Tag: Clark Griffith

This Day in Twins History – June 22

Carew, Rod 166/22/1970 – In the fourth inning of the Twins game against the Milwaukee Brewers in County Stadium Rod Carew suffers a serious knee injury with torn cartilage and torn ligaments when Brewers 1B Mike Hegan rolls in to Carew at 2B trying to break up a double play. According to Rod Carew in his book “Carew”, my leg snapped back and went crack! He goes on to say that 2B umpire Jake O’Donnell had heard the crack and vomited. Carew was hitting .376 at the time underwent surgery and ended up in essence missing the rest of the season. Rod did return for 5 at bats late in September but did not get a hit. Carew had only 2 plate appearances against the Orioles in the ALCS with no hits.

6/22/1984 – In a teary home plate ceremony before the Twins-White Sox game at the Metrodome, Calvin Griffith and his sister, Thelma Haynes, sign a letter of intent to sell their 52 percent ownership of the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad for $32 million (some reports state it was $36 million) ending the longest family ownership of a team in baseball history. Griffith and his sister had been involved with the franchise since 1922, when they were adopted by owner Clark Griffith when the team was the Washington Senators.

This Day in Franchise History – March 15, 1945

As a Minnesota Twins fan and a fan of baseball history I can’t help but enjoy a site over at www.dcbaseballhistory where the early years of the Minnesota Twins are covered in detail. Back then, the team was called the Washington Senators and they played in Washington D.C. from 1901-1960. Today they ran a piece called “This Day in D.C. Baseball History – Wounded Veteran gets a Try Out” (March 5, 1945) that they have allowed me to repost here. Bert Shepard was a real World War II hero, a POW, and a winner of the  Distinguished Flying Cross. He may have only played in one big league game but think about the will, courage and pain that he must have had to achieve his goal. You also have to be impressed by Clark Griffith who gave Shepard an opportunity to be in baseball. Cool story, it kind of makes you feel good to read about these kinds of things happening in a game that can at times be tough and cold. Shepard died in Highland, California on June 16, 2008

shepard, Bert 2Bert Shepard, a one-legged veteran of World War II, tries out as a pitcher for the Washington Senators. The Senators owner Clark Griffith was so impressed with Shepard that he hired him as the team’s pitching coach. During the 1945 spring training Shepard with his artificial leg pitched in three games. For the rest training camp his main job was to pitch batting practice.

Bert Shepard was a World War II fighter pilot who lost his right leg on May 21, 1944 when his plane was shot down while he was flying a mission over Germany. This heroic man survived his plane crash and a gunshot wound to his chin. Afterward Shepard was taken to a German hospital where they amputated most of his right leg. During the next few months he was in POW camp in Germany. After returning home from the war in February, 1945 Shepard was sent to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C. where he was fitted for an artificial leg. As amazing as it is one month later this heroic American was trying out for a major league baseball team.

Shepard, Bert 3What is more amazing was that on August 4,  1945 the Senators’ manager Ossie Bluege called on Bert Shepard to come in and pitch a few innings of a game that the Senators were trailing by  quite a few runs. The left hander ended up pitching five and a third innings and only gave up one run and three base hits. That one game will be the first and last game for the war hero as the Senators released him on September 30, 1945.

This Day in Twins History – January 6, 1967

Joseph HaynesTwins Executive Vice President Joe Haynes suffered a heart attack while shoveling snow at his Hopkins , Minnesota home on January 6, 1967 and died at the age of 49. Haynes was signed by the Washington Senators as a free agent in 1937. During spring training in 1938 Haynes met and became smitten with Thelma Griffith who was at the time Clark Griffith’s personal secretary and was the daughter of Bruce Robertson whose sister Addie was Senator owners Clark Griffith’s wife. Although Thelma and Calvin were never formally adopted by the Clark and Addie Griffith, they were raised by the Griffith’s as their own children.

After just 2 years in the low minors Haynes made his major league debut as a reliever for the Washington Senators on April 24, 1939 at Fenway Park and picked up his first big league win while allowing 1 earned run in 2.2 innings in a 10-9 Washington victory in 10 innings. Haynes pitched for the Senators in 1939 and 1940 before hurting his arm and was sold to the Chicago White Sox in January 1941 by his future father-in-law. Haynes ended up marrying Thelma Griffith in 1941 and pitched for the White Sox for eight years from 1941-1948. Haynes led the league in pitching appearances in 1942 and in 1947 Haynes had a league leading 2.42 ERA. In 1948 Haynes was selected to the AL All-Star team although he did not make an appearance in the game. Haynes continued to have off and on arm issues and was traded to the Cleveland Indians in November 1948 who then flipped him a month later back to the Washington Senators where he again pitched through the 1952 season before being released.

Haynes pitched in the majors for 14 seasons putting up a 76-82 won/lost record with a 4.01 ERA in 379 games with 147 of them being starts. Haynes was a pitch to contact pitcher giving up more hits than innings pitched but he had an HR/9 mark of 0.5 which was pretty darn impressive. Haynes served as the Senators minor league pitching instructor in 1955 and moved into the front office in 1956 and kept his position when the team moved to Minnesota in 1961. After Haynes passed away in 1967,  his widow, Thelma Griffith Haynes, continued to serve as an executive vice president, assistant treasurer, and part owner of the Twins until they were sold to Carl Pohlad in 1985.

Joe Haynes SABR bio.

This Day in Twins History – June 22

Rod Carew

1970 – In the fourth inning of the Twins game against the Milwaukee Brewers in County Stadium, Rod Carew suffers a serious knee injury with torn cartilage and torn ligaments when Brewers 1B Mike Hegan rolls in to Carew at 2B trying to break up a double play. According to Rod Carew in his book “Carew”, my leg snapped back and went crack! He goes on to say that 2B umpire Jake O’Donnell had heard the crack and vomited. Carew was hitting .376 at the time, underwent surgery and ended up in essence missing the rest of the season. Rod did return for 5 at bats late in September but did not get a hit. Carew had only 2 plate appearances against the Orioles in the ALCS with no hits.

Calvin Griffith

1984 – In a teary home plate ceremony before the Twins-White Sox game at the Metrodome, Calvin Griffith and his sister, Thelma Haynes, sign a letter of intent to sell their 52 percent ownership of the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad for $32 million (some reports state it was $36 million) ending the longest family ownership of a team in baseball history. Griffith and his sister had been involved with the franchise since 1922, when they were adopted by owner Clark Griffith when the team was the Washington Senators.

 

This Day in Twins History – January 6, 1967

Joseph Haynes, who had been an all-star American League pitcher, brother-in-law of Twins owner Calvin Griffith and Twins vice-president passed away of a heart attack after shoveling snow at his Hopkins, Minnesota home at the age of 49.

Haynes had a 14 year big league career as a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators (1939-1940, 1949-1952) and the Chicago White Sox (1941-1948) posting a 76-82 won/lost record with 21 saves to go with a 4.01 ERA in 379 games, 147 of them in a starting role and 53 complete games. Haynes, primarily a curveball and fastball pitcher, was not a strike out pitcher nor was pin-point control one of Joe’s strength’s as he walked 620 and struck out 475 batters in 1,581 innings.

After his playing career ended after the 1952 season, Haynes became a coach for the Washington Senators for three seasons after which he became the team’s vice-president and general manager in 1955, following the death of his father-in-law, Clark Griffith. His widow, Thelma Griffith Haynes, continued to serve as an executive vice president, assistant treasurer, and part owner of the Twins until they were sold to Carl Pohlad in 1985. Her brothers, Sherry, Jimmy, and Billy, were also part of the organization. The Twins pitcher of the year award is named after Haynes and the Joseph W. Haynes Twins Pitcher of the Year award is given annually to the Twins top pitcher.

A more detailed biography of Joe Haynes completed as part of the SABR Biography project can be found here.

Some old newspaper clips about the Twins

The Minnesota Twins have had their ups and downs over the years and I ran across a variety of press clippings that pertained to the home-town nine and I thought that I would share them with you. Some are sad, some stupid, some funny and some historical but they are all part of Twins lore and history. Some will bring back some bad memories and other will cause you to to say, oh yes, I remember that. The clipping come from a variety of newspapers including the Boston Globe, Orlando Sentinel, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

April 12, 1985 – There will be no more spitting on the Minnesota Twins’ clubhouse floor. Nor will there be any more gum wrappers lying around or cramped dressing areas. The Twins Thursday unveiled the remodeled Metrodome clubhouse, done in the team’s colors of red, white and blue, with ash wood trim — the same color as baseball bats.”Some of these players make $800,000 a year, and they come in five or six hours before a game,” said architect David Shea, who was the principal designer for the remodeling.

June 30, 1985 (Peter Gammons – Boston Globe) – Billy Gardner got fired because (1) the Twins’ pitching fell apart, and (2) he simply is not in the mold of owner Carl Pohlad and GM Howard Fox. What can one say about a staff on which the only pitcher with an ERA under 4.20 was Frank Euefemia? Or when Ron Davis became so afraid of pitching that he hyperventilated in the bullpen and created excuses to beg out of games? Ray Miller was brought in to straighten out the pitching, and he is a man who deserves the chance. He needed to leave Baltimore, where his rapport with writers and his ambition had turned off pitchers and alienated fellow coaches.

September 20, 1985 – Baseball, as a business, is not for those with weak stomachs, says Carl Pohlad, who is completing his first full season as owner of the Minnesota Twins. Pohlad: ”I live and die every game. When I bought the team, I knew sports had more ups and downs than other businesses, and I thought I could cope. In my other enterprises, I can cope. But I have difficulty coping with a tough loss on the ball field.” Pohlad bought the Twins from long-time owner Calvin Griffith a little over a year ago. ”I used to think I was pretty good at managing stress,” the 69-year-old banking magnate told the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.

July 29, 1986 – Amid rumors of his firing, Minnesota Twins Manager Ray Miller met Monday with top club officials to discuss the team’s poor performance and how to solve the problem. ”I’m not satisfied with the way the team’s been playing,” Twins President Howard Fox said in New York, where Minnesota faced the Yankees. ”I thought we’d be better than we’ve been. We’re re-evaluating the whole thing.” Fox said Twins owner Carl Pohlad has given him the authority to make any managerial change.

July 4, 1986 – Former Minnesota Twins’ farm director George Brophy, who resigned last January because of illness, will become a special assistant scout for the Houston Astros Aug. 1, he said. Brophy, 59, was struck in June 1985 by aplastic anemia, a life-threatening blood disorder. When Brophy still wasn’t back to work in January, Twins president Howard Fox asked him to take early retirement as part of a program established by owner Carl Pohlad for longtime employees. Brophy said he began to respond to a new form of treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

July 31, 1986 – Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad says he’s ”disappointed” with his struggling American League club but says he won’t comment on the future of Manager Ray Miller. Pohlad said ”we’re all disappointed” at the team’s record, which stood Wednesday morning at 43 and 57. ”I don’t like it, the fans don’t like it and neither does anybody else. We’re doing the best we can.”

September 13, 1986 – Tom Kelly, who guided the Orlando Twins to the Class AA Southern League pennant in 1981, was named manager of the Minnesota Twins on Friday for the remaining 23 games after Manager Ray Miller was fired. Kelly, 36, took over Friday night as interim manager after Minnesota President Howard Fox announced, ”It would be in the best interest of everyone concerned that the termination of Ray Miller’s position would take place at this time.””Our record games behind is exactly three games worse than it was last year at this time without a bullpen,” Miller said.

October 23, 1986 – The Minnesota Twins, who have said they hope to name a new manager by next week at the latest, have interviewed former Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs manager Jim Frey. Frey met for almost three hours Tuesday with Twins owner Carl Pohlad, said Pohlad’s son, Jim, a team director who was also in on the meeting. Jim Pohlad said the only candidates who have been recommended by Twins Vice President Andy MacPhail are Frey and Tom Kelly. Kelly, the Twins’ third-base coach for the last three years and former Orlando Twins manager, served as interim manager for the final three weeks of the 1986 season after Ray Miller was fired.

May 19, 1988 (Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel) – The way I understand it, the Minnesota Twins will honor Orlando with their presence each spring only if the city gives them some choice property, presumably a chunk with a lakefront view. The Twins want freebie land to develop for economic opportunities outside of baseball, and if they don’t get it they’ll leave for Fort Myers in 1990.To the Twins, I say so long, goodbye and don’t let the door hit you in your pinstriped behinds. Baseball fans, calm yourselves. City fathers want the Twins to stay.

November 1, 1988 (Tim Povtak, Orlando Sentinel) – The ”privatization” of Tinker Field, which would give the Minnesota Twins almost total control of the baseball complex, is key to an arrangement that has brought Orlando and the major-league team close to signing a 10-year contract for spring training.Twins owner Carl Pohlad and much of his administrative staff met for an hour with city officials Monday in Mayor Bill Frederick’s office, discussing major points in the agreement.The Twins, who have one more year on their contract, and the city have been negotiating for more than a year.

January 10, 1989 – The Minnesota Twins will continue making Orlando their spring training base, at least for the next 10 years, if the professional baseball team agrees to a settlement offered Monday by the Orlando City Council.The council offered to pay $3 million over the next three years for the Twins to build new major and minor-league clubhouses, batting tunnels and a grandstand at Tinker Field. The city also relinquished its rights to concession and parking revenues associated with Tinker Field and agreed to provide 6,000 square feet in office space for team officials at the Florida Citrus Bowl.

January 26, 1989 (Larry Guest, Orlando Sentinel) – Spring baseball long has been a time of charm and grace, a respite of innocence when reality gave way to fantasy. It was six weeks of green grass and a warming sun, a genteel preamble of wind sprints and good will before the hard competition and grim business of the regular season took over.It was a ritual for the romantics, a flashback to the simpler times.Never has the passing of that poppycock been made more crystal clear than by the hard capitalists in charge of today’s Minnesota Twins.

February 3, 1989 – Minnesota Twins General Manager Andy MacPhail says the Twins should not be portrayed as ”Northern carpetbaggers” in their negotiations with the city of Orlando. MacPhail says the Twins simply are keeping up with the business of modern baseball.Orlando has been the spring-training home of the Twins for 53 years, but that relationship is in jeopardy. The Twins want the city, which is asking for a 10-year commitment, to upgrade facilities at Tinker Field to accommodate both their minor and major-league players.

October 8, 1991 – He says his job is tougher because he works in one of the smallest baseball cities, but Vice President/General Manager Andy MacPhail has excelled, and Monday he was given a new 3-year contract that will carry through the 1994 season.The contract is the first MacPhail has had with the Twins, having worked the past six years on 1-year agreements.”I’m very grateful to owner Carl Pohlad,” MacPhail said. ”There is no one I would rather work for than Carl Pohlad or nowhere that I would rather live and work than where I am.’MacPhail, 38, said the difference between making decisions in Minnesota rather than in New York or Los Angeles is that ”we have to balance everything in terms of affordability”.

October 16, 1995 – Thelma Griffith Haynes, the former co-owner and executive of the Minnesota Twins baseball club, died Sunday, Oct. 15. She was 82. Haynes of Lexington Parkway, Orlando, who co-owned the team with her brother, Calvin Griffith of Melbourne, sold it to Carl Pohlad in 1984. Her father, Clark Griffith Sr., founded the Washington Senators in the early 1920s. The family moved the ball club to Minnesota in 1961. Orlando was the team’s spring training site from the 1930s until 1990. Born in Montreal, Canada, she moved to Central Florida in 1982.

May 28, 1997 – Angered that the Minnesota Legislature took no action on their stadium proposal during this year’s regular session, the Minnesota Twins reiterated Tuesday that they will ask for permission to sell or move the team.The club hopes to get that approval at the June 10-12 owners meetings in Philadelphia and immediately would begin taking offers. ”We set out to get an answer from the people of Minnesota. We were told that answer was to be given through the Legislature,” said Bob Pohlad, son of Twins owner Carl Pohlad.

October 7, 1997 – Major league baseball would allow the Twins to leave Minnesota, Gov. Arne Carlson said after meeting Monday in Milwaukee with acting commissioner Bud Selig. Carlson made the comment after he and a group of legislators flew to Milwaukee to ask Selig how Twins owner Carl Pohlad’s deal to sell the Twins to North Carolina businessman Don Beaver would fare with team owners. Pohlad has said he can’t afford to lose any more money in the Metrodome, and that the team must have a baseball-only stadium with revenue from suites, club seating, and other amenities.

November 19, 1997 – The Twins moved a step closer to North Carolina when baseball appointed a five-man committee Tuesday to guide the team through the sport’s relocation rules. The Minnesota Legislature last week defeated a proposal to finance a new ballpark, and Pohlad has an agreement with North Carolina businessman Don Beaver to negotiate a sale unless stadium financing is approved by Nov. 30. Beaver has said he would apply to move the team to North Carolina following the 1998 season.

December 4, 1997 – Paul Molitor, who returned home to the Twins in 1996 and became the 21st player in history to top 3,000 hits, is expected to play elsewhere in 1998, which could be his final season. Ron Simon, Molitor’s agent, said Molitor probably will sign with Toronto or Baltimore by Monday because he is unwilling to play for the Twins in what could be a lame-duck season in Minnesota. Owner Carl Pohlad has an agreement to sell the team to a North Carolina businessman, and the team could move after ’98 unless it gets a new stadium.

July 20, 1998 – Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad plans to work out a lease that will keep his team playing at the Metrodome for the next two years, according to a published report. The Minneapolis Star Tribune cited an unnamed source close to Pohlad, who said Pohlad would work out the lease in the hope of finding a way to build a new baseball stadium.The Twins and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission are scheduled for a settlement hearing today. The commission has filed a lawsuit trying to block the Twins from exercising an escape clause that would let them out of their Metrodome lease after this season.

November 7, 2001 (Phil Rogers) – In a move almost certain to eliminate the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos, Major League Baseball owners voted Tuesday to authorize Commissioner Bud Selig to fold two teams before the 2002 season. If the plan goes through, it will mark the first time since 1899 that Major League Baseball has closed an existing franchise. “We’re plowing historic ground here,” Selig said. Selig said the teams to be dissolved were not identified specifically during a meeting of owners and that there are more than two under consideration.

November 17, 2001 – JUDGE: TWINS MUST PLAY – Baseball was barred from eliminating the Minnesota Twins next season when a judge Friday ordered the team to play its 2002 home schedule in the Metrodome. Twins owner Carl Pohlad also was ordered not to sell the team unless the new owner agrees to have the team play its 2002 home schedule in the ballpark. The decision by Hennepin County District Judge Harry Seymour Crump throws into question last week’s vote by baseball owners to eliminate two major-league teams next season.

December 23, 2001 – Alabama businessman Donald Watkins, who wants to buy the Twins, shook hands with nearly 200 avid fans Saturday at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. “The weather may be cold up here, but the reception is warm,” said Watkins, who hopes to meet with officials of the commissioner’s office on Jan. 10 to discuss a possible purchase of the team. Current owner Carl Pohlad wants out after failing to gain approval of government financing for a new ballpark.

March 31, 2002 – An enjoyable summer could follow the lousy winter. After dealing with Commissioner Bud Selig, Carl Pohlad and other embarrassments to the grand old game during the offseason, it’s the fans who needed to hit the showers. They wanted to feel clean again. Along the way, the Twins became America’s Team, gamely fighting off contraction and vowing to contend. Everyone loves the underdog, so people from all over will be pulling for the plucky Twins. Pulling for the Minnesota ball club feels good because it’s like casting a vote against big, corrupt business — as represented by the owners who tried to make the franchise disappear.

August 17, 2002 – The axe is now hovering over Cinderella’s head, ready to ruin baseball’s best story. But for what it’s worth, sports fans, the executioners feel your pain. “It’s not the players who are hurting,” Denny Hocking said. “It’s not the owners who are hurting. It’s the fans.” If fans were paid by the lip service they receive, they’d all be Alex Rodriguez. For all the supposed angst, players started the Doomsday Clock. T-minus two weeks until the ninth work stoppage since 1972.

 

Calvin Griffith in Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Calvin Griffith (second from left) at the opening of the 1965 World Series - courtesty of Seamheads.com
Calvin Griffith (second from left) at the opening of the 1965 World Series – courtesty of Seamheads.com

November 17, 2010 – I recently had heard that there was Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and in doing some research on it, I ran across this story (Letters from Quebec: Induction Day at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Part Two) dated October 14, 2010 on http://seamheads.com/ by Bill Young. With their permission I have reprinted a portion of the article that pertains to former Twins owner Calvin Griffith. If you wish to read the entire article, please go to http://seamheads.com/2010/10/14/letters-from-quebec-induction-day-at-the-canadian-baseball-hall-of-fame-part-two/ , it is a good read.

By Bill Young – In mid-summer I wrote about the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ontario, and the successful Induction Day ceremonies it held this past June. I mentioned that the new inductees included Canadian pitcher Paul Quantrill—his 14-season major league career took him to Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York (Yankees) San Diego and Florida—and Robbie Alomar, a Blue Jay forever, if Toronto fans have any say in the matter. Charles Bronfman made a significant donation to the Hall’s development fund and even Babe Ruth’s granddaughter took part.

And I also made mention of two other men—Calvin Griffith and Allan Roth—who were inducted posthumously. Both Griffith and Roth were Canadians by birth and while their contributions to the game took place in the United States, it was fitting that they be honored by the baseball community in their country of origin. At the induction ceremonies, both were represented by close family members; the ceremony meant a lot to them.

Calvin Griffith was born in Montreal on December 1, 1911 into difficult circumstances. While still very young he and his sister Thelma were dispatched to Washington, D.C., where they were subsequently adopted by Clark Griffith, the iconic owner of the Washington Senators, and given the Griffith name. When Calvin seemed interested in following the family’s baseball footsteps, Clark made him a Senators’ batboy. Following graduation from George Washington University where he played baseball, Calvin began his own life journey in the minors leagues, first in Chattanooga (home of the Lookouts, where his mentor was the legendary Joe Engle, a close associate of Clark’s and married to Clark’s niece) and later Charlotte. By the early 1950s Calvin was back in Washington, in charge of the Senators’ day-to-day-operations.

When Clark Griffith died in 1955, ownership of the club passed to Calvin and his sister Thelma. Calvin continued to oversee the running of the club, including salary negotiations, while Thelma managed the financial side. Together they formed an effective partnership.

Calvin was behind the decision to move to Minnesota in 1961. Under his tutelage, the newly named Twins enjoyed great success, winning one pennant and two divisional titles. However, by 1984 he and Thelma had run their course. They sold their 52 percent share to Carl Pohlad for $32 million, chump change by today’s standards.

Calvin was old-school when it came to wages, and in the days before agents it was his custom to discuss contracts with players, one-on-one, in his office. According to pitcher Bert Blyleven, “You would go into his office and he would sit in a high chair behind a high desk and you would sit on a couch that sank down, so it was like you were looking up about 10 feet at this big owner. He would then basically tell you what you were going to make the next year, because that’s what he thought you were worth, period.”

Jim (Mudcat) Grant, who is best remembered around these parts as the Montreal Expos opening day starting pitcher, April 8, 1969, at Shea Stadium, when Nos Amours became the first non U.S-based team ever to play a regularly scheduled major league game, had his own take on Griffith. Grant had toiled with the Twins in the mid-1960s. According to him, Griffith “threw around nickels like manhole covers.”

Calvin Griffith died on October 20, 1999 at the age of 87, bringing to an end a life rich in adventure and challenges – and light years removed from the hardships he and his mother and six siblings endured during those first years in Montreal. His early story reads like a tale pulled from the pages of Boy’s Own or a novel by Horatio Alger.

Calvin’s father was Jimmy Robertson, originally from the Shetland Islands. Something of a minor league ball player, he was offered a tryout with the International League Montreal Royals in the mid-1910s although failed to make the team. Among the reasons, as Calvin once explained to my colleague Danny Gallagher, was that Jimmy, the minor-league ball player, was a major-league alcoholic. What limited income he had came from a modest newspaper distribution/delivery business he operated in Mount-Royal, a newly-established model community in the suburbs of Montreal.

But Jimmy had a sister, Anne, and this is where the story takes its remarkable turn. For Anne Robertson lived in Washington, D.C. She was married to Clark Griffith.

When Jimmy died in 1922, his widow, Jane, desolate and impoverished, turned to her sister-in-law for help. Soon enough the whole family was bound for Washington and the bosom of the Griffith family. And, to borrow from that old SNL skit, baseball was about to become very, very good to them.

The Clark Griffiths, who had no children of their own, in addition to formally adopting Calvin and Thelma, informally, gathered all the Robertson children under their wing. In time, all children became involved in baseball, in one capacity of another. For example: Calvin’s younger brother Sherrod (Sherry) Robertson built his own major league baseball narrative as a major league player and executive, and, in 2007 was himself inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Thelma became Clark’s secretary and married Joe Haynes, a career pitcher with the Senators and White Sox. Upon Clark’s death in 1955, along with brother Calvin, she inherited part ownership of the Senators. And then there was sister Mildred. She married the legendary Hall-of-Famer Joe Cronin! According to The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, “Joe Cronin was introduced to his future wife, Clark Griffith’s daughter Mildred, by Joe Engle, who had purchased Cronin from Kansas City in the American Association.” When they met, Engle is supposed to have said, “Hey Millie, I brought you a husband over from Kansas City.”

The Griffith family was delighted with Calvin’s selection to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. His own son Clark, noting that the recognition came a full decade after Calvin’s death, called it “a true honor for my father,” adding, “all of us are very proud that his legacy remains strong and will carry forward in St. Mary’s.”

Know your franchise history

Clark Griffith - player, manager, and owner

April 26, 2010 – The Society for American Baseball Research is a great organization and one of the wonderful projects they have going on is the Baseball Biography Project. One of the biographies they have completed is about the Old Fox, Clark Calvin Griffith who was born on November 20, 1869 and passed away on October 27, 1955. Griffith is the only man in major league history to serve as player, manager, and owner for at least 20 years each. Take a few minutes and read about this baseball legend here.

Know your Washington Senator History

July 31, 2009 – The Washington Senators had some bad teams over the years including 5 seasons with 100 or more losses and only 18 winning seasons between 1901 and 1960. That does not mean however; that they didn’t have some great players over the years, one of those great players was Mickey Vernon.

Born James Barton Vernon on April 22, 1918 in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, Vernon signed as a free agent with the Washington Senators in 1937. A left hander all the way, Mickey stood 6’2”, weighed 180 and played 1B. Mickey Vernon made his major league debut on July 8, 1939, the same year as Hall of Famers Hal Newhouser, Ted Williams, and Early Wynn. In addition to being a slick fielding first baseman, Vernon could also hit, winning batting titles in 1946 with a .353 batting average and again in 1953 hitting .337, winning the batting title by 1 percentage point over Cleveland’s Al Rosen and thus depriving Rosen of the Triple Crown. Mickey played for the Senators from 1939 through 1948 (taking 1944 and 1945 off to serve in the US Navy) before being traded to the Cleveland Indians where he played one full season and part of the second before he was traded back to the Washington Senators for whom he played through the 1955 season before again being traded, this time to the Boston Red Sox. After the 1957 season, Vernon was waived and picked up by the Cleveland Indians. After a 1 year stint in Cleveland, Vernon was traded to the Milwaukee Braves where he played out the 1959 season. In 1960, Vernon spent most of the season as a coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates before being activated in September and finishing his career by playing in 9 games for the World Champion Pirates, giving him the rare achievement of playing in four separate decades.

Vernon was not a real power hitter but he did hit 172 home runs in his 20 major league seasons. Three times, Vernon lead the league in doubles, once hitting 51 two baggers. In his 20 seasons, Mickey Vernon played 2,409 games, had 9,834 plate appearances, 2,495 hits, scored 1,196 times, stole 137 bases, and had 1,311 RBI’s with a career .286 batting average. Twenty years as a player in the majors, seven times an All-Star, but never lucky enough to play in a World Series game.

Vernon like many other players from that era served his time in the service of his country by serving in the Navy in 1944 and 1945 in Hawaii, where his commander was Max Patkin, a onetime pitcher who became a comedian known as the Crown Prince of Baseball. Off the field, Mr. Vernon was affable and easygoing but was known for his stubborn contract negotiations. Team owner Clark Griffith, who often cut a player’s salary after a subpar year, called Mr. Vernon “the most difficult man I ever dealt with on the salary question.” After his stellar 1953 season, Mr. Vernon told The Washington Post: “If a ball player can’t cash in on the kind of a year I had, it’s a hopeless profession. . . . Last season was one they can’t take away from me. If the Washington club couldn’t show any profit, it wasn’t my fault. I gave it a pretty good try.”

In 1961, after the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins, Vernon was named the first manager of Washington’s new expansion franchise. He had little luck with a team of castoff players and unproven minor-leaguers before being fired in 1963 with a 135-227 won-loss record as the Washington Senators manager. After his managing stint with the Senators, Vernon became a coach with the Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. He also managed at the Triple-A and Double-A levels.

Many fans believe that seven times All-Star Mickey Vernon belongs in the Hall of Fame, but that honor eluded Vernon during his life time. Mickey Vernon, one of the all time Washington Senator greats passed away on September 24, 2008.