backstop. You should probably add another 10 or 15 feet to it.”9

Grate may have been exaggerating how much farther his throw would have gone, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced he was the rightful holder of the longest-throw record, even after another American Association outfielder, Glen Gorbous, broke the mark by 9 inches with a throw of 445 feet, 10 inches in Omaha on August 1, 1957. (No one has attempted to top Gorbous’s record since.) “I felt I threw it further even though it wasn’t the official record,” Grate said in 2006.10

For the record, Don Grate’s gifts on “Appreciation Night” were slacks and walking shorts.

Once the golf bag and the horse and the frying pans had cleared the field, the 10,620 fans settled in to watch the Millers’ Roger Bowman pitch a five-hit shutout in a 2-0 win. Bowman, a 29-year-old veteran with 50 major-league appearances under his belt, had been purchased from Buffalo of the International League two weeks earlier.11

“I did that the hard way,” Bowman said. “Seemed like I was always behind the hitters three and nothing and three and one [he walked four in the game].” He primarily threw his curveball and slider: “I could count the fastballs I threw on my two hands.”12

The Millers scored twice against Omaha’s Ed Mayer. Singles by Gail Harris and Willie Kirkland and a sacrifice fly by Jake Jenkins produced the first run in the second inning. Then in the fifth, Bowman led off with a double, moved to third on a single by Wayne Terwilliger, and scored on a single by Rapp, pinch-hitting for Coan.

The Cardinals brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning, but the Millers’ third double play of the night ended the game. That put the Millers two games ahead of Omaha for third place in the American Association, although that lead soon disappeared; Omaha went 11-3 the rest of the way to finish third, and the Millers were 6-10 down the stretch.

Sources

Game stories from the Minneapolis Tribune and Minneapolis Star were accessed via Newspapers.com. The author has written more about Don Grate in a blog post, “The history of the record for baseball’s longest throw, a tale that involves John Hatfield, Honus Wagner, Sheldon Lejeune, Hugh McMullan, Don Grate, Rocky Colavito and Glen Gorbous, among others” prestonjg.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/the-history-of-the-record-for-baseballs-longest-thrown-a-tale-that-involves-john-hatfield-honus-wagner-sheldon-lejeune-don-grate-rocky-colavito-and-glen-gorbous-among-others.

Notes

1 “Grate Eyes New Mark at ‘Appreciation Night,’” Minneapolis Tribune, August 16, 1956: 19.

2 The full list of gifts appears in “Grate Breaks Own Baseball Toss Mark,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 28, 1956: 14.

3 Halsey Hall, “Grate Was Set to ‘Try for 400,’” Minneapolis Star, August 28, 1956: 11B. The full program was outlined in “Arm, Running Debate ‘Settled,’” Minneapolis Star, August 27, 1956: 13B.

4 “Grate Breaks Own Baseball Toss Mark,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 28, 1956: 14. The helicopter stunt was an attempt to break a record set in 1908, when Gabby Street of the Washington Senators caught a ball that was thrown from the top of the Washington Monument, 555 feet high.

5 Kevin T. Czerwinski, “Chattanooga outfielder had Grate-est arm.” milb.com/news/minor-leaguer-don-grate-had-historically-great-arm-311376544.

6 Wirt Gammon, “Grate Hits Two Homers, but Chicks Pound Five Triples for 15-7 Victory,” Chattanooga Times, July 11, 1951: 13. See also Shirley Povich, “Nats High on Lofty Grate as Outfielder,” The Sporting News, March 12, 1952: 4.

7 “Arm, Running Debate ‘Settled,’” Minneapolis Star, August 27, 1956: 13B.

8 Halsey Hall, “Grate Was Set to ‘Try for 400.’” Hall also contributed to The Sporting News, and in the September 5 issue of that publication he wrote that Grate made five throws before breaking the record. Halsey Hall, “Grate Throws Ball 445 Feet, One Inch to Set New Record,” The Sporting News, September 5, 1956: 30. Hall also served as master of ceremonies for the “Appreciation Night” proceedings.

9 Steven P. Gietschier, “The Longest Throw,” greenfieldhistoricalsociety.org/The%20Longest%20Throw.pdf.

10 Kevin T. Czerwinski, “Chattanooga Outfielder Had Grate-est Arm.” milb.com/news/minor-leaguer-don-grate-had-historically-great-arm-311376544. This post is dated November 1, 2019, but it’s a repost of a story that was first posted in 2006, when Grate threw out the first pitch at a Florida Marlins game on the 50th anniversary of his longest throw; note that Grate, born in 1923, was referred to as being 83 years old. Grate had lived in Miami since 1963 and died in 2014.

11 Tom Briere, “Millers Buy Vet Bowman of Buffalo,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 12, 1956: S1.

12 Bob Beebe, “Bowman ‘Does It Hard Way’ for Clutch Miller Shutout,” Minneapolis Star, August 28, 1956: 11B.

The Milwaukee Braves and the Minneapolis Millers were both optimistic heading into their 1957 seasons.

The Braves, who had finished one game behind National League champion Brooklyn in 1956, were the favorite to win the 1957 pennant, according to an Associated Press poll.

“The club looks good,” said Braves manager Fred Haney, “I feel we have a club that can win this year.”1

The Millers, who finished fourth in the American Association in 1956 – their first season at Metropolitan Stadium, were looking for improvement in 1957 with a lineup that featured Felipe Alou, Orlando Cepeda, and Jim Davenport.

Three days before the Braves and Millers were scheduled to open their respective seasons on the road – the Braves in Chicago and the Millers in Indianapolis – they stopped by Metropolitan Stadium for an exhibition tune-up.

The Braves, who trained in Bradenton, Florida, broke their training camp on April 2 and played exhibitions in Jacksonville, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita, and Topeka before reaching Minnesota with a 19-10 exhibition record. The Braves were the third major-league team – following the New York Giants and Cleveland Indians in 1956 – to play an exhibition game against the Millers at Metropolitan Stadium.

The Millers, who trained in Sanford, Florida (just outside of Orlando), were 12-6-2 in Florida exhibitions – a record that was highlighted by Alou’s .360 batting average and Cepeda’s .356 average with 20 runs batted in.

The Braves had a simple approach going into the Saturday afternoon game against the Millers.

“It was a cold day,” said Braves pitcher Lew Burdette. “Our big interest was trying to get the game over as fast as we could.”2

With a game-time temperature of 36 degrees, the Braves used their regular lineup except for third baseman Eddie Mathews, who was in New York for a promotional date. The Braves were managed in Minneapolis by coach Charlie Rootbecause Haney was at his home in Milwaukee recuperating from the flu.

The teams met Burdette’s goal by playing the game in an efficient, 1 hour 57 minutes.

Braves pitchers Bob Buhl, Warren Spahn. and Burdette combined to hold the Millers hitless for 8⅓ innings before hanging on for a 4-3 victory.

Buhl, a right-hander who had a won-lost record of 18-8 with a 3.32 earned-run average for the Braves in 1956, breezed through the first three innings, allowing two baserunners, issuing walks to Cepeda in the second and Alou in the third.

Spahn, who was 20-11 in 1956 (his seventh season of winning 20 or more games since 1947), allowed just one baserunner in the middle three innings. He walked Davenport with one out in the fourth inning but then coaxed Carlos Paula to hit an inning-ending double-play grounder.

Burdette, who was 19-10 with a 2.70 ERA and NL-leading six shutouts in 1956 and was 62-37 with the Braves since they relocated from Boston before the 1953 season, took over in the seventh. The Millers got a baserunner after a Braves error with two outs in the seventh, but Cepeda flied out to right for the third out.

Burdette retired the Millers in order in the eighth and retired pinch-hitter Lee Tate on a fly ball to left for the first out in the ninth.

Millers shortstop Eddie Bressoud then topped a ball down the third-base line and beat third baseman Felix Mantilla’s throw for Minneapolis’s first hit, then went to second on Mantilla’s throwing error. Wayne Terwilliger reached on infield hit, and Bressoud took third.

Davenport’s sacrifice fly to center scored Bressoud to make the score 4-1. Paula then drove a low slider from Burdette over the left-field fence and it was 4-3, Braves.

Burdette regrouped and got Cepeda to ground out for the final out.

“Actually, we weren’t paying any attention to the fact they didn’t have a hit,” Burdette said. “The no-hitters don’t mean anything in spring training and especially when three pitchers have thrown.”3

Burdette said the pitch to Paula was a mistake.

“Funny thing about Paula’s home run,” he said. “[Catcher] Carl Sawatski signaled for a curveball. As I started to wind up, I forgot what he had asked for. So, I let go of a nothing ball and Paula hit it out of the park.”4

The Braves built their 4-0 lead off Millers starter Joe Shipley, who was a month shy of his 22nd birthday and was 8-19 in 1956 with Johnstown in the Class A Eastern League, and veteran Mike Blyzka.

The Braves opened the scoring with a run in the first on successive doubles by Henry Aaron, who had led the NL with a .328 batting average in 1956, and Bobby Thomson. The Braves extended their lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning on Johnny Logan’s single and Bill Bruton’s 330-foot home run over the right-field screen.

Wes Covington’s line-drive home run to right in the seventh inning made it 4-0.

Blyzka allowed only two hits and one run in three innings before Webbo Clarke pitched the ninth for Minneapolis. Clarke allowed one hit.

Bruton, who was 2-for-4, and Thomson, who was 2-for-2, paced Milwaukee’s 11-hit attack.

Despite the loss, Millers first-year manager Red Davis was not disappointed by his team.

“Don’t forget,” Davis said, “we were looking at the three best pitchers in the National League. There’s no disgrace to be shut out by those guys. And we came back in the ninth to scare ’em. I still like our club.”5

Millers general manager Rosy Ryan was pleased with the game and the crowd.

“Imagine close to 10,000 people (9,972) turning out on a day as cold as this,” said Ryan. “I felt we’d be lucky if 5,500 showed up.

“The Milwaukee club kept every promise. They pitched Burdette, Spahn, and Buhl, the three aces, and they put on a real good show. Our club? I was very satisfied. It was a good start for us, and I think the fans liked what they saw.”6

After the game, the Braves returned to Milwaukee for an exhibition game the next day against the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland won, 5-4.

Spahn pitched the Braves to a 4-1 victory over the Cubs in their regular-season opener. The Braves opened the season with five victories and 12 victories in their first 15 games, and went on to win the NL pennant with a 95-59 record. The Braves finished eight games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals.

The Millers did show improvement in their second season in Metropolitan Stadium. They went 85-69 (seven more victories than in 1956) to finish in third place in the American Association. Wichita, the Braves’ top minor-league affiliate, won the AA title with a 93-61 record. The Denver Bears, a New York Yankees farm team, finished in second with a 90-64 record. The Millers were swept by Denver in the playoffs.

One of the highlights for the Millers in 1957 was the play of Cepeda. The 19-year-old first baseman hit .309 with 25 home runs and 108 RBIs. Cepeda moved up to the San Francisco Giants in 1958, the start of a 17-season Hall of Fame career.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, Retrosheet.org and sabr.org.

Notes

1 Associated Press, “Haney: Braves Ready to Win,” Minneapolis Star, April 13, 1957: 12A.

2 Sid Hartman, “Thompson Here; Majors Is Aim,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, April 14, 1957: 33.

3 Hartman.

4 Hartman.

5 Hartman.

6 Hartman.

Polled in the April 30, 1957, issue of the Minneapolis Tribune1 about the Minneapolis Millers’ prospects for the season, six fans split down the middle: Three were optimistic, two pessimistic, and one said it was too early to tell. (The Millers had played 13 games at the time, winning six.) The optimists were more correct, as the club placed third in the Triple-A American Association at 85-69. The pessimist who noted their lack of pop with the bat had a last laugh: They scored only six runs in four games in the first round of the postseason league playoffs and were swept by Denver.

More prescient yet was the fan who liked the look of 19-year-old first baseman Orlando Cepeda, who was making the jump from the Giants’ Class C affiliate at St. Cloud, Minnesota, to Minneapolis, the top of New York’s chain. The kid had started the season 1-for-18 but then had adjusted and was hitting .318, with power.2

The Millers’ immediate prospects were about to improve – the first-place Wichita Braves, who had just taken two of three, were leaving town, and the last-place Louisville Colonels, losers of eight of their first 10, were coming in.

Metropolitan Stadium had opened on April 24, 1956, on its Bloomington ex-cornfield, and with more cornfields still adjacent. Its seating capacity of 18,200 was a fraction of the 45,000 to which it would eventually be expanded,3 but the 2,325 who made the trip to the ’burbs on April 30, an unseasonably warm Tuesday night (80 degrees at the 8:00 P.M. game time), would find it spacious.

Millers starter Al Corwin was 30 years old and in the second, declining half of a professional career spanning 13 seasons. Unbeknownst to him, his big-league career, spent entirely with the Giants, had concluded in 1955 with a cumulative record of 18 wins and 10 losses in 117 games in which he pitched 289⅓ innings and posted a 3.98 earned-run average.4

Corwin had thrown a complete-game, 14-1 win at the Colonels the previous week in Louisville. His mound opponent, Marion “Murph” Murszewski, another minor-league vet, would shuffle between three stops in 1957, pitching only five games in Louisville before demotion to Double A.

Recent history was in this case a poor guide to predicting the course of the game of April 30. The Colonels roughed up Corwin. Clarence Moore’s leadoff triple in the first inning turned into a run when the outfield relay got away from Millers third baseman Jim Davenport. Three consecutive singles and a double-play grounder brought in two more in the second. A walk, a single, another triple by Moore, and a final single in the fourth finished Corwin. Murszewski meanwhile allowed only Don Grate’s solo home run through the first four.

Second baseman Wayne Terwilliger began the Millers comeback in the fifth, doubling home two, and two more in the sixth finished Murszewski’s night and cut the Millers’ deficit to one run. Reliever Harry Fisher surrendered the tying run in the seventh on a walk, a sacrifice, and a single before Cepeda homered over the 405-foot sign in center field, the deepest part of the ballpark. Joe Shipley, a 22-year-old making the jump from Class A Springfield (Massachusetts), was meanwhile in the course of four innings of shutout relief for the Millers.

Two more unsuccessful relievers allowed four more Millers runs in the eighth, two on another Terwilliger double, which perhaps allowed the veteran infielder to consider his two errors on the night as balanced out. Working with a 12-6 lead in the ninth, Shipley started the inning with a walk and a hit batsman, and both runners came in on a single and pair of infield outs before he closed out the inning and the game.5

With the Kentucky Derby coming up, the Louisville Courier-Journal of May 1 dolefully reported the blown lead but gave no space to commentary on the Colonels’ showing. The Minneapolis Star was naturally far more upbeat: “Millers Kids Star in Rally for 12-8 Victory,”6 referring to Shipley and Cepeda, with additional kudos for 25-year-old shortstop Ed Bressoud, who handled 11 chances and started three double plays. Staff writer Bob Beebe’s game summary dubbed Cepeda “Feets” (a shoe-size reference?) and noted that the young slugger now had three hits in the last week that gave the Millers late-inning leads. Columnist Charles Johnson was especially impressed with “Feets”:

“Orlando Cepeda boomed a line drive home run over the centerfield fence at Metropolitan stadium Tuesday night. It was one of the hardest hit balls smacked in the new plant. His batting performance on this occasion could become typical of his nightly efforts. He boasts tremendous brute strength. When he gets his bat on the ball, it travels. Last night’s home run fairly exploded.”7

With the Star also reporting that injured regulars Carlos Paula and Bob Schmidt were now fit to play, and that general manager Rosy Ryan expected the parent Giants to shortly send pitching help, all was on the upswing for the Millers.

Not everyone was a fan of Metropolitan Stadium, however, as the Star also reported. Bloomington’s streets were not ready for prime time:

“Steps to meet the traffic problem which develops in Bloomington when some 4,500 cars leave Metropolitan stadium at once are being studied by stadium and village officials. … The traffic problem at the new stadium is complicated because the suburb’s street program is in a rapid state of change and expansion.”8

Frequent complaints about stadium traffic from nearby residents produced promises by the village of Bloomington to upgrade and expand surrounding commercial avenues and protect residential streets with barriers, and by the stadium’s officials to provide information to fans on parking, streets, and exit routes.

Six springs after a 20-year-old Willie Mays had wowed Millers fans in his brief sojourn in a Minneapolis uniform, Cepeda, though the Giants decided he needed an entire Triple-A season under his belt, displayed the “can’t miss” talent that made him the 1958 National League Rookie of the Year.

Notes

1 “Just Ask: Do the Minneapolis Millers Look Like a Pennant Contender?” Minneapolis Tribune, April 30, 1957: 18.

2 Bob Beebe, “Cepeda’s Hitting Surge Bright Spot for Millers,” Minneapolis Star, April 30, 1957: 13B.

3 stadiumsofprofootball.com/stadiums/metropolitan-stadium/.

4 baseball-reference.com/players/c/corwial01.shtml.

5 Bob Beebe, “Colonels Blow Big Early Lead, Bow to Minneapolis 12 to 8,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 1, 1957: Sec.2, 4.

6 Bob Beebe, “Shipley Earns More Work; Three ‘Wins’ for Cepeda,” Minneapolis Star, May 1, 1957: 1F.

7 Charles Johnson, “Lowdown on Sports,” Minneapolis Star, May 1, 1957: 1F.

8 “Solution Is Sought for Stadium Traffic,” Minneapolis Star, May 1, 1957” 1C.

It was a spring day in name only as the cold rain and wind held the crowd down to 2,359.

In the first game, Wichita, the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Braves, struck first and often, scoring eight runs in the first inning against Gene Bearden and Joe Shipley. Shipley calmed down and shut down the Braves after the first inning. He also led a comeback with his bat.

Wichita’s Joe Koppe led off the game with a walk. After Harry Hanebrink doubled to right field, Ray Shearer struck out. Wes Covington’s wind-blown double to right field scoring the two runners. Bobby Malkmus homered to left field, making it 4-0. A triple by Bob Talbot and the second two-run homer of the inning, this one by Earl Hersh, made the score 6-0 and finished off Bearden. Minneapolis manager Red Davis summoned Shipley into the game and, at first, he poured kerosene on the fire. After getting Mike Roarke for the second out of the inning, he walked pitcher Bob Trowbridge and gave up a single to Koppe. Hanebrink’s second double of the inning brought Trowbridge home, and Shearer singled Koppe home with Wichita’s final tally.

Minneapolis, the top farm club of the New York Giants, started to chip away at the lead in the bottom of the second inning. With Bob Schmidt and Jim Davenport on base, Shipley came to the plate and homered off Trowbridge. An inning later, Bill Taylor singled and came home on Schmidt’s homer. Later in the third inning, Shipley singled Eddie Bressoud home to make the score 8-6, and Trowbridge was finished for the day.

Wichita manager Ben Geraghty brought in Bobby Ross, who retired the side without any further scoring. But Minneapolis tied the game in the fourth inning. With Taylor at bat, catcher Roarke was unable to handle strike three and Taylor raced to first base. He was forced at second by Orlando Cepeda, who came home on Schmidt’s second homer in as many innings.

Shipley and Ross then got down to business and there was no scoring from the fifth inning through the ninth. However, each team did threaten. In the sixth inning, Henry Thompson of the Millers tried to score from first on a double by Taylor but was thrown out at home when Koppe at shortstop relayed center fielder Talbot’s throw to catcher Roarke. In the ninth, Wichita seemed to have an opportunity when Talbot doubled to right field with Malkmus on first base. Malkmus rounded third and tried to score but was gunned down as Thompson’s throw was relayed to catcher Schmidt by Wayne Terwilliger.

“It was so cold and rainy in the outfield I wanted to end it. I hit the first pitch; I think it was supposed to be a breaking ball, but it was up high.” — Minneapolis outfielder Don Grate2

The game went into extra innings. Shipley put up another goose egg in the top of the 10th and the Millers came to bat. Ross retired Davenport and Carlos Paula, batting for Shipley. Up stepped Don Grate, who was cold and wanted to go to the warmer confines of the clubhouse. He settled the encounter with a homer on the first pitch.

The win went to Shipley and was his third of the season against no losses. The 22-year-old appeared in 18 games with Minneapolis, only three as a starter, going 4-1, before being optioned to Springfield of the Class A Eastern League on June 21. With Springfield he started 16 of his 17 appearances and went 5-8. Over the next three seasons he was up and down between the Giants and the minors, getting into 26 games without a decision. In 1961 and 1962 he bounced around the minor leagues, briefly getting back to the majors with the White Sox in 1963, going 0-1 in three appearances.

Ross took the loss, bringing his record to 1-2. His career in Organized Baseball had begun at the tender age of 16 in 1945. Like Shipley, he was in the big leagues for just a short while, pitching parts of three seasons and going 0-2 in 20 games. By 1957 he was no longer a prospect. He finished the season with a 2-6 record at Wichita. Three years later, he was out of baseball.

In the second game, the Millers again came from behind to win the seven-inning game, getting their first hits and scoring two runs in the last of the seventh to win 2-1 against Wichita’s Joey Jay, who had pitched a perfect game through six innings.

Minneapolis manager Davis was a career minor leaguer, except for 21 games at third base with the New York Giants in 1941. He broke in with Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in the Class D Pennsylvania State Association in 1935 and was still playing minor-league ball in 1954. He had become a player manager in 1949 and was still at it in 1976, putting together a won-lost record of 1,927-1,845.

Wichita manager Ben Geraghty began his professional career at the major-league level, playing for the Dodgers right out of Villanova University in 1936. An infielder, he played parts of three seasons in the majors. He was with Spokane on June 24, 1946, when a life-changing moment occurred. The team bus was involved in a horrific crash that killed nine members of the team. Geraghty was named the team manager, replacing Mel Cole, who had perished in the crash.

SABR biographer Rory Costello tells us, “In the disaster’s aftermath, he developed unusual psychological gifts, rooted in his trauma. ‘This deepened perception was what made Ben Geraghty a great manager and a great man,’ [Pat] Jordan wrote [in A False Spring].” His best year as a manager was 1953, when he led a Jacksonville team that included 19-year-old Hank Aaron to a 93-44 record in the South Atlantic League. But the cost of Geraghty’s success was high. “To remain a manager, he had to do what scared him most – continue to ride buses.” In May 1959, a bus brought him to Minneapolis. A heart attack killed him in 1963, aged just 50.3

Sharing the sports page in the Minneapolis Star that evening in May was a story that would have a far more significant on several of the players in the games played on May 26. It was reported that the New York Giants would move to San Francisco, the Brooklyn Dodgers would move to Los Angeles, and the Cincinnati Reds would move to New York.4 Although the Reds stayed put, the other moves did take place.

In 1958 three Millers players who spent the 1957 season in Minneapolis would take the field in San Francisco on Opening Day.

Bob Schmidt, who homered twice in the win over Wichita and had nine homers at Metropolitan Stadium in 1957, was behind the plate for the Giants and played three full seasons in San Francisco. In 1961 he was traded to Cincinnati for Ed Bailey. Later in his career, he was with Washington and on June 1, 1962, returned to Metropolitan Stadium and homered off Jim Kaat.

Jim Davenport, who went 1-for-5, was anchored at third base for 13 seasons. In his best season, 1962, he batted .297, was named to the All-Star team, and won a Gold Glove as the Giants played in the World Series for the first time since moving to San Francisco.

Although Orlando Cepeda went 0-for-5 against Wichita, he did hit 14 homers at Metropolitan Stadium in 1957. He went on to a great major-league career. He was the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1958, was chosen for the National League All-Star team in seven seasons, and in his MVP season of 1967 led the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series championship. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Of the Wichita players, perhaps Covington had the most noteworthy career. He had first played with the Braves in 1956, batting .283 in 75 games. In 1957 he got off to a terrible start with Milwaukee. The Braves had no room for him in their outfield, and he was batting .143 in limited pinch-hitting opportunities. On May 12 he was sent to Wichita and, after batting .265 in 32 games, returned to Milwaukee. He played 11 major-league seasons, his best year being with the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he batted .303 with 17 homers and 64 RBIs in 1963.

The Millers, after getting to within a half-game of the league lead, were not able to sustain the momentum. However, Red Davis’s squad finished third in the standings and advanced to the league playoffs. They were swept by the Denver Bears in four games.

The next season, 1958, the Giants moved their Triple-A team to Phoenix, and Minneapolis became the home of the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate for three seasons.

Sources

In addition to Baseball-Reference.com, the author used the sources cited in the notes and the following:

Briere, Tom. “Millers Beat Wichita 9-8, 2-1; Half Game Out of First,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 27, 1957: 28.

Notes

1 Bob Beebe, “Shipley Hero; Millers Near Top in Fantastic Twin Bill,” Minneapolis Star, May 27, 1957: 17B.

2 “Chilled Grate Turns on ‘Heat’ for Victory,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 27, 1957: 28.

3 Rory Costello, “Ben Geraghty,” SABR BioProject.

4 “N.L. Airs Three-Club Shift on Tuesday?” Minneapolis Star, May 27, 1957: 28.

“Minor league nothing,” Stoneham replied. “This is a real major league park, and you’ll have major league ball here in the near future.”1

A major-league tenant was still four years in the future but in August 1957, the ballpark moved closer to that result when it played host to two major-league teams for the first time. In the first two seasons in Bloomington, the Millers had played four exhibition games against major-league teams (the New York Giants in 1956 and 1957, the Cleveland Indians in 1956, and the Milwaukee Braves in April 1957).

In a harbinger of things to come, the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers visited Met Stadium in August 1957 for the first game in twentieth-century Minnesota featuring two major-league teams.

The Reds and Tigers each came to town as fourth-place teams. The Reds (58-46), who were 4½ games behind the National League-leading St. Louis Cardinals, had played a doubleheader with the New York Giants at home the previous day. The Giants won the first game, 7-6, in 14 innings before the Reds salvaged a split with a 3-2 victory in the second game.

The Tigers (50-52), who were a distant 18½ games behind the first-place New York Yankees, had lost to the Washington Senators, 8-4, in Washington the previous day.

After the doubleheader split, the Reds were 4-5 in their last nine games and the Tigers had lost three straight and five of seven heading into the exhibition.

A Minneapolis columnist wrote before the game, “While both will receive tidy guarantees for their efforts, they were reluctant to take on an exhibition game at this important stage of their pennant races.”2

But the two teams made a favorable impression on the crowd of 21,689 – a record for a baseball game played in Minnesota – as the Tigers, managed by Jack Tighe, outlasted the Reds, managed by Birdie Tebbetts, 6-5.

The game featured 10 players who had played in the All-Star Game the previous July 9 in St. Louis, won by the American League, 6-5. Tigers pitcher Jim Bunning was the winning pitcher.

“Too often, major league clubs in exhibitions just go through the motions of playing the game, taking the public’s money and giving the minimum in effort. Not Detroit and Cincinnati. They went all out. The two managers got every player of note into action before the nine innings were up,” observed a sportswriter.3

The Reds opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning. Rookie outfielder Joe Taylor doubled off Tigers starter Billy Hoeft and scored on Don Hoak’s two-out single. The Reds wouldn’t score again until the ninth inning as Tigers relievers Duke Maas and Al Aber limited the. to two hits over the next six innings.

Reds starter Art Fowler, a one-time Miller, held the Tigers hitless into the fifth before running into trouble. With one out in the fifth the Tigers tied the score on consecutive singles by Red Wilson and future Twins Bill Tuttle and Reno Bertoia.

The Tigers were just getting started. They had 11 hits in their final four at-bats. The Tigers chased Fowler in the sixth inning with six consecutive singles, which delivered three runs and gave them a 4-1 lead.

The Tigers extended their lead to 6-1 with two runs in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by Harvey Kuenn and a two-out single by John Groth.

A Reds comeback in the bottom of the ninth fell one run short.

Pinch-hitter Ed Bailey drew a walk from Aber, who was beginning his fifth inning of relief. Jerry Lynch’s double scored Bailey. After Wally Post lined out for the first out, Lynch scored on Pete Whisenant’s single to make it 6-3. George Crowe followed with a two-run home run and pulled the Reds to within 6-5.

Frank Lary relieved Aber and ended the threat by striking out Smoky Burgess and retiring Alex Grammas on a fly to left.

“I knew Detroit’s 6-1 lead wasn’t safe against our club,” said Tebbetts. “We can explode any time. I thought we’d win it until Lary got Smoky Burgess, a really tough hitter, on that curveball in the ninth.”4

Groth had three hits and Kuenn had two for the Tigers, who outhit the Reds 14-7. All of the Tigers’ hits were singles. Seven players each had one hit for the Reds.

Minneapolis Tribune columnist Dick Cullum wrote, “There was only one reason why the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Redlegs accepted the invitation to play a midseason game in Minneapolis. They wanted to do something for baseball.”5

The Tigers also did something for their themselves during their one-day stay in town. They signed University of Minnesota shortstop George Thomas. Thomas, who was a sophomore for the Gophers in 1957, agreed to a $25,000 bonus, which would be paid over the next three years.

The Tigers told Thomas, the younger brother of Jerry Thomas, who was a key member of the Gophers pitching staff when they won their first College World Series title in 1956, that he would be placed on their active roster on September 1. Commissioner Ford Frick had recently issued a directive that bonus signees didn’t have to join their clubs immediately (as former Gopher Jerry Kindall did when he signed in 1956).

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, Retrosheet.org, and sabr.org.

Notes

1 Sid Hartman, “Stoneham Praises Stadium, Predicts Major League Ball Soon,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 24, 1956: 14.

2 Charles Johnson, “Lowdown on Sports,” Minneapolis Star, August 5, 1957: 11B.

3 Johnson, “Major Leaguers Go All Out to Please,” Minneapolis Star, August 6, 1957: 10B.

4 “Kuenn Will Play Leftfield,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 6, 1957: 17.

5 Dick Cullum, “Tigers, Redlegs Boost Baseball,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 6, 1957: 17.

The parade was the idea of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce as a way to introduce fans to an entirely new 1958 Millers team.

When the Millers’ parent club, the New York Giants, announced they were moving to San Francisco for the 1958 season, the Boston Red Sox swapped ownership of their top farm team, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, for the Millers, enabling the Giants to move into San Francisco.

Gone with that club were such familiar names as Orlando Cepeda, Jim Davenport, Ed Bressoud, Bobby Hofman, Wayne Terwilliger, Foster Castleman, Hank Thompson, Felipe Alou, Stu Miller, Pete Burnside, and Al Corwin.

The new Millers, who complied a 5-2 road record before coming home to Minneapolis, featured a mix of veterans and promising rookies including Dean Stone, Lou Clinton, Bill Monbouquette, Tom Umphlett, Faye Throneberry, Art Schult, Ed Sadowski, Jerry Zimmerman, and Green, a  6-foot, 175-pound 23-year-old shortstop from the San Francisco Bay area.

Green, born in Boley, Oklahoma, and named Elijah Jerry at birth, came from an athletic family. His brother, Cornell, was a longtime starting safety for the Dallas Cowboys in their early years in the National Football League. The family moved to Richmond, California, when he was a child.

By the time he reached Minnesota, Green had already made stops in Wenatchee, Washington; Stockton, California; Albany, New York; Oklahoma City, and San Francisco. He was purchased from Stockton by the Red Sox in 1955 and immediately showed good fielding skills and a strong arm while playing mostly at shortstop.

He spent most of the 1957 season at Oklahoma City, where he hit .258 with 3 home runs, 38 runs batted in, and 10 stolen bases.

The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and the Minneapolis Minutemen, a local sports booster group, reflected the general disdain of local fans in their dislike for the Giants, who were being strongly courted to relocate to the new Metropolitan Stadium (opened in 1956) in suburban Bloomington. The stadium was built to attract a major-league team, and the logical team was the Giants.

The Chamber and the Minutemen wanted to show the major leagues that they had snubbed a logical candidate for either expansion or relocation. With the strong support of the local media, they mounted an aggressive drive for a large Opening Day crowd.

Millers business manager George Brophy said more than 10,000 tickets were sold for the opener, but the combination of cold weather and a strong wind held actual attendance to a league-best 8,513. For the season the Millers drew a total attendance of 152,533, an average of 1,994 per game.

The most direct route from Minneapolis to the ballpark went past Lake Nokomis and down Cedar Avenue, through Richfield into Bloomington. Most of the land between 66th Street and the ballpark was still farmland. Fans headed for the game listened to the number one hit on WDGY (1130 AM), “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” by British 14-year-old Lorrie London.

Meanwhile, at the ballpark, Gene Mauch, a 32-year-old in just his second stint as a manager, worked on his starting lineup against Louisville Colonel lefty Ron Babkoff.

Despite a slow start at the plate, Mauch (2-for-28) penciled his own name into the starting lineup, batting sixth and playing third base.

Umphlett, a fleet center fielder, was the leadoff hitter, followed by Green at shortstop, Throneberry in right field batting third, first baseman Frank Kellert fourth, and slugger Schult in right field batting fifth in front of Mauch.

Second baseman Harry Malmberg hit seventh, followed by catcher Sadowski and starting pitcher Jack Spring.

As the Millers were called from the dugout for the pregame introductions, the largest ovation, according to local columnist Dick Cullum, was directed at Green.2

African-American players were not unusual in Millers starting lineups. Future Hall of Famers Ray Dandridge, Willie Mays, and Monte Irvin had all spent time starring for the Millers since Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier in 1947.

By 1957 most major-league teams featured Black players in their starting lineups. Larry Doby, a Cleveland outfielder, became the first Black player in the American League in 1947.

Ten years later it was a rarity for a major-league team to not have a Black player, but the Red Sox were beginning to draw attention for their lack of color. It was not a question of if so much as when, and a look at the Red Sox minor-league system quickly identified Green as the most logical prospect.

That speculation proved correct when Green was called up in midseason of 1959, making the Red Sox the final major-league team to integrate. Green made his major-league debut on July 21, 1959, as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz. Less than a week later, his Millers teammate, African-American starting pitcher Earl Wilson, was called up to join Green with the Red Sox.

Things got off to a bad start for the Millers in the 1958 opener. After a scoreless first inning Louisville took advantage of starter Jack Spring’s wildness. Louisville shortstop Frank Di Prima’s double gave his team a 4-0 lead.

The damage could have been worse in the third when Spring walked two batters and was clearly struggling with his control.

Mauch summoned veteran Harry Dorish from the bullpen. Outfielder Jim Pyburn lined a Dorish pitch to the outfield gap, but Umphlett made a diving catch that Louisville manager Del Wilber later called the defensive play of the game.3

Hitless in two innings against Babkoff, the Millers loaded the bases in the third on a double by Sadowski, a walk to Dorish, and Umphlett’s single. Not wanting to walk in a run, Babkoff grooved a pitch that Green lined solidly over the 380-foot sign in left-center to tie the game.

“First bases-loaded homer I’ve ever hit,” Green told reporters after the game. “I was guessing fast ball all right, and I knew it was good for a base hit between the outfielders … but I didn’t think it was going over the fence.”4

An inning later Malmberg gave the Millers a 5-4 lead with his first home run of the season.

The Millers added a sixth run in the fifth on a single by Throneberry, a hit-and-run single by Kellert, and Schult’s fielder’s-choice grounder to third.

In the sixth the Millers put the game out of reach with four more runs. Malmberg reached base on the second error by Louisville third baseman Bob Barron. Sadowski followed with a single, and Dorish drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Umphlett doubled to right and Green’s infield hit scored Sadowski. Throneberry was walked intentionally. A balk, a walk to Kellert, and a double by Schult gave the Millers a 10-4 lead.

The Millers went on to win the game 11-6. Umphlett, Green, and Sadowski had two hits each, and Green led the attack with five runs batted in.

Dorish pitched six innings in relief, giving up on four hits and two earned runs while walking one and striking out three. Tom Hurd relieved a tiring Dorish in the ninth and recorded the final two outs.

After the game Wilber told Minneapolis Tribune sportswriter Sid Hartman that he would pick the Millers as the favorite to win the American Association title. “These Millers have power,” he said. “They showed it to you today. To have a good club you need speed, defense, pitching and power. Minneapolis has them all.”5

Miller Notes:

Wilber’s prediction turned out to be accurate. The Millers finished with an 82-71 record. They defeated the Wichita Braves four games to two in the first round of the playoffs and swept the Denver Bears four games to none in the final round.

Under close scrutiny by the Red Sox, Green finished the season with a .253 batting average, 6 home runs, and 43 runs batted in. He did show an excellent batting eye, leading the league with 107 walks. He was hitting .320 in 98 games when he was called up in 1959.

Mauch made his major-league managing debut at age 34 in 1960 with the Philadelphia Phillies. His major-league managing career spanned 26 years, including a return to Met Stadium as the Twins manager from 1976 to 1980.

Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx, one of Mauch’s coaches, had some first impressions of Metropolitan Stadium. In the course of his major-league career he had a .325 batting average with 534 home runs. His last plate appearance was in 1945. Asked what he thought of the Met, he told Minneapolis Star sportswriter Jim Byrne, “I’d like to hit in this ballpark, especially when the wind is blowing like it was today. Now, I guess it’d be better if I did the hittin’ and let someone else do the runnin’.”6

Notes

1 “Pumpsie’s Car Runs Out of Gas,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 23, 1958: 19.

2 Dick Cullum, “Cullum’s Column: Millers Have First-Raters,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 23, 1958: 19.

3 “Hurlers ‘Surround’ Tom – Umphlett Pitcher’s Friend,” Minneapolis Star, April 23, 1958: 1F.

4 “Grand Slam Is Green’s First,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 23, 1958: 19.

5 Sid Hartman, “Umphlett Save Was Key, Claims Wilber,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 23, 1958: 19.

6 Jim Byrne, “Miller ‘Musclemen’ Happy; Foxx Wants to Hit,” Minneapolis Star, April 23, 1958: 1F.

June 15 was both Father’s Day and the trading deadline, and the Minneapolis Millers hosted the Indianapolis Indians in a doubleheader at Metropolitan Stadium. In front of 3,069 spectators, the teams split two games. Indianapolis won the opener, 8-0, before Minneapolis discovered home plate in time to win the nightcap, 8-4.

“The kid had a good slider today. He was difficult to hit.” – Minneapolis center fielder Tom Umphlett, speaking of Indianapolis pitcher Carl Thomas1

In the first game, Carl Thomas was on the mound for Indianapolis, then affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. It was as if the team’s manager, Walker Cooper, used a roulette wheel to determine his starting pitcher. Twenty-one different pitchers were used in 1958 by Indianapolis, and seven pitchers started 10 or more games. Thomas had lost his prior four decisions. The offense was a blend of young and old from 19-year-old Johnny Callison to 43-year-old player-manager Cooper. And the roster included a player on loan from the Washington Senators. (The Senators did not field a Triple-A team in 1958.) But on this day, Thomas went all the way, shutting out Minneapolis, making it 25 consecutive scoreless innings for the Millers’ batters. Thomas’s Indianapolis mates supported him with 13 hits, including four home runs.

Bert Thiel was on the mound for the Millers. The 32-year-old had been around since 1947, and Minneapolis was his eighth minor-league stop. He had pitched very briefly with the Boston Braves in 1952. His major-league career consisted of four appearances and a total of seven innings pitched.

It didn’t take long for Indianapolis to solve Thiel. Second-inning homers by John Romano and Harmon Killebrew staked Thomas to a 2-0 lead, and the Indians added another run in the third on a single by Callison. Callison drove in Ted Beard, who had reached base with one of his three hits in the twin bill. Romano’s homer broke a 0-for-20 slump. Thiel left the game for a pinch-hitter, Lou Clinton, in the bottom of the third inning.

Killebrew, a future Hall of Famer, was having a bad season so far. Wrote The Sporting News, “the [Indianapolis] Indians finally gave up on Harmon Killebrew.”2 For Killebrew, on loan from the Senators, it was only his second homer of the season. His batting average was .215 in 38 games, and by the end of the day the one-time bonus baby had been sent to Chattanooga, Washington’s affiliate in the Double-A Southern Association, in exchange for third baseman Stan Roseboro. Killebrew was a victim of the Bonus Rule of 1953-57, under which talented players signed to bonus contracts wound up sitting on major-league benches. Roseboro had been around for a while. He first gained notice as a sandlot player in the Pacific Northwest in 1945, playing in an All-Star game to determine Seattle’s representative for the annual Esquire’s All-American Boys Baseball Game in New York. He was not selected. He had started playing professionally in 1951.

The Indians piled it on in the middle innings. They victimized Al Schroll for three runs in the fifth inning. Schroll had entered the game in the top of the fourth inning after Thiel left the game for a pinch-hitter. Schroll, after seven minor-league seasons, had begun the 1958 season with the Red Sox but had been sent back down to the minors in May.

The key hit in the fifth-inning rally was a two-out, two-run triple by Callison, driving in Thomas and Beard. Johnny came home on a single by Romano. The Indians bruised Schroll again two innings later. He surrendered two runs on back-to-back homers by Callison and Romano in the seventh inning before giving way to Jack Spring, who pitched scoreless ball in the final two innings for the Millers. Callison’s 12th homer of the season gave him the league lead. Romano’s two homers gave him 11 for the season.

The shutout was preserved in the final innings as shortstop Al Facchini started two double plays. Facchini had gotten his start on the sandlots of Northern California and represented San Francisco in the 1948 Hearst Sandlot Classic in New York before signing with the Boston Braves organization. The infielder, who spent two years in the military during the Korean War, was in his eighth minor-league season. On each of the double plays, he threw to second baseman Bobby Winkles, who relayed the ball to first baseman Joe Altobelli. Both Winkles and Altobelli became big-league managers. The defensive gem of the game was a diving catch by Indianapolis left fielder Eddie Phillips, a career minor leaguer who had had a cup of coffee (nine games) with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953, appearing exclusively as a pinch-runner and scoring four runs.

The winning pitcher, Thomas, a Minneapolis native, allowed singles to Jose Valdivielso, John Lundquist, Spencer “Red” Robbins, and Ed Sadowski, struck out two, and walked not a player in getting his first win of the season, bringing his won-lost record to 1-4. Present at the game was Thomas’s father, Carl Sr., who had pitched in the American Association for St. Paul and Louisville. His son’s win was a fine Father’s Day present. Young Carl wound up the 1958 season with a 9-9 record for Indianapolis. However, he did little to distinguish himself at the next level. He made it to the majors in 1960 with the Cleveland Indians and appeared in four games, all in relief. He pitched a total of 9⅔ innings and had a 1-0 record.

The shutout was the fourth suffered by manager Gene Mauch’s Millers over a span of seven days. Mauch said, “We’ll have a tough time staying in the first division on pitching and defense alone.”3 The team had an abysmal home record through June 15, going 14-20, seven of the losses by shutout, at Metropolitan Stadium. The Millers’ road record was a stellar 23-8, and their overall record placed them third in the American Association, 4½ games behind the league-leading Denver Bears. Minneapolis ended the season in third place as Charleston led the standings. Indianapolis, with the split, finished the day in seventh place. The Indians finished the season in sixth place.

In the playoffs, the Millers excelled. They defeated Wichita in six games, then swept Denver for the league championship.

The batting heroes of the 8-0 Indianapolis win, Johnny Callison and John Romano, each found success at the major-league level, although not with the White Sox. Callison, who finished the 1958 American Association season with 29 homers and 93 runs batted in, was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies after spending parts of the 1958 and 1959 seasons with the White Sox. With Philadelphia for 10 years, he was named to  All-Star teams in 1962, 1964, and 1965, and led the National League in doubles (1966) and triples (1962, 1965). From 1960 to 1968, he played for his Minneapolis manager, Gene Mauch. He finished his career with the New York Yankees and on May 8, 1972, homered off Bert Blyleven at Metropolitan Stadium, becoming one of 28 players to homer at Metropolitan Stadium in both the minor and major leagues.

Romano was another to homer in both the majors and minors at Metropolitan Stadium. After finishing the 1958 American Association season with 25 homers and 89 RBIs, he was called up to the White Sox, where he saw limited action. After the 1959 season, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians, where he broke out in 1961, having his best season. He batted .299 with 21 homers and 80 RBIs and was named to the All-Star team for the first time. His second All-Star Game appearance came the following season when he hit a career-high 25 homers. Of his 129 major-league homers, 11 came at Metropolitan Stadium, the first being off Jack Kralick on May 9, 1962.

And that brings us to the third player who homered on June 15 and came back to homer at Metropolitan Stadium in the big leagues – 246 times. Harmon Killebrew was far from washed up. At Chattanooga he turned things around, batting .308 with 17 homers in 86 games, and he spent the end of the season with the Senators. The next season, 1959, he slammed 42 homers for the Senators and was on the way to the Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 1984. When he retired, Killebrew’s 573 home runs were the most by a right-handed batter in American League history, topping the mark of 524 set by Jimmie Foxx who, in 1958, was the hitting instructor with the Minneapolis Millers. (Foxx had 534 career home runs but 10 were in the National League.)

Sources

In addition to Baseball-Reference.com and the sources shown in the Notes, the author used the following:

Briere, Tom. “Miller Drought Ends with 8-4 Victory after 8-0 Loss,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, June 16, 1958: 23.

Koelling, Lester. “Indians Trade Killebrew for Third New Player in a Week,” Indianapolis News, June 16, 1958: 14.

“Thomas’ Shutout Gives Indians Split,” Indianapolis Star, June 16, 1958: 19.

Notes

1 Sid Hartman, “Hartman’s Roundup: Thomas’ First Game Here Is Shut Out,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, June 16, 1958: 24.

2 The Sporting News, June 25, 1958: 36.

3 Bob Beebe, “Four Shutouts in Week Worry Mauch,” Minneapolis Star, June 16, 1958: 9B.

In 1958 the Red Sox were nearing the end of a decade of mediocrity. They always had a couple of star players, Williams foremost among them, but after the 1950 season, they didn’t contend for a pennant again until 1967. Only in 1951 did they finish less than a dozen games out of first place. The 1958 season was one of their better ones: They had a winning record at season’s end (79-75, 13 games out of first place). The team had yet to field an African-American player. In 1959 Elijah “Pumpsie” Green became the first African American to play for the big-league Red Sox.

On June 15, the Sox had lost both halves of a Sunday home doubleheader to the Kansas City Athletics, 16-7 and 9-4. They were in second place, though, with a 30-28 record and were seven games behind the New York Yankees.3 

Into the 1990s, the Red Sox typically played one in-season exhibition game each year against their top affiliate in the minors.4

They left Boston for Chicago to play the White Sox on Tuesday, June 17, playing the Millers on Monday night. It was a quick visit. Within an hour after the game, they were off to Chicago. But the game was a very eventful one, with 24 runs scored, a Millers win, and some memorable moments.

The game drew very well, bringing 18,368 fans to the ballpark. They didn’t have to wait long for what many hoped most to see. Pitching for the Millers was left-hander Jack Spring. With one out, Pete Runnels singled. Ted Williams took his stance in the batter’s box – facing the “Williams shift.” Spring missed the plate three times in succession; with a 3-and-0 count, he put the next one over and Williams hit it well – a “cloud-scraping” blow over the “small regiment of kids waiting beyond the right field screen.”5 They played him too shallow, said the Associated Press feed. “Ted’s smash dropped near an asphalt runway beyond the fence.”6 It was hit a roughly estimated 410 feet. The fence was at 355 feet, but it passed that and reached a light tower 55 feet beyond that.7

Before the top of the first was done, the Red Sox had scored five runs off Spring. Dick Gernert singled and Gene Stephens drew a walk. Sammy White then doubled in one run, another scoring on a throwing error. Jimmy Piersall singled in the fifth run.

Millers manager Gene Mauch, a teammate of Ted’s from 1956 and 1957, must have assumed this would be par for the course. Managing the Red Sox was Pinky Higgins.

Starting for the Red Sox was Bob “Riverboat” Smith. The southpaw worked the first six innings of the game, not allowing a run through the first four. Al Schroll had replaced Spring after a scoreless second. Neither team scored in the second, third, or fourth. In the bottom of the fifth, the Millers scored twice on Frank Kellert’s single and a home run by Tommy Umphlett over the screen in left field. Schroll allowed only one hit in the four innings he pitched against the big leaguers.

And in the bottom of the sixth, Smith was banged around for six more runs, the biggest blow a two-out, first-pitch bases-clearing triple by Pumpsie Green, batting right-handed against Smith. It gave the Millers an 8-5 lead. Green’s triple to center field was reported at 400 feet.8

With Tom Borland on the mound for the Millers, Boston responded with four runs in the top of the seventh, all thanks to a grand slam over the low right-field fence by first baseman Marty Keough, who had taken over for Dick Gernert. This gave Boston the lead, 9-8.

The lead didn’t last long. Right-hander Willard Nixon pitched the seventh and eighth for the Red Sox, allowing six runs in the seventh to match the six-run sixth. A throw to Keough intended to nab Lu Clinton went astray and Clinton made it to third base on the error. With one out, both Kellett and Umphlett drew walks. Harry Malmberg singled to tie the game, 9-9. The pitcher, Borland, then singled, driving in two more. Eddie Sadowski singled for the 12th run, and Green (batting from the left side of the plate) singled for the 13th (and his fourth RBI). The 14th run scooted in on a fielder’s choice grounder hit by Jose Valdivielso. 

Now it was 14-9 in favor of the Millers.

Stephens singled and Nixon doubled in the top of the eighth, the Red Sox picking up their 10th but final run of the game.

Nixon held the Millers scoreless in the eighth but didn’t have to pitch the ninth. With the 14-10 lead, the Millers had already won the game. Borland got the win; Nixon bore the loss. Despite the 24 runs, 24 hits, and six bases on balls, the game lasted 2:24.

For “the usually weak-hitting Millers,” the 14 runs matched their high for the year.9

Neither Jackie Jensen nor Frank Malzone played in the game. Because neither liked to fly, they received dispensation to take the train from Boston to Chicago.10 The Boston Traveler reported that Williams enjoyed catching up with old friends, residents of the area that he had not seen for years.11

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 For a very detailed history of the Millers, see stewthornley.net/millers.html. Stew Thornley points out that the “1930s connection between the Red Sox and Millers was a looser affiliation than the one from 1958-60, when the Millers were a full-fledged farm team.” Email to author on August 26, 2019.

2 Williams had played in the Millers’ home ballparks: Nicollet Park in 1938, and in Metropolitan Stadium for this 1958 game.

3 The standings were tightly bunched. Eighth-place Baltimore was only four games behind the Red Sox, 11 GB.

4 In earlier times, it was not uncommon to play a number of exhibition games during the season. In 1934, for instance, the Red Sox played nine such games against various teams, one of which was the company team from Burnham & Morrill, the canner of B&M Baked Beans in Portland, Maine. During the 1990s, they played seven such games. The last “normal” in-season exhibition game was in 1999 against the Pawtucket Red Sox. All told, the Red Sox’ record for in-season exhibition games is 142-86-9. The Red Sox had played spring-training exhibition games against the Millers as early as 1922 (four games, all played in Tennessee) and one in Alabama in 1927. The Millers won two of those five games. This 1958 game was the first Millers-Red Sox game since the 12-9 win for the Millers in 1927.  

5 Associated Press, “Ted Homers but Millers Beat Red Sox,” Fergus Falls (Minnesota) Daily Journal, June 17, 1958: 8.

6 “Ted Homers.”

7 Roger Birtwell, “Pumpsie and Ted Both Star,” Boston Globe, June 17, 1958: 25, 27.

8 Riger Birtwell, “Pumpsie Looks Good as Hitter,” Boston Globe, June 18, 1958: 42.

9 The phrase and the most complete account of the game are thanks to Tom Briere, “Millers Beat Boston 14-10 as Ted Thrills 18,638,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, June 17, 1958: 12.

10 “Keough No Threat at First Base,” Boston Traveler, June 17, 1958: 49.

11 “Keough No Threat.”