My Vintage Minneapolis Millers & St. Paul Saints Collection
 

Over the years I primarily collected Minnesota Twins memorabilia. Now as I start switching gears, I thought I would try something NEW and create a thread to show off my Minneapolis Millers & St. Paul Saints collection as it progresses. Hope you enjoy!

1956 Minneapolis Millers Home Flannel #27

1947 St. Paul Saints Home Uniform #22 - Worn by Otho Nitcholas.

Same season Duke Snider played for the Saints! Duke wore #23!

Those of us who collect minor league teams can appreciate just how difficult it can be to find uniforms...those are outstanding!

Game used bats from Bill Rigney, Foster "Babe" Ganzel, Bubbles Hargrave.

The start of my Minneapolis Millers bat collection!

c. 1958-60 Minneapolis Millers & c. 1947-60 St. Paul Saints Game Worn Caps

The Minneapolis Millers cap is signed by Bob" Riverboat" Smith, Paul Smith and Al Schroll. Has vintage writing on the leather head band that reads, "I Frozen Rabbit Track" and "Whitey Cepeda" inside the leather head band. I have been unable to identify who or what this relates to. Any ideas?

Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington, Minnesota (1956-1981) stadium ticket booth sign!

One of my favorite artifacts in my collection - The Millers played here until they folded after the 1960 season with the arrival of the Minnesota Twins in 1961. I was able to photomatch the sign to a home video from 1980 that was posted on YouTube. You can see the exact matches to the font deficiencies throughout. There is white paint over the numerals that were changed to accommodate the price changes. Although this sign may or may not have been around when the Millers occupied the park – it still remains a unique piece from the Old “Met”

Awesome collection! Love all of it - flannels, bats, seats and signs. Keep 'em coming.

GREAT collection! Thanks for sharing this with us. Very cool....

Nice collection. Thanks for sharing.

So that's what a focused collection looks like? Very nice.

Very nice collection indeed.

Great collection. Here is one of Zach Wheat when he played for the Millers. This is Zach and his son in 1928.

Thanks everyone for the great response. A forum member on here helped me immensely over the last year - selling me a few treasures out of his collection.

Kenny - great photograph! Thank you for posting! I would enjoy seeing other items (game used, unique photos, memorabilia) in others collection related to the Minneapolis Millers & St. Paul Saints should anyone want to share!

Great collection.

Jeff

^^^^^

gotta love that 60's architecture!

Am I to assume that you're in the Twin Cities area? I can't imagine finding that stuff in many other places.

Here's a story about a bat I obtained from Dave Grob. It's of Nick Allen, a fellow Kansan, that happened to play for both Minneapolis and St. Paul. A picture of the bat is included in the story.

http://www.mearsonline.com/index.php...t01returnid=98

I love seeing the old Millers / Saints memorabilia being from the land of 10,000 lakes. Great collection

If you have not seen this you'll dig it. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200401A24.html

I love this collection! I'm originally from Minnesota and am a huge Twins fan. Do you have a thread here showing off your Twins stuff?

My wife is headed to Minneapolis today and will be bringing back the Metrodome seat I purchased. I really love that old Met seat too. I gotta get me one of those.

Thanks for sharing!

Awesome pickup- congrats! :)

I did some research with the seller of the Lexington Park chair I own. The original owner of the chair was part of the demolishing of Lexington Park around 1957 or 58’ and they told him he could take home whatever he wanted. He took home five chairs. This is one of the five. With some additional research from the person I purchased it from – attached is a team photo from 1947 and a picture of Mike Kelley from 1939, then President of the ball club sitting on the same style chair.

Null

St Paul Saints Stock Certificate
 

On e-Bay right now (not mine nor so I know the seller)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/St-Paul-Sain..._qi=RTM1562572

v/r
Dave Grob

DaveGrob1@aol.com

Has anyone ever seen a photo of the 1915 Minneapolis Millers? Looking for a shot with my great-grandfather Billy Sullivan Sr.

Just this one from one of the guides (Spalding?, Reach?, can't remember):

Many thanks

Billy Sullivan
 

Your great grandfather did not have an individual photo in the 1915 program, but I thought you might enjoy a team photo in uniform of the 1915 team if he is in this one. I also took a shot of the score page to show his spot as catcher on the team. If you would like something better for display, contact me directly. Jason

I don't think he's in that photo. It is possible that he is the guy in the middle in black, but I don't think so. He may have joined the team late, after he was cut by Comiskey. Cool to see the score page, though. Many thanks - Paul

Williams Millers Piece
 

Figured I would add my/ my sons only Williams Miller Piece to the thread... A very large newspaper advertisement announcing the winners of the Millers 1938 put the face with the name contest...

A Young Ted is smack dab in the middle and coincidentally was #9

One of my few Millers

Great stuff guys!

Jason - I may be interested in your 1915 program if you decide you would like to sell..

Fantastic stuff. Need to do something similar for my Louisville Colonels collection...........

Thought I would post this here. I also posted on the May pick-ups on the main forum. It is no where as cool as what most of you guys have, but hey, it is a Millers (and my first Millers)! I hope you guys like it(it also bumps this thread:)).

1923 Minneapolis Millers ticket
 

I just rediscovered a 1923 vintage Miller's ticket that I bought many years ago and thought it belonged in this thread.

It looks like the Miller's split the twinbill with the Toledo Mudhens, winning the first game 3-2 and losing the second game 4-2. The scores are neatly written on the back in vintage steel tipped fountain pen.

"Sawatski"- what a great name! Could he really swat the ball?

He had 202 career homeruns in 8 season in the minors. 1945 he had a team high 45 homeruns with Nashville Volunteers. Not bad! Another famous Miller, Babe Barna was a close second with 42 homeruns that year. His MLB stats not so favorable.

Wes Westrum
 

Ty,

FYI, Wes Westrum was the pitching coach for the NY Mets while Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan and Gary Gentry pitched for the 1969 Miracle Mets.

Great collection.

I will keep my eyes open for vintage St. Paul stuff and do what I can to help make sure it ends up with a good collector!

My great great uncle played for the St. Paul Saints in 1919 and 1920 in between stints with the Yankees. He was an outfielder and was one of the team batting leaders during those years. His name was Elmer Miller. Definitely some very cool memorabilia displayed here.

1921-24 Gavvy Cravath Hillerich & Bradsby Game Used Bat

I recently acquired one of the toughest Millers bats on my list. 1921-24 H&B Gavvy Cravath (NL home run champion). Cravath was one of baseball's top power hitters of the dead-ball era, in the seven years from 1913 to 1920 he led the National League in home runs six times. He's the guy who had the home run record before Babe Ruth came along. Special thank you to Brendan (BPM0014) for helping me land this bat.

This is amazing! I've give up body parts for something like this! Congrat's on your p/u.

Here's a pic of photo I've had in my collection for a while: 1949 Wright Studios - St. Paul Saints team photo featuring HOFer Walter Alston, 8.5 " X 15"

1958-60 Minneapolis Millers Road Flannel Jersey #8

Proud to share this newly discovered 1958-60 Minneapolis Millers Road Flannel Jersey. This would have been worn by Ed Sadowski in 1958-59 and/or Paul Smith in 1960. The Millers, a Boston Red Sox farm team managed by Gene Mauch, were the defending Junior World Series champions, and were making their third appearance in the minor-league classic in the last five years. Minneapolis was bolstered by the recent addition of a young second baseman named Carl Yastrzemski, who had joined the team during the Association playoffs and played out the 1960 season in this style uniform.

Can't help but share this fantastic style match to the famous 1959 Junior World Series photo featuring Fidel Castro.

Awesome jersey! And I'm glad you enjoy the Cravath bat!

Brendan

I found this Cuban newsreel on YouTube of the Havana Sugar Kings vs. Minneapolis Millers in the 1959 Junior World Series! Does anyone know how to extract a clip like this from YouTube onto a disc? I would love to have this video for my collection.

Watch clip here: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJAehLwu2aw

Ironically, you can catch Ed Sadowski in multiple frames batting and fielding wearing what likely is this uniform.

[QUOTE=Tay1038;1298721]Can't help but share this fantastic style match to the famous 1959 Junior World Series photo featuring Fidel.

Interesting photo. In looking at him in this picture, not able to figure at that time, the evil he was to be.
Thanks for the photo.

Pin
 

Great Collection! Thought I'd share my only Millers button...
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z228/andypcl/minmillers1_zpsca77da09.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo minmillers1_zpsca77da09.jpg"/></a>

It's a shame that pinbacks are pretty much a thing of the past :(.

Minneapolis Millers uniform, ca. 1900

Might be the earliest Millers uniform still in existence. My first dead-ball era uniform!

Very cool!

Wow, great collection - thanks for sharing it with us!

Thought you might like seeing these two items from my Don Zimmer collection.

1953 Minneapolis Star Newspaper file photo: Don Zimmer (St. Paul Saints) scores a run against the Minneapolis Millers (catcher is Ray Noble - played in Negro Leagues, PCL and Majors) April 28, 1953.

http://www.markgrace.com/zimmer53SAINTSPHOTO.jpg
http://www.markgrace.com/zimmer53SAINTSPHOTOB.jpg

1954 official American Association team signed ball of the St. Paul Saints, Zim's last stop in the minor leagues. This ball is autographed by Zimmer (bottom signature in lefthand photo), 19 other Saint teammates, and team manager Clay Bryant. 12 of the 20 players who signed this ball would go on to play in the Majors.

http://www.baseballcardstars.com/zim...s/1954ball.jpg
http://www.baseballcardstars.com/zim.../1954ballb.jpg

As a Minnesota collector myself (Twins) I salute you sir...
 

Great collection!

Brad, nice pair of Zimmer items!

Metropolitan Stadium turnstile

Thanks to a friend and fellow collecting enthusiast, I was able to add a seldom seen Metropolitan Stadium turnstile to my collection. The Minneapolis Millers were the first occupants of the "old met" from 1956-60.

1958-59 Pumpsie Green Hillerich & Bradsby Game Used Bat

He became the first black player on the Red Sox, the last team in the majors to integrate with his call-up from Minneapolis to Boston in 1959. Beautiful bat sourced from his time in Minneapolis.

I love this! I wish I could convince my wife to love it as well! :D

It would go great with my old Met seat.

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing. I've got a few random older Saints things. I've been a season ticket holder for the "new" Saints since 1993, so I've naturally got a ton of stuff from that franchise.

Historic 1877 St. Paul Red Caps original photographer display - Very 1st Professional Team in the State of Minnesota!

138 year old, 1877 St. Paul Red Caps photo display. All 9 of the starters from the very first professional baseball team in Minnesota are represented on this display. Photographer: Charles A. Zimmerman, who was an immensely popular photographer during this era. Thanks to a fellow N54 forum member, I found out this is a photographic proof. The larger images and wording were arranged and then another photograph was taken to create the finished composite photo from the photographer so he could then sell the smaller piece with all the players on it.

The transition from amateur to professional baseball in Minnesota happened before either the Saints or Millers existed, with the St. Paul Red Caps in 1877. The Red Caps won the League Alliance, a loosely affiliated league that hoped to rival the National League. The Red Caps played only one season because of money problems, and pro ball wasn't attempted again in St. Paul until 1884, when the St. Paul Base Ball Club, or White Caps, played nine road games in the Union Association.

Great piece Tay. Wow.

That is an incredible piece and well worth the money

That is an awesome piece! Love it!!

That's a cornerstone addition to your great MN baseball collection.
Congrats!

1956 St. Paul Saints Road Flannel #25

Added this uniform to the collection this week. Story behind it is that the seller's late husband played ball locally around town and in Mexico, along with trying out for multiple baseball clubs over the years. During one specific year, her husband tried out for a baseball cub that Rogers Hornsby was instructing - not sure if it was a minor league team or major league club. At some point during or after the tryout - Rogers Hornsby gifted her husband a jersey of his. The seller could not recall what it all looked liked. Later in life their daughter wore the Hornsby gifted jersey around college (Local private college), and one day it was stolen from her apartment while she was living in the dorms and this Saints jersey was left behind in exchange.