
Editor’s Note: The National Pastime 2024
In late March of each year as the MLB season opens, I…

The First Pennant for Minneapolis
Even though Minneapolis had been home to a professional club…

A ‘Peaceful War of Baseball’: University of Minnesota Beats Waseda University, 3–2, in 15 Innings, May 26, 1911
In 1905, Tokyo’s Waseda University became the first Japanese…

Rube Foster’s Canadian Farm Teams
Veteran right-handed pitcher Frank Wickware posted…

100 Years Since Local Franchise’s First World Title: 1924 Washington Senators
Lefty George Mogridge entered Game Seven of the 1924 World…

Spencer Harris: A Decade of Minor-League Greatness in Minneapolis
Forty years ago, the Society for American Baseball Research…

From Crookston to Cooperstown: Chet Brewer and John Donaldson Battle in a 12-Inning Integrated Duel
The 1931 baseball season began as the teeth of the Great Depression…

A Giant’s Fall (To Minneapolis): Future Hall of Famer Dave Bancroft Reluctantly Guides the Millers’ Tumultuous 1933 Season
The Minneapolis Millers’ 1933 home opener featured three-seat…

Hal Trosky: A Norway, Iowa, Boy Makes Good in the Major Leagues
On a long, lonesome highway east of Omaha lies Norway, Iowa,…

The Nights The Lights Went On In The Twin Cities
Installing the lights at Lexington Park, St. Paul, in May 1937.…

Minneapolis Millerettes
As late as the 1980s, the softball/baseball Minneapolis Millerettes…

Twin Cities Rivalry Feeds New York Rivalry, 1946–57
During the years following World War II, the minor…

The Promised Land: The Twin Cities’ Long Flirtation with Major League Baseball
In the 1950s, as the population of the United States shifted,…

Old-Fashioned Town Ball Is Flourishing in Minnesota
Most baseball fans are familiar with historian Jacques Barzun’s…

Prelude to a Pennant: Twins Baseball, 1961–64
When the Washington Senators moved to a Minnesota home
As…

From Kralick to Lopez and Carew to Polanco: Interesting Aspects of the Pitcher’s Cycles and Batter’s Cycles Achieved by Minnesota Twins Players
Few single-game achievements are as highly-regarded as the…

Sandy in Minny: Honoring Him for That
When Hank Greenberg, the Detroit Tigers slugger and baseball’s…

The Glory of Our Friendship: Lawrence Ritter and Me
I was born in a small farming town in the southwest…

Reliever Ron Perranoski: A[nother] Tale of Two Cities
The career of left-handed reliever Ron Perranoski (1961–73)…

Red Springs: The Littlest Baseball Town in America
Red Springs, North Carolina, was a unique place for…

The Other Perry: Gaylord’s Big Brother Jim Helped Pitch the Twins to Two Division Titles
On May 2, 1963, the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians…

Butch Wynegar: From Single-A to the Major League All-Star Game in One Year
As a young boy growing up in York, Pennsylvania, Harold Wynegar…

Defending World Champions Deliver Rare Road Fireworks: Minnesota Twins at Toronto Blue Jays, August 3, 1988
August 3, 1988, was a scorching day on the north shore of Lake…

‘Situations and Tendencies’: The Minnesota Twins, the Hero’s Journey, and the Unsung Magic of ‘Little Big League’
Twelve-year-old Billy Heywood has a dream job in Little…