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| Minneapolis Millers with Fidel Castro, 1959 (baseballdeCuba image) |
I remember an interview with Cal Ermer when he managed Toledo. I can't remember the occasion for the interview.
It got my attention because I remembered Ermer as manager of the 1967 Minnesota Twins who came a hair's breadth from winning the pennant. Our team was most likely sunk by morale problems. Owner Calvin Griffith was not of a mind to address such things. He ended up as rather a dinosaur. Bowie Kuhn in his autobiography called the Griffiths "church mice" in the ever-more money-driven world of the bigs.
As a Twins fan, I might have been left more disconsolate by what happened in '67 than our loss in seven games in the '65 World Series. Fate can hinge on a tiny piece of misfortune somewhere. Had we made the World Series in '67, and especially if we'd won it - we definitely had the talent - Dean Chance would still be a household name in Minnesota. Chance has instead gone back to California for commemorative events involving the Angels, the other team where he made his mark.
Ah, fate: Chance held out against the stubborn anachronistic Griffith in '69, reported to camp late, hurt his shoulder and was never the same again. Our spectacular young pitcher Dave Boswell overworked his arm by pitching too long in a '69 playoff game versus Baltimore. We were so damn desperate to win. Boswell struck out Frank Robinson with a slider. His arm was destroyed. He reported later it changed color. He'd never be the same. And oh, we lost the game.
Jim Kaat was like our version of Sandy Koufax in '67 until his arm got overworked at the end. He was not instantly finished. Instead he went through what has been called a "dead arm" period, until he found superstar status again with the White Sox. (I almost wonder if he found PEDs.)
Today there is more of an investment in the players and they are thus handled like the delicate assets they are.
When we was (not) fab
The Twin Cities was a minor league outpost up through the 1950s. We were on the cusp of taking the next step. It was painstaking and perhaps even maddening to endure the wait. Imagine Minnesota with no big league teams! It happened in my lifetime as I was born in 1955. Gophers football was once the big thing. But my, things got transformed almost overnight when hero Griffith came here from Washington D.C.
Let's ponder fate again or perhaps the unforgiving vicissitudes of life. Griffith was saintly with his status when he came here. At the same time we were so ready to forget the Minneapolis Millers. Sad, considering the long history of the Millers and the St. Paul Saints who did yeoman's work at an arguably high level. But remember what Bouton wrote.
Vicissitudes: Griffith today is persona non grata, so much so his statue has been removed from outside the current venue. To distill: the man had an Archie Bunker problem (prejudices).
I remember a former Twin who was playing for Fargo some years ago - last name was Becker - and there was controversy because when asked how he felt about playing in Fargo, well I guess the thoughts came out not exactly charitable. I mention this because it seems the norm for professional athletes when discussing the minors.
The minors of course facilitate and are really essential for the athletes, as it's a place for young players to develop and for the older players to maybe hang on, to get rehabilitated from physical issues etc. So it's ironic: players diss the minor league places while perhaps owing their success to them! We are so human an animal.
I spent years writing for a small town newspaper but I don't consider myself to be minor league. We don't think like that.
I'm amused as I remember the interviewer pressing manager Ermer of Toledo, as the interviewer hinted how maybe the manager could find something redeeming to cite re. the minors. No! I repeat: No! Ermer wouldn't budge as he said "the big leagues are the only place to be." Man alive.
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| (ebay image) |
Minnesota baseball actually had a very colorful chapter in 1959, would you believe? Yes the Millers carried the banner. We had a dude playing second base named Carl Yastrzemski.
That's another thing fascinating about our minor league past: future superstars on the way up like Willie Mays, Ted Williams, or Lou Brock and Gaylord Perry with the St. Cloud "Rox." Harmon Killebrew came to Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington, to play with Indianapolis in 1958.
What about 1959? How could that be so special? The Millers made the "Junior World Series." Sorry, sounds like it involved kids.
The Millers' opponent would be a team called the "Sugar Kings" from. . .Havana, Cuba. Yes, Havana Cuba of the late '50s when you-know-what was happening. Castro's seizing of political power. His bearded associates were known to tote machine guns.
Look at the photo of Miller players and manager Gene Mauch - yes, that Gene Mauch - posing with Castro and another of those "bearded guys." Of course Castro had a background as a player himself. His abilities appear to have been exaggerated, but he was passable with his skills. He only reached the high school level. Legends took over after that.
The '59 Junior World Series opened at our Metropolitan Stadium. Minnesota weather was not facilitating. It was wintry. Yet the action unfolded, in front of fewer than 3000 fans. The most vocal rooting section was for the Sugar Kings. Cuban natives in Minneapolis took delight and positioned themselves in the box seats behind the Havana dugout. They contributed a lively atmosphere with maracas and Cuban flags. They rejoiced in their team winning 5-2.
The temperature got colder for the second game. Attendance shrank to about 1000. The Millers evened the series with a 6-5 win. The Sugar Kings were shook by the weather - they built a fire in a wastebasket by the dugout.
The temperature continued to get colder. Rain turned to snow. No game 3 in Minnesota. Action would resume at the home of the Sugar Kings.
The Millers received a gala civic welcome in Havana. There was a parade. Teams took the field at Gran Stadium. Castro the premier cancelled a cabinet meeting and attended. He sat in different places around the stadium and even visited the Havana bench. The Millers had been welcomed, for sure, but the air could be contradictory. How could you feel fully comfortable as an outsider when all around you were signs of the revolution: Castro's bearded troopers.
Nearly 3000 soldiers were at the stadium. They bore rifles and bayonets! Teens had guns! Sometimes shots were heard outside the stadium. Mauch reported that the soldiers could intimidate the Minneapolis players. We learn that a solider "made a slicing motion across his throat, after a Minneapolis player made a catch to end an inning." I'm researching from writing by Stew Thornley.
Minneapolis saw a 2-0 lead slip away. The Millers were denied. A bright spot: "Yaz" hit a long home run. The future Boston superstar recalled in his autobiography: "It was like a revolution in the streets."
Leader makes his point
The Millers dropped game 4 too. The Sugar Kings were within one game of the championship. The Millers were able to get focused to win the next two games to set up the seventh and deciding game. Prior to that game, Castro passed by the Minneapolis bullpen, looked at the players, patted a revolver on his hip and said "tonight, we win." The Sugar Kings did in fact win. The Millers confessed to feeling some relief.
Mauch left the Millers for the big leagues in 1960, with the Phillies. It was there that in 1964 he presided over what was probably the biggest choke in big league history. Philadelphia appeared to have things wrapped up. Then the bottom fell out. It all started with a steal of home by Cincinnati's Chico Ruiz. Mauch would later manage our Twins during the time when the Griffiths' ownership was winding down. The "church mice" were going to have to depart. Met Stadium gave way to the Metrodome.
"The Met" on the "Bloomington prairie" had a long and grand epoch of hosting big league ball. We can easily forget that from 1956 to '60, a pretty long time, it was the home to the Triple-A Millers. We were at the top of the minor league heap. However, remember Bouton's words: "The minor leagues are all very minor."
The Millers played at Nicollet Park before 1956.
Can we please appreciate this chapter from our baseball history a little more? Why not? Lou Brock playing in St. Cloud? How can you beat that?
My podcast for February 8
Nice to think about baseball in these downbeat times of sub-zero weather and the pandemic. Sheesh. Maybe we're getting resigned to it all? My podcast episode for today reflects on the origin of our Minnesota Twins. Calvin Griffith was saintly when he brought his Senators here, to become the Twins. I invite you to listen:
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| The great Willie Mays played with Minneapolis Millers. |
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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