Calvin Griffith
Calvin Griffith | |
---|---|
Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins | |
Notable work | Relocated the Senators to Minneapolis–Saint Paul to create the Twins (1960) |
Baseball career |
|
Member of the Canadian | |
Baseball Hall of Fame | |
Induction | 2010 |
Calvin Robertson Griffith (December 1, 1911 – October 20, 1999), born Calvin Griffith Robertson, was a Canadian-born American
On June 19, 2020, the Minnesota Twins removed his statue from Target Field regarding what the Twins called "racist comments he made in Waseca in 1978."[1][2]
Early life
He was born in
Clark and Addie Griffith had been concerned for some time about James' alcoholism. After he died, the childless Griffiths took Calvin and a sister, Thelma, into their Washington home in 1923, when Calvin was 11 years old. The two children both assumed the Griffith surname, even though they were never formally adopted.[5][6] Their mother and siblings moved to nearby Takoma Park, Maryland.
Griffith was a batboy for the Senators, including during their 1924 World Series championship.[7] During the 1925 World Series, United Press published short articles written by Griffith and the batboy for the opposing team, the Pittsburgh Pirates (who won the series).[8]
Baseball club ownership and operations
Washington (1955–1960)
The senior Griffith owned the Senators until his death at age 85 in October 1955; the team then passed into the hands of Calvin, 43, who had worked his way up through a variety of positions since the 1920s. After starting as a batboy, he attended
Other Robertson children also assumed important positions with the Senators. Three of Calvin's brothers — Sherry, Jimmy and Billy Robertson — became team executives, as did Thelma's husband, former pitcher Joe Haynes. Meanwhile, brother-in-law Joe Cronin, a Hall of Fame shortstop married to sister Mildred Robertson, served as playing manager of the Senators and then the Boston Red Sox. Cronin eventually became general manager of the Red Sox and then president of the American League. Calvin's son Clark Griffith II and nephews Bruce Haynes and Tom Cronin held executive posts in the Twins' front office.
On the field: Sluggers and struggles
Under Calvin's ownership, the left-field dimensions of cavernous
The 1956 club, with the new dimensions in place, slugged 63 long balls at their home park, and Washington clubs of the late 1950s featured powerful right-handed hitters like Roy Sievers, Jim Lemon, Bob Allison and Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew. Sievers (1957) and Killebrew (1959) established a new Senators' single-season home run record with 42 blasts to lead (or, in Killebrew's case, co-lead) the American League in that category.
However, the Washington pitching staff bore the immediate brunt of the changes to the ballpark. The 1955 Senators posted a 4.62 staff earned run average—4.01 at Griffith Stadium.[12] One year later, the staff ERA jumped to 5.33—with an abysmal 5.55 ERA at home.[13] To Griffith's credit, however, his pitching staff (led by ace right-hander Camilo Pascual) began to post respectable earned run averages beginning in 1958 and by 1960, the Senators' ERA was down to 3.77 (3.88 at Griffith Stadium).[14]
Calvin Griffith also invested in Washington's traditionally weak
Griffith also began to invest, cautiously, in
Off the field: Relocation efforts
But the results of Griffith's efforts were initially hard to detect. The 1956–59 Senators averaged 95 losses each season, with three last place finishes in a row (1957–59). Attendance hovered below 500,000 until 1959, when it improved to 615,000. The
Even before his uncle's death, Calvin had doubts about whether the Senators could survive in Washington. Not only was Griffith Stadium the smallest stadium in the majors, but the surrounding neighborhood had already gone to seed.
By this time, it was an open secret that the Senators were a candidate for relocation. Like his uncle before him, Griffith had no income apart from the Senators. However, American League owners were reluctant to antagonize the
Even then, however Griffith had begun to seriously discuss moving his club to the
At the same time, Twin Cities-based owners won a franchise in the new Continental League, which served in part to turn the spotlight on Griffith's financial struggles in Washington. However, when he sought permission to move there for the 1959 season, the other American League owners turned him down again.[15]
As the Senators' future was being debated off the field, the
Minnesota (1961–1984)
1961–1970: Contenders and a championship
Just five years after his uncle's death, Calvin Griffith moved the Senators to Minneapolis–Saint Paul in 1961. Well aware of the bitter century-long rivalry between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Griffith was determined not to offend fans on either side of the Mississippi River. Rather than name the team after either city, he made the then-unprecedented decision to name the team after its home state, christening it the Minnesota Twins.
At first the Twins took a step backward, winning only 70 of 160 games in 1961's new, longer American League schedule. But they drew 1.26 million fans to Metropolitan Stadium, 200,000 more than their most successful season in Washington. (Meanwhile, the Twins' second-largest shareholder, Washington businessman H. Gabriel Murphy, filed suit in federal court seeking to block the franchise shift; his legal battle with Griffith lasted for eight years.)
Despite the poor debut of the Twins on the field, Griffith's farm system continued to bear fruit. In
Griffith's efforts came together when the
The Twins won 89 or more games for four of the next five seasons. Only the injury-plagued
1971–1984: Decline and rebuilding
With the exception of future Hall of Famer
Additionally, Metropolitan Stadium, which had been the biggest factor in Griffith's move west, was already obsolete despite being just over 20 years old. However, there weren't enough revenue streams available to extend its useful life. There were only bleacher seats along the third base line, but the Twins couldn't afford to replace them with permanent seats. Talk of a new stadium began as early as 1970. Finally, the Metrodome opened in downtown Minneapolis in 1982. However, Griffith initially balked at signing a 30-year lease at the new stadium, instead opting for a provision that allowed the Twins to break the lease if average attendance fell below 1.4 million or the average attendance for the American League as a whole, whichever was lesser.[15]
The last five full seasons of Griffith's ownership (1979–83) witnessed only two .500 or better teams, and attendance fell below one million fans at both Metropolitan Stadium and the Metrodome. Behind the scenes, however, the Twins' farm system was stepping up its development of young talent. Griffith's roster in 1984, the year during which he sold the Twins, included Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Tim Laudner and Frank Viola, all key members of the Twins' 1987 world championship team.
Sale to Pohlad
In 1973, as one of the Junior Circuit's longest-serving owners, Griffith was elected vice president of the American League, a post once held by his late uncle Clark; he served in the position into the 1980s. However, by the 1980s, the changes in baseball brought about by free agency proved too much for Griffith; by this time, he was the last MLB owner who had no income apart from his baseball team. In 1984, Griffith sold the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad on August 15. Calvin and Thelma's controlling 52 percent stake reportedly fetched $32 million, a handsome return on their uncle's purchase of a stake in the then-Senators in 1912 for $27,000 (he effectively acquired controlling interest in 1919). Pohlad then acquired Murphy's 40.4 percent interest through the Tampa Bay Baseball Group for a reported $11.5 million.[20][6] The transaction ended almost 65 years of Griffith family ownership. He stayed on for a time as chairman of the board.
Legacy
Allegations of racism
Griffith became well known for his public statements. Wrote Sports Illustrated in 1983: "Griffith long ago established himself as one of sport's most accessible and quotable owners. Reporters could rap on his door, enter and fill their note pads with sentences so coarse in honesty and so magnificently mangled in syntax that some began to enjoy him. He was quoted last year as saying that rookie center fielder Jim Eisenreich was 'doomed to be an All-Star'."[21]
"He'll either be the best manager in baseball — or the worst", he said when he gave a young Billy Martin his first manager job[22] after the 1968 season. A year later, Griffith became the first owner to fire Martin, despite Martin's having led the Twins to 97 victories and the 1969 American League West Division title. The firing—which stemmed from Martin's well-publicized, alcohol-fueled assaults on 20-game-winning pitcher Dave Boswell and team executive Howard Fox—was highly unpopular with many Twins' fans.[23] However, even before then, a number of Twins executives had received complaints about Martin's heavy drinking on road trips.[24] When he was asked who would replace Martin as the Twins' 1970 manager, Griffith replied, "I guarantee you one thing. I won't do anything rational."[21]
However, Griffith's off-the-cuff remarks landed him in more serious trouble in September 1978, and drew charges of racism. Speaking at a
"I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when we found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ballgames, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. We came here because you've got good, hardworking white people here."[26]
He went on to call Carew a "damn fool" for accepting a below-market $170,000 annual salary when he was actually worth "a lot more than that."[27] Griffith denied charges of bigotry,[27] but his Waseca remarks allegedly spurred Carew's trade before the 1979 season and "haunted Calvin for the rest of his life."[25]
Upon hearing the comments for the first time before a game, Carew stated: "I will not ever sign another contract with this organization. I don’t care how much money or how many options Calvin Griffith offers me. I definitely will not be back next year. I will not come back and play for a bigot," further stating, "He respects nobody and expects nobody to respect him. Spit on Calvin Griffith."[28] Carew's anger seemed to lessen by 1991 when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and called Griffith to thank him for jump-starting his career. Carew claimed that Griffith was "the first person" he called after being inducted.[19]
In June 2020, Carew issued a response to the removal of Griffith's statue that acknowledged that the controversial comments Griffith made were “irresponsible, wrong and hurtful.”[19] However, Carew also downplayed the public remarks he made in 1978 regarding his departure from the Twins, and stated that a basis for his trade to the Angels was the fact that both he and Griffith agreed that he should play a team which could pay him better, stating, "When he traded me prior to the 1979 season, Calvin told me he wanted me to be paid what I was worth. Later that year the Angels made me the highest paid player in baseball. A racist wouldn't have done that."[19] Carew went on to say he had forgiven Griffith for his mistake and did not believe that he was a racist, noting he believed Griffith's “thoughts on race evolved over time”. While Carew always supported the statue of Griffith, he stated that he understood and respected the Twins' decision to remove it.[19]
Death
Griffith died in Melbourne, Florida, on October 20, 1999, at the age of 87 from complications related to pneumonia, a kidney infection and a high fever.[29] He was buried in Washington, D.C., a city he rarely visited after moving the Senators to Minnesota.
Griffith was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.[30]
References
- ^ @Twins (June 19, 2020). "The #MNTwins removed the Calvin Griffith statue from Target Field this morning" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Williams, Brandt. "Twins remove Calvin Griffith statue from Target Field over racist remarks". MPR News.
- ^ a b "Letters from Quebec Day Induction at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame," Seamheads.com
- ^ Grahek, Mike, Clark Griffith. SABR Biography Project
- ISBN 0786409932.
- ^ a b c Sharp, Andrew (2017). "Washington Senators I team ownership history". Society for American Baseball Research.
- ^ Richman, Milton (March 11, 1979). "Washington Needs Griffith Economy". Miami Herald. p. 3-C. Retrieved December 16, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- Lancaster New Era. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. UP. October 9, 1925. p. 17. Retrieved December 16, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Griffith, Calvin Robertson, interview by William Cooper. April 22, 1977, A. B. "Happy" Chandler: Desegregation of Major League Baseball Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
- ^ Box score: 1945-09-07, Retrosheet
- ^ Home/road splits, 1945 Washington Senators, from Retrosheet
- ^ a b Home/road splits, 1955 Washington Senators, from Retrosheet
- ^ Home/road splits, 1956 Washington Senators, from Retrosheet
- ^ Home/road splits, 1960 Washington Senators from Retrosheet
- ^ a b c d e Gary Olson (2017). "Minnesota Twins team ownership history". Society for American Baseball Research.
- ^ a b Steinberg, Dan (October 21, 2014), "Calvin Griffith Once Considered Moving the Senators to San Francisco." The Washington Post
- ^ "The short history of the Minnesota Twins' Calvin Griffith memorial". MinnPost. 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2021-11-04.
- SBNation.
- ^ a b c d e Carew, Rod. "STATEMENT FROM ROD CAREW ON CALVIN GRIFFITH" (PDF). KSTP. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 22, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ "Owners Approve Sale of the Twins". The New York Times. Associated Press. August 15, 2014. Retrieved 2017-03-23.
- ^ a b Smith, Gary (4 April 1983), "A Lingering Vestige of Yesterday," Sports Illustrated
- ^ "Calvin Griffith". Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. 28 January 2010. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
- The Minneapolis Star Tribune
- ISBN 978-0-544-02294-2.
- ^ a b Hennessey, Kevin, Calvin Griffith: The Ups and Downs of Baseball's Last Family-Owned Team Society for American Baseball Research
- ^ Coleman, Nick (October 1, 1978). "Griffith spares few targets in Waseca remarks". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on May 1, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
- ^ a b Sinker, Howard (April 30, 2014), "Recalling Ex-Twins Owner Griffith's Bigoted Outburst." Minneapolis Star Tribune
- ISBN 9781682261095.
- ^ Staff, George Diaz of The Sentinel. "Former Twins Owner Griffith is Dead at 87". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ^ Letters from Quebec: Induction Day at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Part Two, by Bill Young, at seamheads.com; URL accessed October 23, 2010
Preceded by Clark Griffith 1920–1955 |
Owner of the Washington Senators (I)/Minnesota Twins 1955–1984 |
Succeeded by Carl Pohlad 1984–2009 |
External links
- Minor league playing and managing record, from Baseball Reference
- "The Last of the Pure Baseball Men," Atlantic Monthly profile by Michael Lenehan, 1981
- BaseballLibrary – career highlights
- Minnesota Public Radio - Calvin Griffith Dead at 87
- Washington Post - Leaving for the Last Time
- ESPN - Griffith dies after developing kidney infection
- Interview with Jon Kerr, author of Calvin: Baseball's Last Dinosaur, interviewed by Stew Thornley, NORTHERN LIGHTS Minnesota Author Interview TV Series #176 (1991)
Further reading
- Jon Kerr, Calvin: Baseball's Last Dinosaur (Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, 1990)
- David Anderson, Quotations From Chairman Calvin (Brick Alley Books Press, Stillwater, 1984)