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Minneapolis Millers | |
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Minor league affiliations | |
Class | |
League | American Association (1902–1960)
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Major league affiliations | |
Team |
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Minor league titles | |
Class titles (2) |
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League titles (10) |
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Team data | |
Name | Minneapolis Millers |
Ballpark |
The Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, through 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League. The team played first in Athletic Park and later Nicollet Park.
The name Minneapolis Millers has been associated with a variety of professional minor league teams. The original Millers date back to 1884 when the Northwestern League was formed. This league failed and the Western League replaced it, absorbing some of the old teams. According to Stew Thornley, this team folded in 1891 due to financial problems. In 1894, another team calling itself the Millers was formed when Ban Johnson and Charles Comiskey revived the Western League in hopes of making it a second major league. The Millers continued to play in the Western League through 1900, when the name was changed to the American League to give it more of a national image. Following the 1900 season, several cities were abandoned for bigger markets in cities recently vacated by the National League, including Minneapolis. Some teams were transferred, as was the case of the Kansas City Blues franchise to become the Washington Nationals (Senators). However, some of the teams were just left out in the dark. It is unclear which of these two paths the Millers took, but most evidence seems to point toward abandonment, not a transfer to Baltimore as the Orioles, especially given that no player for the 1900 Millers played for the 1901 Orioles.
Several teams went by the nickname Millers, but the most prominent of these was the team in the American Association from 1902 to 1960. The Millers won four Association pennants during the 1910–23 tenure of "Pongo Joe" Cantillon, then were managed from 1924 to 1931 by another legend, Michael Joseph Kelley, one of the great figures of American Association history. Kelley operated the team as club president until 1946. Broadcaster Halsey Hall was the Millers' play-by-play man from 1933 until the club folded in 1960 to make way for the Minnesota Twins.
Ted Williams, Willie Mays and Carl Yastrzemski were among some future major leaguers who played for the Millers. The Millers won nine pennants in the Association during their fifty-nine years. They played their home games at Nicollet Park until 1955, the ballpark being demolished the following year. That site, at 31st and Nicollet Avenue, is now the home of a Wells Fargo bank. In 1956 they moved into Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, until 1960.
They had a heated crosstown rivalry with the St. Paul Saints. The two clubs often played "streetcar double-headers" on holidays, playing one game in each city.
Over the years the Millers were participants in four Junior World Series; matchups between the champions of the American Association and the International League. In the 1932 championship, the team was defeated by the Newark Bears 4 games to 2. The Millers, under manager Bill Rigney, clinched the 1955 series against the Rochester Red Wings, 4 games to 3, in the final ball game played at Nicollet Park. In 1958, the Millers, with Gene Mauch as skipper, beat the Montreal Royals 4 games to 0. Their last appearance in this Series was in 1959, with Mauch as manager, when the Millers lost the series 4 games to 3 to the Havana Sugar Kings.
After the farm system era began, the Millers were top-level affiliates of the Boston Red Sox (1936–38; 1958–60) and New York Giants (1946–57). It returned to the Red Sox organization as a result of a swap on October 15, 1957 with the San Francisco Seals as part of the Giants' move to the Bay Area. [1]
The Millers ceased operations after the 1960 season with the arrival of the Minnesota Twins in 1961. The Red Sox affiliated with the Pacific Coast League's Seattle Rainiers for 1961. The Millers ended with an overall record of 4,800–4,365. Through the years, Millers pitchers threw seven no-hitters, and a Miller batter was the league-leader in home runs twenty-one times and RBIs nine times.
Numerous famous baseball players, managers and coaches have appeared for the Minneapolis Millers as players at some point in their careers, these players include:
Hall of Fame alumni
Notable alumni
Metropolitan Stadium was an outdoor sports stadium in the north central United States, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.
Gene William Mauch was an American professional baseball player and manager who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), Chicago Cubs (1948–1949), Boston Braves (1950–1951), St. Louis Cardinals (1952) and Boston Red Sox (1956–1957).
Nicollet Park was a baseball ground located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The venue was home to the minor league Minneapolis Millers of the Western League and later American Association from 1896 to 1955.
Lexington Park was the name of a former minor league baseball park in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was the home of the St. Paul Saints from 1897 through 1956, when it was replaced by the first version of Midway Stadium.
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William Joseph Rigney was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball. A 26-year big-league veteran, Rigney played for the New York Giants from 1946 to 1953, then spent 18 seasons as the skipper of three major-league clubs. The Bay Area native began his managerial career with the Giants (1956–1960) as the team's last manager in New York City (1957) and its first in San Francisco (1958). In 1961, Rigney became the first manager in the history of the Los Angeles Angels of the American League, serving into May of 1969. Then, in 1970, he led the Minnesota Twins to the American League West Division championship, the only postseason entry of his big-league tenure. Fired in midseason of 1972, he concluded his managerial career in 1976 by serving a one-year term at the helm of his original team, the Giants.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1967 throughout the world.
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Stew Thornley is an author of books on sports history, particularly in his home state. He is an official scorer and online gamecaster for the Minnesota Twins. Thornley also does official scoring for Minnesota Timberwolves basketball games.
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Halsey Lewis Hall was a sports reporter and announcer in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area from 1919 until the 1970s.
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Interview with Stew Thornley, author of On to Nicollet, the history of the Minneapolis Millers, NORTHERN LIGHTS Minnesota Author Interview TV Series #39 (1988)