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SAINT PAUL – 30 years after beginning his professional career with the Saints, Kevin Millar returns to his first baseball home to see his jersey number 15 retired. The St. Paul Saints cowboyed up the number 15 for all time in honor of 1993 Saint Kevin Millar. As the Saints celebrated their 30th year, Millar became the first player in Saints history to have their jersey number retired. “This year I have my jersey retired at Lamar University in June and we [Millar’s family] talked about coming out here in August and it's truly an honor. While you're playing, all I did was I love baseball, and I wasn’t the best player on the field. I just loved the game more than anybody. Now to look back and you don't realize, as a player, some of the lives that you touch along the way and the fans,” said Millar. Throughout his professional career, Millar had three separate stints with the Saints. The first came in 1993. He was the primary third baseman for the team and played in 63 games hitting .260 with five home runs and 30 RBI. Millar’s '93 performance was impressive to the eyes of Saints co-owner Mike Veeck, who referred him to the Florida Marlins in a September scouting phone call. On September 20, 1993, the Marlins purchased Millar’s contract from the Saints and the rest is history. Millar’s ties to the state of Minnesota date back further than his 1993 season with the Saints. Millar’s uncle Wayne Nordhagen, born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, played eight seasons in the big leagues making his MLB debut with the White Sox in 1976. Nordhagen debuted with the same jersey number his nephew had retired Saturday evening. Millar remembered the influence his uncle had on him as both a person and a ball player saying, “I looked up to him. He’s still doing great. Everybody always asked, who's your favorite player. As a Dodgers fan, it was Pedro Guerrero. But my uncle Wayne was always here for me. He would always tell me, do your push-ups and get your hands strong. When the White Sox would play the Angels, and he would not start, he was on the bench, so I wasn’t a big fan of Tony LaRussa for that.” One of the highlights of that 1993 season for Millar was playingwithg his first Baseball Hall of Fame teammate, who just entered Cooperstown this year; Minnie Minoso. Minoso also played alongside his uncle Nordhagen during the 1976 and 1980 seasons. In addition to Minoso, Nordhagen also played with Millar’s 1993 Saints teammate Leon Durham. For Millar, this was the next best thing to having his uncle as a teammate as Nordhagen retired after the 1983 season. “Going full circle, you had Leon Durham who played with Wayne with the Cubs in '83 with him and Minoso who played with the White Sox, with uncle Wayne. I was always a fan of Minnie, and here he was playing a game for us, I think it was his sixth or seventh decade. That's what makes the Saints unbelievable is all the different and the cool stuff that they do. It makes it all fun. It's baseball and you're having fun,” said Millar. Not only will Millar be a Saint forever, but he also leaves a legacy behind that helped pioneer a path to the Majors for independent league players who go undrafted. A recent example of this is Cold Spring, Minnesota’s own Joey Stock, who is currently a relief pitcher with the Boston Red Sox High A affiliate, the Greenville Drive. (Get to know more about Joey Stock here.) Stock was signed as an undrafted free agent after pitching the 2020 Northwoods League season with the St. Cloud Rox. With his jersey retired, Millar joins former Saints coach Wayne Terwilliger (number 22) and manager George Tsamis (number 5) as the third number retired in franchise history. Millar reflected on his last leg with the Saints as a player and coming back for the highest honor any sports franchise can bestow on a player. “At 38, I knew I'd come back here and finish my career. Then seven years later getting back here at 45 years old hit a home run on the second pitch of my only at-bat. Doesn't make sense, but it happened. Now my jersey is retired and it's such a great honor. I'm so thankful, so blessed for this opportunity because I really truly believe that the Saints family is part of my family.” View full article