Tag: Calvin Griffith

The Last of the Pure Baseball Men

January 16, 2009 – It was a sunny but cold day in January and I was researching some historical Minnesota Twins information on the Internet when I ran across a wonderful story about Calvin Griffith, the original owner of the Minnesota Twins and the man responsible for bringing professional baseball from Washington to the Midwest and to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It made no difference that Metropolitan Stadium the ballpark that the Twins would call home was actually miles away out by the airport and located somewhere out amongst the cow pastures in a suburb called Bloomington. Sadly, today that stadium is gone and now occupied by the Mall of America and the Twins are playing baseball on the concrete floor within the confines of the domed and climate controlled Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

The story “The Last of the Pure Baseball Men” was written by Michael Lenehan and published in the August 1981 Atlantic Monthly. Although a rather lengthy article, it is a fun and informative read as it looks at the life and times of the legendary Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith. The story covers Calvin’s life and to a great degree I think explains why Mr. Griffith ran the club as he did. The article mentions many of the Twins former players and talks about their relationships with Calvin. Calvin Griffith has been gone now for a number of years and Carl Pohlad who bought the Twins from Calvin also recently has passed away.

I think as you read the article you can’t help but go back in time and picture in your mind what baseball was like in the 50’s, the 60’s and the 70’s. Back when players played for fun and pride and not the almighty dollar. Back when you knew that the players you watched come up from the minors would play for the home team for years to come unless they were traded. Sure, you had spring training hold-outs, but you didn’t have arbitration and the constant talk of how much an up-and-coming star was going to take to sign or you will lose him to free agency and the larger market teams. I am not condoning some of the practices of the owners back then because they obviously were unfair and you could argue they got what they deserved but now I think the pendulum has swung a bit too far to the players side. From my perspective as a baseball fan, baseball is still the best sport but the greed from both the ownership and the player’s side is wearing my patience a bit thin.

As I look out the window, it is a beautiful sunny day albeit a -5 degrees here in Plymouth, Minnesota and I can’t wait to hear the crack of the bat as the baseball goes flying out of the ballpark when spring training opens for MLB in just a few short weeks. In the mean time, take a few minutes and check this story about Calvin, his family, and his Minnesota Twins. In a way this is really a fitting time for this story, the article was originally written in 1981 as the Twins prepared to open their final season at Met Stadium and today we find ourselves in the same position as the Twins are getting ready to open their final season, this time in the Metrodome before they move to Target Field and play out door baseball once again in 2010.

You can find “The Last of the Pure Baseball Men” written by Michael Lenehan on his web site by clicking on his name, I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.

Senators Fun Facts

August 28, 2008 – Walter Johnson was the only pitcher elected to the MLB Hall of Fame at its inception. Johnson won 20 or more games 12 times in his career and 30 or more games twice. He started 666 games in his career and completed 531 of them.

Roy Sievers hit 42 home runs in 1957 and was the only Washing Senator to ever win the American league home run title outright.

Senator third baseman Eddie Yost set an American league record by hitting 28 homeruns as a leadoff batter.

One time Twins owner Calvin Griffith served as the Senators batboy on their 1924 World Series Championship team. Calvin’s father Clark owned the team.

Senator’s catcher Morris “Moe” Berg became a renowned author and master spy for the US government. Berg, a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School was known as the “brainiest man in baseball”, spoke several languages and reportedly read at least 10 newspapers a day.

On May 11, 1897, Senators catcher Duke Farrell set a Major League Baseball record that has stood for more than 100 years by catching eight of nine opposing players who attempted to steal a base.

“The Last of the Pure Baseball Men”

January 12, 2008 – On October 26, 1960, Calvin Griffith, President of the Washington Senators, made the historic decision to move his club to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, thereby giving birth to the “Minnesota Twins,” named after the two Upper Midwest cities. Won the American League pennant in 1965; however, they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series that year. Voted “Major League Executive of the Year” – 1965. Reputed to be “one of baseball’s most astute judges of raw talent”; in 1964, he discovered and signed Rod Carew a second baseman and one of the most famous of former Twins players. On June 23, 1984, prominent local businessman Carl Pohlad stepped forward and signed an agreement in principle to purchase the team for $32 million from Griffith and his sister, Mrs. Thelma Griffith Haynes, and keep the Twins in Minnesota. On September 7, 1984 the deal was finalized ending an era of 72 years in which the Griffith family controlled the ball club. On October 20, 1999, the man who brought big league baseball to Minnesota died at the age of 87. Calvin Griffith died in his retirement home in Melbourne, Florida, of kidney infection.

I had an opportunity to do a telephone interview with Calvin in the late 1980’s when I was taking some classes at North Hennepin Community College and I need to interview an executive so I choose Calvin Griffith. I got his number from the phone directory and gave him a call in Florida. Calvin answered the phone and I told him who I was and why I was calling and he could not have been any nicer. I don’t know if he was lonely or just loved talking about baseball but he did not want to hang up the phone. We talked about his career and the state of baseball and it was one of the most fun class assignments I ever had. By the time we had this conversation, he and Carl Pohlad had some kind of a falling out and Calvin was bitter about how Pohlad and the Twins were treating him but the man still knew and loved baseball and nothing and no one could keep him away from the game he loved. I had told him about the time when the Met was being readied to be demolished and the Twins had a huge auction of everything and anything that was still left and how I had ended up somehow in the bowels of the old Met and stood outside an office door where Calvin and his cronies were telling old baseball stories, smoking cigars and tipping a few cold drinks. Those were some great stories but many could not be repeated in public today. How the times have changed, I have to wonder what Calvin Griffith was say about the steroid and HGH controversy of today.

If any of you are interested in knowing more about Calvin and the impact he had on baseball in Minnesota, find a copy of “Calvin – Baseball’s Last Dinosaur” by Jon Kerr, it is a fun read. I have a copy signed by both Calvin and Jon sitting on my bookcase and I take it out now and then and read a chapter or two.