Shooter: Calvin Griffith, who brought the Twins to Minnesota, would have turned 109 this Tuesday.

[BleedGopher]

Thanks Shooter!

per Shooter:

The late Calvin Griffith, who brought the Twins to Minnesota, would have turned 109 this Tuesday.

Charley Walters: Ex-Woodbury standout Louis Ayeni thriving as Northwestern assistant

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www.twincities.com

Win Twins!!

 

[coolhandgopher]

So, I know it's Shooter and we've grown accustomed to bizarre little tidbits popping up in his column, but is there anything more random than this bit of news?

A. Griffith passed away in 1999.
B. If it was 100 years or 150 years, maybe that would be interesting??? But 109 years-is there something significant in that number that I'm missing?
C. While it may be true that Calvin G. brought the Twins here, it's not as if he's some beloved luminary who the Minnesota sports faithful write sonnets about. He was a racist skinflint.

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

So, I know it's Shooter and we've grown accustomed to bizarre little tidbits popping up in his column, but is there anything more random than this bit of news?

No, there is not anything more random than publishing the would be 109th birthday of someone who’s been dead for over 20 years. Maybe in six months they’ll have a note marking his half-birthday?

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Griffith has been condemned as a racist because of one speech he gave on a night when he was, by all accounts, over-served. Pat Reusse has written about some of the things Griffith did to help minority players over the years, including helping some older players qualify for their major league pensions. He also helped some of the Cuban players get family members out of Cuba when Castro was coming to power.

Yeah, he said a bunch of stuff that was stupid. But he did some good things, too.

And he was a darn good judge of talent. He pushed for Rod Carew to be moved up to the majors when some of the on-field staff was expressing doubts about Carew.

With Calvin, I tend to take the view from Randy Newman - "he may be a fool, but he's our fool."