Roy Campanella & Willie Mays Dominated in their Twin Cities Minor-League Runs

[Greggory Masterson]

On their way to stepping over MLB’s color barrier, Roy Campanella and Willie Mays called Minnesota home. It was short, but it was memorable.

Image courtesy of © Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Looking back on Minnesota baseball history, Black players like Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield, Mudcat Grant, or Torii Hunter often stand out. Two names, even more recognizable, are often overlooked.

Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella was the sixth player to break the MLB color barrier and the third Brooklyn Dodger. He was on Branch Rickey’s shortlist of players he had signed to integrate baseball. As the son of a Black mother and an Italian-American father, he was seen as a candidate before Rickey settled on Robinson.

Before signing with the Dodgers in 1946, he spent nine years with the Negro Leagues Washington Elite Giants, having joined the team as a 15-year-old. In 1946, he was sent to Nashua, NH, after Brooklyn determined that the Danville Dodgers in Illinois was not a location prepared for integration.

He then spent 1947 in Montreal, where Robinson had played the year prior, rather than for the AAA St. Paul Saints. Again, the Dodgers feared the American Association was unprepared for integration.

Robinson broke the MLB color barrier in 1947, playing first base for the Dodgers, and Dan Bankhead became the second Black Dodger later that season. Campanella was knocking on the door of the big leagues, and at the beginning of the 1947 season, he registered his first MLB plate appearance as a Brooklyn Dodger, being hit by a pitch, as was the practice at the time for Black players. 

He played in a few more games in Brooklyn but was sent down to AAA as part of an early-season roster trim. Before becoming a fixture behind the plate for the Dodgers, he needed to make one more stop: Lexington Park in St. Paul.

Although not the first Black player to play in MLB, he was the first in the American Association. By public accounts, the Twin Cities welcomed him. Hitting a home run in six consecutive games with 20 RBI in a week will do that to a community.

Many wondered why it had taken so long for a Black player to come to play professional baseball on their fields, and Campanella made a case for more to be accepted into town. His success as a ballplayer was bittersweet for the fans, though; the better he played, the sooner he would be called up to Brooklyn.

Campanella spent only 39 memorable days in St. Paul, belting 13 home runs with a .325 batting average over 35 games. He left for Brooklyn amongst Minnesota well-wishers who became lifelong fans of the star catcher, supporting him from a distance.

For ten years, Campanella sat behind the plate for the Dodgers, seen as one of the top players in the game. He was an All-Star for eight consecutive years, winning the MVP three times. Unfortunately, his career was cut short due to a car accident that left him paralyzed, but in 1969, he was inducted into Cooperstown.

He may be more famous for his Hall of Fame plaque, or his mentions in Billy Joel’s We didn’t Start the Fire and Talkin’ Baseball by Terry Cashman, but for five weeks, he was the talk of the town in the Twin Cities. When he left town, there was excitement about more Black players playing for Minnesota teams.

Willie Mays
The Twin Cities didn’t have to wait long before an even more significant Black figure came along. Another New York team also had a Minnesota farm team in the American Association—the Minneapolis Millers—who would get their own slice of Black baseball in the form of the Say Hey Kid.

Willie Mays was the 17th player to cross the color barrier at the Major League level. Like Campanella, he began his professional career as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, playing for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948. Upon graduating high school in 1950, Mays had several contract offers but chose the New York Giants.

As a 19-year-old, Mays moved to Trenton to play in the Giant’s minor league system, seeing success, hitting .353 with four home runs in 81 games. The following year, 1951, he moved to Minneapolis to play for the AAA Millers.

If Twin Cities residents thought what Campanella did was special (and it was), they had a pleasant surprise with Mays. The 20-year-old, playing against a league of grown men seven years older than him on average, hit a blistering .477 with an absurd 1.323 OPS for the Millers.

His prowess with the bat wasn’t the only draw; he was also the most outstanding defensive centerfielder of his time (if not the greatest ever). The young man, who would go on to make a play simply known as “The Catch” just three years later in the 1954 World Series, was making highlight plays nightly in Minneapolis, including one catch climbing the wall in a style that Stew Thornley compared to Ken Griffey Jr. or Bo Jackson.

Those who did not learn their lesson about the fleeting nature of superstar prospects from Campanella’s time in the Twin Cities four years earlier had only themselves to blame for missing out on Mays tearing the diamond at Nicollet Park. He was in town for an even shorter time. Although he was with the team for 38 days—one fewer than Campanella. To make matters worse, the Saints were on the road at the beginning of his stay with the team, and he left the team for New York while they were on another road trip, actually staying in the Twin Cities for just over two weeks.

Mays didn’t even make it to June before leaving for New York. The spring weather had been poor, and many in town passed up a chance to see him, hoping to catch a game later in the season. So many had missed their opportunity that these people came to refer to themselves as the I Didn’t See Him Club.

Mays, too, left a group of lifelong fans in Minnesota. To soften the blow, the owner of the Giants, Horace Stoneham, wrote a letter published in local newspapers thanking the Twin Cities for supporting Mays and the Millers, promising to send additional talented players. He never sent anyone like Mays.

We can’t blame Stoneham for that, though, because only a handful of players in history are on Mays’s level—if anyone. That same year, he was named Rookie of the Year. Three years later, in 1954, he would make The Catch, win the World Series, and be named MVP. He won MVP again in 1965 and racked up 24 All-Star games in a 21-year career (the math checks out, I promise).

Mays ranks fifth all-time in WAR, per Baseball Reference, with 660 home runs (6th all-time) and 12 Gold Gloves. He was an all-around star, the likes of which we have not since seen. Mays, too, is enshrined in the chorus of Talkin’ Baseball and is one of the bastions of the sport. At 91, the 1979 Hall of Fame inductee still serves as one of the sport’s great ambassadors.

And the last thing he did before becoming all-caps WILLIE MAYS was amaze the spectators who braved the weather to watch him play home games in Minneapolis.

The sixth and seventeenth players to break the color barrier in MLB were Minnesota ballplayers the same year they made their historic entrances. Even if it was only for five weeks each, we should remember them in the annals of Minnesota baseball history.

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[flatlanddad]

Great article. Thanks for this history lesson!

Can you elaborate on how Willie Mays was in 24 all star games in only 21 seasons? 

[Greggory Masterson]

14 minutes ago, flatlanddad said:

Great article. Thanks for this history lesson!

Can you elaborate on how Willie Mays was in 24 all star games in only 21 seasons? 

Yes! From 1959-1962, they played two a year. They were within a month of each other and basically had the same rosters for both games. From what I know, it was something players were open to because it added money to the pension pool. 

[DJL44]

In hindsight it looks ridiculous that Campanella spent any time in the minor leagues at all. He was an estabilished Negro League star with 3 All-Star game appearances. His statistics agree that he was not challenged at those levels. What a waste of over 2 seasons of his short career.

[mikelink45]

I loved going to Millers games, although I missed Willie and Roy.  That was fun baseball.  WIllie will always be the greatest centerfielder.  No matter how bad they wanted Andruw Jones in the HOF, his short career cannot compete with Willie's overall and long value in the field.

Roy suffered a wait that was too long and his counting totals have to include the Negro Leagues.  I remember how sad it was to see him in a wheel chair, but he always had a smile.

Look at this list of HOF players who were Millers at some point:

• Orlando Cepeda (1957)
• Jimmy Collins (1909)
• Ray Dandridge (1949–1952)
• Red Faber (1911–12)
• George Kelly (1930–1931)
• Billy Herman (1948)
• Monte Irvin (1955) Another great player who only got 10 years in the big leagues because of prejudice.
• Willie Mays (1951)
• Rube Waddell (1911–1912)
• Zack Wheat (1928)
• Hoyt Wilhelm (1950–1951)
• Ted Williams (1938)
• Carl Yastrzemski (1960)

The games against the Saints were memorable and a pleasure for any baseball fan.  

[jkcarew]

Nice article…

But there was only one player that appeared in the Twin Cities and broke the color barrier for his club…and it wasn’t Mays or Campanella.

In July of 1959, a 25-year-old Pumpsie Green left the Minneapolis Millers (and an 882 OPS) to become the first African American to ever don the uniform of the Boston Red Sox.

Little know truth.

[Melissa]

12 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I loved going to Millers games, although I missed Willie and Roy.  That was fun baseball.  WIllie will always be the greatest centerfielder.  No matter how bad they wanted Andruw Jones in the HOF, his short career cannot compete with Willie's overall and long value in the field.

Roy suffered a wait that was too long and his counting totals have to include the Negro Leagues.  I remember how sad it was to see him in a wheel chair, but he always had a smile.

Look at this list of HOF players who were Millers at some point:

• Orlando Cepeda (1957)
• Jimmy Collins (1909)
• Ray Dandridge (1949–1952)
• Red Faber (1911–12)
• George Kelly (1930–1931)
• Billy Herman (1948)
• Monte Irvin (1955) Another great player who only got 10 years in the big leagues because of prejudice.
• Willie Mays (1951)
• Rube Waddell (1911–1912)
• Zack Wheat (1928)
• Hoyt Wilhelm (1950–1951)
• Ted Williams (1938)
• Carl Yastrzemski (1960)

The games against the Saints were memorable and a pleasure for any baseball fan.  

What a list! And thanks to Greggory for this story.

[Nine of twelve]

15 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Nice article…

But there was only one player that appeared in the Twin Cities and broke the color barrier for his club…and it wasn’t Mays or Campanella.

In July of 1959, a 25-year-old Pumpsie Green left the Minneapolis Millers (and an 882 OPS) to become the first African American to ever don the uniform of the Boston Red Sox.

Little know truth.

And that made the Red Sox the last MLB team to integrate.

[terrydactyls]

17 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I loved going to Millers games, although I missed Willie and Roy.  That was fun baseball.  WIllie will always be the greatest centerfielder.  No matter how bad they wanted Andruw Jones in the HOF, his short career cannot compete with Willie's overall and long value in the field.

Roy suffered a wait that was too long and his counting totals have to include the Negro Leagues.  I remember how sad it was to see him in a wheel chair, but he always had a smile.

Look at this list of HOF players who were Millers at some point:

• Orlando Cepeda (1957)
• Jimmy Collins (1909)
• Ray Dandridge (1949–1952)
• Red Faber (1911–12)
• George Kelly (1930–1931)
• Billy Herman (1948)
• Monte Irvin (1955) Another great player who only got 10 years in the big leagues because of prejudice.
• Willie Mays (1951)
• Rube Waddell (1911–1912)
• Zack Wheat (1928)
• Hoyt Wilhelm (1950–1951)
• Ted Williams (1938)
• Carl Yastrzemski (1960)

The games against the Saints were memorable and a pleasure for any baseball fan.  

Remember when the fans were going wild at the old Nicollet Park?  That old wooden structure would shake so bad that I was afraid it would collapse!  I wonder if that's the reason I won't go on a roller coaster?