My Vintage Minneapolis Millers & St. Paul Saints Collection

Tay1038 · #1 06-10-2020, 12:32 PM

Original 1903 St. Paul Saints Baseball Club 11x14 Team Photograph featuring HOFer Miller Huggins - Very 1st American Association Championship!

Back Row: Wheller, Shannon, Corbett, Chech, Hurley, Ferguson, Geier
Middle Row: Sullivan, Kelley, Schaefer, Davis
Front Row: Pierce, Huggins, Volz, Marcan, Jackson

There is an amazing story behind this photo. In 1947, the Saints ran a contest at Lexington Park which provided fans the special opportunity to correctly guess all members of the Saints very first championship team. The winner was handsomely rewarded with this photograph as the prize!

It is believed this photo is original to 1903. These photos were only given to players and management of the team. Mike Kelley was the team manager/player for the 1903 team. The photo has sepia, and done in flat tones. The image is high quality and has strong and clear silvering, which I was told is indicative to a turn of the century photo. Photo attribution is to Harris of Little Rock, Arkansas and copyrighted by the St. Paul Daily News. The St. Paul Daily News ceased publication in 1938.

There are two vintage news clippings on the back of the matt. The first is the player identification roster and the second is the write up about the contest. The article mentions, “The picture belongs to Mike” referring to current team owner Mike Kelley.

Mark · #2 06-10-2020, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tay1038

Original 1903 St. Paul Saints Baseball Club 11x14 Team Photograph featuring HOFer Miller Huggins - Very 1st American Association Championship!

Back Row: Wheller, Shannon, Corbett, Chech, Hurley, Ferguson, Geier
Middle Row: Sullivan, Kelley, Schaefer, Davis
Front Row: Pierce, Huggins, Volz, Marcan, Jackson

There is an amazing story behind this photo. In 1947, the Saints ran a contest at Lexington Park which provided fans the special opportunity to correctly guess all members of the Saints very first championship team. The winner was handsomely rewarded with this photograph as the prize!

It is believed this photo is original to 1903. These photos were only given to players and management of the team. Mike Kelley was the team manager/player for the 1903 team. The photo has sepia, and done in flat tones. The image is high quality and has strong and clear silvering, which I was told is indicative to a turn of the century photo. Photo attribution is to Harris of Little Rock, Arkansas and copyrighted by the St. Paul Daily News. The St. Paul Daily News ceased publication in 1938.

There are two vintage news clippings on the back of the matt. The first is the player identification roster and the second is the write up about the contest. The article mentions, �The picture belongs to Mike� referring to current team owner Mike Kelley.

That's beautiful. And it's in the right hands, because you may be the only person who could have named the team members off the top of your head!

Tay1038 · #3 07-05-2020, 07:44 PM

1877 Minneapolis Brown Stockings vs. Janesville Mutuals Baseball Scorecard � The Origins of Professional Baseball in Minnesota (1875-1877)

Here we have a remarkable scorecard dating to the earliest years of organized baseball in Minnesota that I recently acquired. The scorecard measures 4.5 x 5.5. I was told this scorecard was used in the Ken Burns Baseball documentary.

Minneapolis known as the White Shirts in 1875, Blue Stockings in 1876. By the spring of 1877, Minneapolis appeared in upgraded fine white uniforms, brown stockings and belts, and different colored caps for each position. Because of their new stockings the team would now be known as the Brown Stockings.

The Brown Stockings, much like their nearby river rival the St. Paul Red Caps joined the League Alliance in 1877 after a decade of purely amateur teams drifting through various spots in south Minneapolis. The League Alliance was the first semi-affiliated minor league baseball league. Proposed by Al Spalding on January 15, 1877. Independent baseball teams were to affiliate with National League teams, which would honor their respective contracts. The league only existed for one season, 1877, though another version was attempted in 1882. The League Alliance, a loose association of 13 clubs from the Midwest and East and featured clubs from Syracuse, Memphis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Fall River and Lowell, Massachusetts.

The 1877 Minneapolis Browns rostered some of the earliest players to play at the highest level of Major League Baseball:

Mike Brannock - Chicago White Stockings (1871, 1875)

Dory Dean - Cincinnati Reds (1876)

Charlie Eden - Chicago White Stockings (1877)

Bill Gleason - St. Louis Brown Stockings (1882-87), Philadelphia Athletics (1888), Louisville Colonels (1889), 1886 World Series Champion

Jack Gleason - St. Louis Brown Stockings (1877, 1882-83), Louisville Eclipse (1883), St. Louis Maroons (1884-85), Philadelphia Athletics (1886)

Sonny Hoffman - Cleveland Blues (1879)

Dan O�Leary - Providence Grays (1879), Boston Red Stockings (1880), Detroit Wolves (1881), Worcester Ruby Legs (1882), Cincinnati Outlaw Reds (1884)

Bill Phillips - Cleveland Blues (1879-84), Brooklyn Grays (1885-87), Kansas City Cowboys (1888)

whitehse · #4 07-05-2020, 11:26 PM

Very cool!

I live about a half hour from Janesville, Wi and am there quite often. I think it is awesome to find local "stuff" such as this.

Duluth Eskimo · #5 07-06-2020, 11:07 PM

Awesome pick up Taylor

Tay1038 · #6 07-13-2020, 02:28 PM

1965-68 Ozzie Virgil Sr. Hillerich & Bradsby Game Used Bat

Virgil made his minor league debut in 1953 in St. Cloud, Minnesota in the Northern League. After spending the 1956 season with the Minneapolis Millers, Virgil made his major league debut that fall for the New York Giants.

On September 23, 1956, Virgil became the first player from the Dominican Republic to play Major League Baseball. On June 6, 1958 he became the first black ballplayer for the Detroit Tigers, who were among the last teams to break the racial barrier.

The Minneapolis Millers had four players to break the MLB color barriers - Monte Irvin (NYG), Hank Thompson (STLB), Ozzie Virgil (DET) and Pumpsie Green (BOS)

CooperstownExpert · #7 07-15-2020, 07:25 PM

Pee Wee Wanninger played 6 years for St. Paul. He's an interesting footnote to the two longest consecutive games played streaks behind Ripken.

Cal Ripken holds the all-time record for consecutive games played with 2,632. Second on the list is Lou Gehrig with 2,130; third is Everett Scott with 1,307. Pee Wee Wanninger is tied to both men directly behind Ripken.

In the 1925 season a 32-year old Scott was slipping at shortstop and at the plate. When Yankee manager Miller Huggins saw fit to bench Scott and end the streak, he turned to the rookie Wanninger. On May 5th, 1925 Wanninger started in place of Scott to end what is still the third longest run in MLB history.

Four weeks later Huggins called on 22-year old Lou Gehrig to pinch hit for Wanninger in what would be the start of Gehrig�s own streak.

Here is Wanninger�s player�s contract for the 1925 season in which he helped stop and start two of baseball�s most prolific consecutive games streaks. The front page is also signed by Hall of Fame executive Ban Johnson.

Each of the names that have link that directs to their pages on my website. It's got autographs of all but three Hall of Famers who debuted in the big leagues since 1900. There are also almost 300 other pages with autographs of guys not in Cooperstown. Thanks for looking.

I hope everyone stays healthy,.

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