The manager of the 1952 Aberdeen Pheasants and a former major league catcher commented on the hospitality in Aberdeen because so many players were invited into homes for meals: "I've managed 19 years and never seen a place like Aberdeen. I had to come before I'd believe all the stories the boys tell about Aberdeen at Spring training." Players called the Northern League the "Knife and Fork League".

Andy Etchebarren

Former Aberdeen Pheasant and long time major league catcher stated "We were all young kids away from home for the first time. In ten seconds, we were made to feel like part of the town. If I would have went to Lynchburg, VA, where I played two years later, instead of Aberdeen first, I bet I would have died. Lynchburg was cold, unfriendly. The Northern League was super."

Denny McLain

Former Duluth Duke, All Star Tiger pitcher, thirty game MLB winner and prison inmate was quoted: "I don't know if I ever got booed louder than one night in Aberdeen. It was Beer Night, and they were going to give away free beer the first two times the home team scored. The first four innings, I faced 12 batters and got them all out. Each time I walked off the mound, those fans booed louder and louder. At the end of the fourth, they were shaking the screen and yelling at me. In the fifth, I gave up a three-run homer . When I walked off the mound, I got a standing ovation and they tried to hand me cups of beer through the fence. If I had pitched a shutout, I don't think I would have gotten out of town."

Hank Aaron

One of the top ten baseball players who ever played, wrote in "I Had a Hammer" about his season in the Northern League:

"We played a double header at Comiskey Park in Chicago on June 8 <1952> and then I put that cardboard suitcase on the train for Milwaukee, where I caught a little North Central Air Lines two-engine commuter bound for fame, fortune and Eau Claire, WI. I'll never forget that plane. It was the first flight of my life and the worse flight. I was a nervous wreck, bouncing around in the sky over a part of the country I'd hardly ever heard about, much less been to, headed for a white town to play with white boys. The team was on the road when I arrived in Eau Claire and I checked into the YMCA. There were two other black players on the club, and they shared a room there - Julie Bowers, a catcher from New Jersey, and John Covington, a big, good-looking guy and left handed outfielder from North Carolina. Covington would later become my teammate in Milwaukee where we knew him as Wes. It was obvious that he was a big league talent and pretty obvious that Julie wasn't. Julie was a solid player, but he had no dreams about making the majors. He was the type of black player you always found on minor-league teams back then - an older guy who was there to provide company for the younger black players and keep them out of trouble.

"We were not the first black players in Eau Claire. Two years before, Bill Bruton had been there along with a pitcher name Roy White. Bruton was named Rookie fo the Year in the Northern League, and the next year was the best rookie was another black player for Eau Claire, an outfielder named Horace Garner. Bruton and Garner - and to some extent, myself, although I didn't realize it yet - were the players who were being counted on to clear the way for all blacks in the Braves' organization. Bruton certainly made things a lot easier for the rest of us in Eau Claire. He was a great outfielder, and exciting base runner and a gentleman. By the end of the season there, he was the most popular player on the team - and that was no small thing in a town where the women and girls were warned not to walk down the street with him.

"Eau Claire was not a hateful place for a black person - nothing like the South - but we didn't exactly blend in. The only other black man in town was a fellow who used to stand on the street corner flipping a silver dollar. Wherever I went in Eau Claire , I had the feeling that people were watching me, looking at me as though I were some kind of strange creature. I remember eating breakfast at a table next to a young family and a girl about seven years old was staring at me so hard that she didn't touch her food. Another time, I was walking through the parking lot after a game and I noticed a man just standing against his car gawking at me. It made you feel like you should start tap-dancing or something.

"If it was strange for those white folks in Eau Claire to be around black people, it was just as strange for me to be around them. There was nothing in my experience that prepared me for white people. I wasn't much of a talker anyway, but in Eau Claire you couldn't pry my mouth open. It didn't take much to tell that my way of talking was different than the way people talked in Wisconsin , and I felt freakish enough as it was. I might not have said fifty words all summer if it hadn't been for Wes and Julie and a white family that sort of adopted me. They were big supporters of the team - Eau Claire was that sort of town - and for some reason, this family just took a liking to me. Especially the daughter. She was a teenager, like me, and we'd set out on the porch holding hands. Nobody made a big deal about it, but we made sure we didn't go out in public together. Once she and I and Wes and Julie and a bunch of girls went to a big hangout called Elks Mound, out in the country, and somehow a bunch of local guys found out and came looking for us. I don't know what they would have done if they had found us, but I wasn't eager to find out. The girls hid us in the bushes until they were gone.

"But that sort of thing didn't worry me as much as the idea of playing ball against white boys. I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life that you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before... I batted seventh in the order and when I came up in the second inning for my first time at bat in organized baseball, I was more nervous that it was my first time at bat against a white pitcher... When I hit a hard single over third base against a lefthander for St. Cloud named Art Rosser, I knew that every thing would be fine... The next night, I ended the game by starting a double play, but Covington was the hero with two home runs, one of them a 400 foot grand slam. He was the power hitter on the team and drove in the big runs. I batted second in the order after the first night and didn't hit a home run until my second week. It was in the tenth inning against a lefthander for Fargo-Moorhead named Reuben Stohs, who later became a doctor of psychology and developed personality tests for major-league ball clubs...

"What made it worse for me in Eau Claire was an incident that affected me on the field. About a week after I got there, we were playing Superior when somebody hit a ground ball to our second baseman. He tossed the ball to me, because there was a man on first - a catcher named Chuck Wiles - and when I threw on to get the double play, the ball smacked Wiles square in the forehead. They carried him off the field in a stretcher, unconscious. I don't think he ever played ball after that.* I felt horrible and on top of everything else, they booed me in Superior every time I came to bat for the rest of the season. Around the same time, I was taking batting practice left handed toying with the idea of becoming a switch-hitter, when the bat slipped out of my hand and broke the nose of one of my teammates. After that, I never again tried to bat left-handed. I regret that now because after batting cross-handed for so long, I would have been a natural switch-hitter.

"...after a few weeks I was leading the league in hitting. Around the end of June, one of the Braves top scouts, Billy Southworth, came to watch us play. I thought I made a pretty good account of myself when he was there, but I was surprised to read in the local papers that, when he was asked about the best prospects on the team, the only player he mentioned was a first baseman name Dick Engquist. Covington and I were practically tearing up the league at the time... I still can't explain - but for some reason, he didn't want to single us out in the newspaper... I'm sure of this because I've seen the report that he filed about me. He wrote: 'For a baby faced kid of 18 years his playing ability is outstanding...'

"The first thing I found out about <manager Bill> Adair was that he was from Mobile, which I didn't receive as thrilling news... As it turned out, Adair was a fair and good manager - he was virtually a legend in Eau Claire - and he gave me every chance to prove myself. Apparently, though, I failed to impress him away from the batter's box. 'Nobody can guess his IQ', he wrote, 'because he gives you nothing to go on...The kid looks lazy, but he isn't. He may not be a major-league shortstop, but as a hitter he has everything.' I suppose the comments about my intelligence and my laziness could be taken the wrong way, but Adair was just reporting on what he saw: I didn't have anything to say, and I didn't run and sprint around the field like Pete Rose...

"In mid-July - a month after I reported to Eau Claire - I was selected to play in the Northern League All-Star game. The only catch was that the game was in Superior... I singled my first time up, but sprained my ankle trying to break up a double play - something that the Superior fans didn't find to be too unfortunate... Meanwhile, our team was turning things around. An infielder named John Goryl, who later played with the Cubs and Twins, and also managed the Twins, arrived in Eau Claire at about the same time I did and we went on a ten-game winning streak. We'd had a losing record before Goryl and I got there, but with the whole team in place we started to put some pressure on Superior, which led the league. We slowed down when Covington got hurt, though and it turned out that we were too thin in pitching to go all the way. At one point, a guy named Bobby Brown - not the future president of the American League, but a little left hander from Brooklyn - had to pitch both games of a double header against St. Cloud...and amazingly, won them both.

Goryl

"At that point, if people had known that one of our players would someday be the all-time, major league home run leader, everybody would have assumed that Covington would be the guy. Wes was loaded with natural power, but even so, he didn't lead the Northern League in home runs. That distinction went to a guy from Fargo-Moorhead named Frank Gravino, who had a beautiful swing but never made it to the big leagues because his eyes went bad. I didn't end up leading the league in hitting, either. I batted .336, but it wasn't good enough to hold off a black outfielder for Duluth, a former Negro League player named Joe Caffi who made it up with the Cleveland Indians a couple of years later. Our team finished third and the only thing I won that season was Rookie of the Year."

* <he didn't, but, his previous pro experience was in the low minors in 1945 and 1947-49>

Wes Covington

As quoted in Hank Aaron's "I had a Hammer":

"I got hit in the head one game in Eau Claire and had to spend about three weeks in the hospital. I was the first black person who ever went into the hospital there. I felt like a sideshow freak. They assigned different nurses to me every day so they could all get experience of being in my presence. Actually, I was treated very nicely. I received so many letters and flowers that they had to move me from a single room to a double. The nurses would open my mail and water the flowers for me. All but this one. One nurse, a lady who must have been sixty or seventy years old, had the job of putting water in my pitcher every day. The pitcher was on a tray by the door, and I'd look up and see this arm coming around the door and picking up the pitcher. Then the arm would come around and put the pitcher back. I never saw anything more than the arm. Then one day I was out of bed when she came and I looked at her. She just froze. I said something and she just stared at me. She poured that water very nervously, then left. I asked somebody about it later and they said she had just never seen a black person before and didn't know what to expect. Well, one day I was close enough to the door and handed her the pitcher. Then she started to acknowledge me, like bowing her head real fast. Finally, she said something. After that, we had a little conversation and by the time I left the hospital, she was sitting at the side of the bed talking to me like an old friend."

Reuben Stohs

Reuben gave up Hank Aaron's first professional hit. He was quoted in "I Had a Hammer":

"I remember our manager saying what a fantastic prospect Aaron was. I'd look twice at him and think, 'What do they see in this guy?' He wasn't impressive physically and his strike zone was from his shoes to the tip of his cap. But the quickness of his bat was amazing. When I pitched to him that night, I got him out on a curve the first time. In the tenth inning the count went to three and two and I threw a high fastball. I could see his eyes get wide. He went up on his toes to get that ball and just whipped it out of the park."

Ken Staples

The three time St. Cloud Rox manager was notorious for his hot headed actions. Aberdeen resident and Northern League president, Roland Parcel, once said: "Ford Frick didn't have as much trouble with Leo Durocher as I had with Ken Staples."

Charley Walters, columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a former player who played for Staples and the Minnesota Twins said about Ken: "Staples had the temperament of Billy Martin. I will never forget one night he got ejected to Mankato. That was nothing new, but this time he wouldn't leave. He laid down on his back right on top of the pitcher's mound and folded his arms behind his head. He didn't move for ten minutes. Finally, the cops came and picked him up and carried him away in a prone position. It was an incredible sight."

Jim Palmer

The hall of fame pitcher played on the 1964 pennant winning Aberdeen Pheasants. He is quoted as saying: "I remember three things about Aberdeen. One, I often had no clue where my fastball was going. Two, there wasn't a great deal to do but concentrate on baseball and I did. And three, when I went in the Hall of Fame I was moved by the number of people who introduced themselves and said they had come all the way from Aberdeen."

Cal Ripken, Sr., wrote about Jim in his book "The Ripken Way":

"Jim Palmer played for me in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in his first year in pro ball. He was the third starter on that club and he always sat on the bench and studied the hitters in between his starts. For an eighteen-year-old kid coming into pro ball, that was quite unusual. Usually an eighteen-year-old would pitch for a while before he would start to study the hitters, but Jim came into the game doing that and he did that his whole career. That's one of the reasons why he won so many games - 268 in nineteen seasons - and his career ERA in the big leagues was 2.86, which is just outstanding . He was also a guy who would welcome advice and suggested adjustments from his pitching coach.

"Jim was very intelligent when he came into professional baseball and that didn't change over his entire career. He had an idea of how he was going to pitch to the hitters on a ball club before he even took the mound. As a pitcher, that's one of the things that you have to do. It's a lot better when a pitcher does that, rather than putting an overall blanket on how he would pitch a hitter."

In his book "Palmer and Weaver", Jim discusses Dave Leonhard:

"It's December 1968...I'm getting $1,000 a month to play winter baseball, which is important since I have a family back in Baltimore. Finally, Hiram Quevas, the club owner, calls me in and tells me they're going to put me on the roster. But they're going to bump Davey Leonhard. I say, 'No, no, you can't do that. He's my best friend. My roommate from A ball in Aberdeen, SD'. And Quevas says, 'You worry about you!' and then gives me a little lecture about life and baseball. 'You take care of yourself. Davey's been down here before. I'll take care of Davey.'

"Davey Leonhard was probably my best friend in the Orioles in all the time I played. He always said he had no business playing in the majors and only did it as a summer job. It was actually sort of true. Davey had gone to Johns Hopkins University, which definitely made him the one and only big leaguer to go there. Now it's 1963 and he's teaching school and he's a social worker. It's summer and Davey and his friends always played in some sort of league and got summer jobs to make extra money. Davey had pitched in high school, was 0 and 2, and in his words, 'could never get anybody out.' Then he pitched for Hopkins and played a little better, like 3 and 2, but baseball at Hopkins is not at all like playing lacrosse for Hopkins, which is important and /or holy. In other words, they had a crummy record but no one knew it.

"But he did have a game or two where he threw pretty well, and his scout named Walter Youse had seen those games. So Davey goes into a sporting goods store to scrounge up equipment for his summer league guys and to get paid to play. Youse knows the guy who owns the store and gets Davey a 20 percent discount on a new pair of spikes. That was sort of his signing bonus. Not even a whole pair of spikes, just 20 per cent off. Well, this is too good to be true because Davey just wants somebody else to pay for the equipment. Anyway, in this sort of fairy-tale way, he pitches pretty well in the pro summer league and someone says, why not go to spring training with the Orioles. Why not? That's in Florida and the trip is free and Davey gets added to the roster and his meals are paid for even if it is only $3.00 per day and he can still go back and teach school afterward. So what if he's the only guy who gets a library card in every town we visit and if he happens to keep up on who runs Russia and what war we're in?

"Davey and I found each other, not because we shared a love of the game, but more because we could talk to each other without spitting a lot. He was there for the experience and enjoying every minute of it. He figured, at any moment they might discover he was this mediocre player from a lacrosse and pre-med school who was really a teacher and social worker. The fact was, Davey's education really was uncommon in the big leagues. He used words of more than one syllable and he knew a pronoun was not a ex-amateur noun and stuff like that."

Palmer described his first time playing for Earl Weaver , who managed the 1959 Aberdeen Pheasants:

"I thought 1967 was the beginning of the end of one of the shortest promising careers in major league baseball...First I had been sent to Triple-A where I met Earl Weaver and learned how he motivated by positive-negative approach ('Don't fuc* up! Stop fuc*ing up! At least, fuc* up less!') and found out what he didn't know about pitching ('throw sliders') and what he didn't know about pitching ('throw Johnny Bench a fastball, down the middle')."

Mike Augustin

The late sports writer for the St. Cloud and St. Paul newspapers once wrote about the pennant race of 1968: "Duluth-Superior had a two-game lead over St. Cloud with three games remaining...The Dukes played host to the Rox for the last three games at Wade Stadium in Duluth. St. Cloud won Saturday night and Sunday. The pennant-deciding game was on Labor Day afternoon. St. Cloud manager Carroll Hardy had his ace, Dave Goltz, ready.

"But, Goltz was not sharp. The Dukes touched him for seven runs in one-third of an inning to go ahead 7-0. A left-hander named Tom Ferraro relieved Goltz. Ferraro pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings. The Rox pecked away and won 8-7. Champagne flowed on the muggy Labor Day in Duluth. A decade later, Goltz had been a 20-game winner with the Twins and signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Dodgers. Ferraro had long since left the game, never advancing beyond the Polar Circuit."*

*<Actually, Tom did pitch in class A through 1970, which was his last year.>

Billy Burda

Billy played for the Duluth Dukes in 1947 and played a few games in AAA before retiring after the 1949 season. His memories after visiting a Dukes memorabilia display in 1990: "I wanted to see what they had. Hey, I saw my picture there. One from the paper with me, Paul Bowa, who was the playing manager, our first baseman, Nick Pole and Carl <Casshie> here with young Larry <Bowa> on our lap. He was 18 months old that summer, a cute little kid with curly hair and Paul had him at the ball park a lot. I see his picture now and he looks just like his dad."

The Dukes finished in fourth place that year by one percentage point. "We should've done better then that," Burda said. "We had a good team. We had some guys who could hit, field and throw. We should've had a better season. Just never jelled.

"We had a good rivalry with Superior and had a lot of fun. Used to draw some big crowds. Aberdeen had the best club in the league. Bob Turley* and Don Larsen, the guy who pitched the perfect game in the World Series, were their pitchers.". Billy continued, "I wish we could have played Aberdeen in the playoffs. I had a feud going with their manager and second baseman, Don Heffner. I'd like to have played them one more time."

Burda talked about his attempts to get to the majors: "There was always a guy named Schoendienst blocking my way to St. Louis". He also remembered hearing about the bus crash that killed five Dukes in 1948: "Remember Steve Lazar <one of the five>? Steve and I roomed together when we were in the Ohio State League in '46. Before the war, Lazar was ahead of Schoendienst in the farm system. Was considered a better player. He went into the service. Red never did and he moved right up to St. Louis. But Lazar was one heck of a second baseman. Walter Shannon, who was the farm director for the Cardinals, told me about the crash. I was in Columbus. It was an awful thing. Peanuts <Peterson> had played with us on the '47 Dukes. And that big pitcher <Don Schuchmann>. He and I signed at the same time.

"Back in our day, you had to love the game to play. There was no money in it, to speak of. Maybe $250 a month, tops. A couple bucks a day on the road for meals. Not like today. But maybe we had more fun. There sure are a lot of good memories."

* <actually, Turley did not play in Aberdeen until 1949>

Lou Piniella

In his book "Sweet Lou" Piniella had these remembrances about the summer of 1964 when he played in the Northern League:

"In July I was discharged from the service and rejoined the Washington ball club. I worked out with them for a couple of weeks waiting for assignment to one of their farm clubs. One afternoon the clubhouse man told me Mr. Selkirk wanted to see me. The Senators were playing the Orioles that day. A small gray-haired man was sitting in Selkirk's office. 'Lou, I want you to meet Lee MacPhail. He's the general manager of the Baltimore Orioles. You're with them now. We traded your contract.' 'What? I just got here!' 'We think you have a fine chance to become a big league player,' MacPhail said. 'We are happy to have you.' Three years in professional baseball and three organizations. What was going on here?

"MacPhail said the Orioles wanted to send me down to the class C Aberdeen, South Dakota, club. 'Class C? I've played two years and I hit .310 at B ball, Why Class C?' 'We just like you to play three weeks out there, get your swing back after the military and we'll bring you up to the Orioles in September.' Well, I didn't like the first part of that, but the bit about September sounded pretty good, so I flew out there the next day. The manager of the Aberdeen club was a very nice, very fatherly man named Cal Ripken, Sr. I hit a double the first time up there and he greeted me on the bench later as if I had just delivered the winning hit in the World Series.

"It was a good club. Also on the team was a handsome, skinny kid pitcher named Jim Palmer, who was winning a lot of games, and a tall skinny shortstop named Mark Belanger, who could make every play you could imagine. They even had a good bat boy. He was only about four or five years old, but he was a handsome little devil and he used to catch a ball pretty good on the sidelines. He was the manager's son, Cal Ripken, Jr., and about twenty years later he would be the MVP of the American League. After twenty games there, during which I hit .270 and threw only a few bats, the Orioles were true to their word and I was called up to the Baltimore Orioles."

Charley Fox

Fox managed the St. Cloud Rox for eight seasons. His comments about the league: "Organizations sent their best young black prospects to the Northern League for a period of time after <Jackie> Robinson broke in. Scouts were ga-ga over the league for a while there."

Joe Torre

From Joe Torre's book "Chasing the Dream", is the following regarding his Northern League playing days:

"The Braves decided to assign me on one of their two class C teams, which I figured was better than going to class D, the lowest rung on the pro baseball ladder. The C teams were in Boise, ID, and Eau Claire, WI. The Braves sent me to Eau Claire, in the Northern League, because it's manager, Bill Steinecke, was a former catcher and would be able to tutor me. He taught me mostly the old-school stuff about blocking the plate and, if you got banged up, just to spit on it and keep playing. Steinecke was a grizzled, gruff, tobacoo-spitting old goat. I remember after games we'd take showers in this tiny room - no bigger than a closet - with three nozzles. You'd be taking a shower and all of a sudden you'd feel something warm on your leg. It was Steinecke pissing on you. Steinecke's lessons actually underscored some of the same things I had heard from Frank <Joe's brother>, who wanted me to be more assertive...

"Eau Claire was a complete joy for me. You hear a lot of horror stories about players adjusting to their first minor league season - guys getting homesick, putting up with terrible living conditions and long bus rides - but I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Eau Claire. I lived with two other players in the house of an elderly couple. The three of us shared a room. The couple charged each of us five dollars per week, which was very reasonable for a guy pulling down four hundred a month to play ball. The wife was nicknamed Strawberry because of her strawberry blond hair. She used to make us coffee and breakfast in the morning and come to every one of our home games, yelling in her deep strong voice and clanging a cowbell. She called all of the players PT-ers, for pants tearers, because she thought we were all girl crazy and couldn't wait to tear the pants off the local beauties. 'Go out and get the all girls you PT-ers" she'd say. Strawberry was great. She was like having a mom away from home.

"Eau Claire was a pretty suburban city with a pretty ballpark. Our team traveled in a shiny red Chevrolet station wagons with the Braves' Indian logo painted on the side door. We all took turns driving, covering many miles, mostly at night. The worse trip of all was to Minot, ND, - an expedition of about six hundred miles. We stuffed all the baseball gear into a trailer and hooked it up to one of the wagons, which made driving that vehicle particularly difficult. You'd find yourself dozing off at the wheel sometimes. When you snapped yourself awake, you inevitably caused the wagon to swerve, and you'd look in the rearview mirror and see the trailer swaying back and forth like a fish, threatening to go crashing off the road with all the bats, balls and equipment.

"When we played in Fargo, ND, we actually stayed across the state line in Moorhead, MN, which was weird because Moorhead time was an hour ahead of Fargo. More than a few guys were confused when we tried to figure out what time we were supposed to be at the ballpark. The worse part was coming back to the motel after the game, because we lost an hour just on the ride back; we couldn't get anything to eat. Talk about bad eating habits - we hit more hamburger stands than doubles that season. We played in other places such as Winnipeg, Manitoba; Aberdeen, SD; and St. Cloud, MN. The games could get heated because everyone from the players to the umpires was fighting his way to the big leagues. I had several up-close-and-personal confrontations in that league with future National League umpire Bruce Froemming. He threw me out of games six times that summer. I hated him and he hated me. We both were young and had quick tempers. I'd complain about a pitch when I was catching and he would scream back at me. Being the spoiled kid that I was, I'd scream back at him. Of course, he would always get the last word; he'd run me from the game. Usually he'd follow up on that by tossing Steinecke out of the game too. The Braves wanted to punish me for being so hot-headed by sending me to D ball. When Steinecke, who saw me crushing the ball al summer, heard about that, he said. 'Why don't you send the kid to triple-A instead?' He thought I belonged in a higher league, but I stayed in Eau Claire. Some people might have a hard time believing that I had such a short fuse then. Actually, I still have a temper now. The difference is I have more patience. It's just been a matter of growing up. And believe me, I took a long time to grow up...

"My first professional season, Froemming not withstanding, was a huge success. I won the Northern League batting title by hitting .344. I banged out six hits in a double header on the final day of the season to edge Max Alvis. I also finished with 16 home runs and 74 runs batted in over 117 games, made the all-star team and was named the league's rookie of the year. I even stole seven bases, a modest total that I'd never again duplicate on any level."

Don Larsen

Don Larsen, in his book "The Perfect Yankee" discussed the seasons of 1947-48 in the Northern League:

"If a person finds himself standing at the point where state roads 12 and 281 cross in the east-central section of South Dakota, he'll be smack in the middle of Aberdeen. Apparently no one from the minor league ball club knew I was arriving that night, because nobody met me at the train station. I had no idea where I was supposed to go. I headed for the Sherman Hotel, but there weren't any rooms available, so I stayed in the lobby and spent a sleepless night worrying what the next day would bring.

"My first day as a professional ball player was an unusual one. I took all my luggage and headed toward the ball park, which was located some distance from the hotel. There was no one at the ticket gate to pass me through into the Pheasants' scheduled double header, so I had to pay my way in to my first game as a professional ball player. As improbable as it may seem, I didn't want to bother anybody, so I watched the first game from a first base line seat with my luggage next to me. During the lull between games, the newest Pheasant player went down and tried to locate the manager Don Heffner, who would later manager the Cincinnati Reds at the start of the 1966 season.

"This goofy-looking guy with a crew cut that accentuated my big ears, must have been a sight standing there with my glove and luggage. Heffner was surprised to see me because he had expected me a couple of days earlier. I was relieved that Heffner seemed happy I had finally gotten there. I did dress for the second game and, even though I was still just a young punk, Don took me under his wing. He and I got along well right from the beginning.

"In my first season, I recorded a 4-3 won-loss record in 16 games. I struck out 28 men, walked 31 and had a 3.42 ERA in 72 innings. I didn't feel too bad about my performance and Don seemed pleased with the progress I made. Our club, the Aberdeen Pheasants, won the league that year. We posted an impressive 82-36 record under Heffner.

"After working and playing ball in the San Diego park leagues that winter, I was sent back to class C Aberdeen. This time, the manager was Jim Crandall, the son of Doc Crandall, the relief pitcher for the Giants in the early part of the century. Our Pheasants placed fourth (64-59) in 1948. We finished behind St. Cloud, Eau Claire and Grand Forks who won the regular season title and then the championship by beating our club in the finals in four straight games.

"I made new friends in Aberdeen in 1948 and became more comfortable with my role as a professional ball player. We had a pretty good ball club that year and Crandall and the older, more experienced players taught me a lot about not only pitching, but the whole game of baseball as well. I ended that second season with a 17-11 record and a 3.75 ERA. I struck out 151 in just 211 innings and walked only 77 men. Control was no problem at that stage of my career."

Lou Brock

Mike Augustin wrote this about former St. Cloud Rox and Hall of Famer Lou Brock: "Six weeks into the 1961 season, Brock had a 24 game hitting streak. A young and naive official scorer (this reporter) called an error on a ball he hit in the first inning of the 25^th game. Brock wound up 0 for 4. Rox Manager Walt Dixon - a dead ringer for the stereotypical old-time minor league manager - read the riot act to the scorekeeper. Dixon wanted me to change the hard ground ball Brock hit to the second baseman to a hit.

"When the yelling subsided, Brock approached the scorer and said, softly, 'The play was in front of me (as he ran to first base). You called it right. I don't want any special favors. I won't need them to get where I'm going.' "

Lou played his last minor league game in Aberdeen. St. Cloud won the game on his home run in their last at bat. For many of the local fans (including the author of this web sight), it was a very memorable game because nearly everyone knew that the Cubs were calling Brock up to the majors after that game. I recall watching him, after the game, talk to the locals over a screen next to the visiting dugout. Everyone was wishing this fine man well.

Pat Thompson

Pat Thompson, who was an Associated Press writer, wrote the following (reproduced verbatim) on a typical day with the 1971 Aberdeen Pheasants:

"A Day in the Life of the 1971 Aberdeen Pheasants"

Even if it's almost noon, Henry Clayton wants a big breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage. The Aberdeen Pheasants have named him to pitch their Northern League game in Sioux Falls at 7:30 p.m. Getting into the game breaks the boredom of pitching only every four to five days in the low minor leagues.

"You sleep, eat, drink, walk the town and look for girls," one Aberdeen player says. But Clayton, 21, doesn't mind the long cramped bus rides, stuffy hotels and loneliness. If the Baltimore Orioles had not signed him out of Henrico, NC, population 4000, Clayton would be working in a shoe factory or cotton mill while trying to learn how to become a mechanic in a training institute. "Where I lived" says the six-foot-two, 205 pound Clayton, "we played mostly in cow pastures with a little old rubber ball and balls we made out of socks and sand. We'd cut down small trees and shape them into bats. The first time I used a glove was when I went to the high school team.

Ken Rowe, 37 year old manager of the Pheasants, doesn't have much time for a big breakfast. Munching on a doughnut, Rowe talks about the Aberdeen job he took three years ago to handle first and second year pros, most of them 18 and 19-year-olds and many away from home for the first time. Rowe, a native of Ferndale, MI, can tell his brood what it's like to get a taste of the big time, even if it was only a nibble for him. Rowe, a right-handed pitcher for 16 seasons is trying to make it to and in the major leagues. He played parts of three seasons with the L.A. Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles with a 2-1 record. "I pitched in 94 games in 1964, more than anyone ever has, and my arm was gone after that," he says

Rowe

For six months a year, Rowe belongs to baseball. "I've sold clothes and worked as a meat packer in the off-season," says Rowe, married and the father of two young daughters. It's tough to go home to Miami and find a job. People don't like to hire you for just six months."
Bob Glumank spend the afternoon lounging in a low cost motel room. He doesn't always sleep well and sometimes breakfast tastes very good afer a night's work of calling balls and strikes. Glumack a 22-year old bachelor from Hibbing, MN, has been a umpire for two weeks, drawing $600 -- which includes expenses -- a month to help finance his education at St. Cloud State. "It's really not worth it for what you go through," says Glumack, fresh out of an umpiring school in Ohio. "The players and some of the managers get pretty personal."

Rowe impatiently stands in the lobby of a Sioux Falls hotel, puffing nervously on a cigarette. The players mill on the sidewalk, waiting to start the night's work. "Where's that bus?" Rowe says to no one in particular. "He should be here. It never fails. If it's not one thing, it's another." Rowe puts on his game face -- very serious -- as the bus arrives five minutes late and takes the first seat as the players -- many in T-shirts and blue jeans -- file by for the trip to the arena to dress for the game. There are no dressing rooms at Sioux Falls baseball stadium.

"Hey Skip," a voice calls to Rowe, "when you were in the bigs, did you get your own autographed glove -- you know, with your own name on it." Another voice snaps, "Randy, if you had two months, you could whistle." Rowe smiles and tries to answer a question about the behavior of some of today's big league stars such as Curt Flood, Sam McDowell and Ken Harrelson. The voice calls from the back of the bus, "Hey, Skip, why don't we have a better bus?" Rowe doesn't hear him. "You have to be a master of psychology to be a minor league manager," he says. "This is the new breed. All the kids have money in their pockets. I know $5.00-a-day meal money isn't enough, but it's a lot better than $2.00. I've played in parks that didn't have grass and dressed in clubhouses that had nails to hand your clothes on. These kids want to put a time limit on themselves. They also seem to think baseball is not the only thing to do. There are few kids who don't have college degrees or aren't trying to get one."

Henry Clayton one of eleven children, sits stone-faced alone on the dugout bench while the field bustles with pepper games, batting and fielding practice. For him, tonight may mean the difference between going back to the shoe factory or not. "I miss my mother," he says shyly, breaking into a smile as some of the pre-game tension is eased. "I don't think about home too much otherwise. Baseball is home to me. This is what I want to do. I hope to stick around as long as I can. I know Baltimore has good pitchers. I also know they got to get out one day." Clayton is one of six blacks on the team and says he has encountered little prejudice in the area, which has a very small Negro population. "The first time I walked a street in Aberdeen," says pitcher Tim Hoyles, "they looked at me like I was a man from Mars. But there has been no problem."

Rowe, sweat pouring off of him from pitching batting practice, posts the starting lineup, meets the umpires and heads for the third base coaching box. As the "Star Spangled Banner" comes through the public address speaker, a player keeps tune by drumming a table knife from the first aid kit on a spray can. He stops abruptly when someone whispers, "The skip is looking." Umpire Dickerson growls "play ball" after the announcer offers 25 cents for any returned foul balls, and the Pheasants go to work before a crowd of 484.

Clayton goes to the drinking fountain three times before the Pheasants go down in the first inning against he Northern League's leading pitcher, Kenny Hansen. Clayton gives up a run in the first and one in the second, slamming his glove down after each inning. But the Pheasants strike for four runs in the third. And Clayton's curve starts swerving. In the eighth inning leading 9-2, Sioux Falls gets men on first and second with only one out. Sioux Falls catcher John Hale rips a pitch down the line. Third baseman Ollie Bartley who aspires to fill Brooks Robinson's shoes in Baltimore, dives for the ball. he stops in on one hop, jumps up to step on third and flies to first for a double play. "That was a major league play, by gosh," Rowe's voice booms from the Aberdeen dugout. "Brooks, Brooks, atta boy, Brooksie," the bench shouts at Bartley as he trots in. Rowe says privately, "they can run just as fast as the players in triple-A, throw just as hard, hit just as far. The only difference is consistency. These kids make more mental errors."

"You throw a lot of things their way. You don't expect them to grasp everything, just a part of it. Then little by little, progress begins to show. We are presenting to them a cram course in baseball. What they used to accomplish in nine years in the minor leagues, we're trying to cut in half. But we don't want to give up on them too soon. I've got some players right here that I'm waiting to go from kids with a chance to kids with a fair chance."

Clayton retires the side 1-2-3 for a victory, and flashes a big grin as teammates mob him before he reached the dugout. Rowe mingles among the handshakers, extends his own hand and reminds Clayton about a third-strike bunt attempt in the sixth inning. The Pheasants stop to shower and pack their uniforms, grimy from three day's use. The bus stops downtown and after a midnight meal, the driver points for the 280-mile trip to St. Cloud. "You think they'd won the World Series," says Rowe as the bus comes alive with noise from chatter, laughter and a portable record player.

As sign posts fly by, the bus quiets. Rowe sits alone, occasionally lighting a cigarette or flicking on the light to gaze over the lengthy report he has to mail back to Baltimore. "When you see somebody you've coached get into the big leagues," he says, "all the hard work, the aggravation is worth it." At 4:30 a.m., after stopping for ten railroad crossings, the bus reaches the hotel. The players stumble off. "Hey, Skip," a voice calls out, "What time is curfew?" The deserted streets of St. Cloud echo with laughter.

<Henry Clayton was out of pro baseball after the 1971 season.>

1953 Northern League Home Run Frequency

Arthur Schott a New Orleans baseball historian and member of SABR compiled the following for the Minor League History Journal:

"1953 Northern League Home Run Frequency"

G AB HR Freq

Frank Gravino, Twins 125 471 52 9.1

Pete Kousagan, Dukes 125 440 18 24.4

Ray Mendoza, Twins 126 426 16 26.6

Ed Berry, Rox 110 393 15 26.2

Gene Haering, Dukes 126 442 15 29.5

Dave Roberts, Chiefs 125 465 15 31.0

Bob Melton, Twins 97 304 13 23.4

Joe Stopa, Bears 116 442 12 36.8

Billy Joe Forest Blues/Chiefs 125 447 11 42.8

Bill Maupin, Chiefs 85 300 10 48.5

Bill Bowers, Bears 109 326 10 32.6

Gerry MacKay, Canaries 124 462 10 46.2

Ray Maurer, Canaries 124 464 10 46.4

Roger Maris, Twins 114 418 9 46.4

Garret Sondermeyer, Canaries 123 460 9 51.1

Gravino

Notes: Frank Gravino hit 271 home runs in 11 minor league seasons from 1940 through 1954. His 52 home runs in 1953 topped the team totals of four other clubs in the league. He returned to the Twins in 1954 and hit 56 home runs in 501 at bats in what would be his last minor league season.

Roger Maris

In the book "Roger Maris - A Man for All Seasons", Maury Allen wrote about his year in the Northern League:

"'Roger was probably better known as a football player around here,' says Don Gooselaw. 'I think people were surprised when he suddenly showed up as a professional player at Fargo-Moorhead. He had played legion baseball, we had played against each other many times, but he really wasn't the best baseball player around. There were a lot of good young players around North Dakota in those days. I think he liked the idea of playing before the home folks. Nobody bothered him... Nobody made a fuss over the fact he was now a professional, nobody changed their ways of thinking about him. We would watch him play and then we might go downtown and have a beer or play a game of pool. We all wanted to play ball professionally and he was the only one of us to make it. We envied him, but he never let on he was better than we were or different in any way. I guess that was Roger's strength. If he was your friend, he was your friend always. That's all there was to it.'"

Allen continues: "Maris was an instant hit with Fargo-Moorhead. He got off fast in professional baseball and stayed strong all year. He played 114 games, batted an impressive .325, hit left-handed pitching as well as right-handed pitching, slugged nine home runs, knocked in 80 runs and scored 74 runs. He played mostly center field and his arm was strong and accurate. He also had great running speed."

1947 Aberdeen (SD) Pheasants

Tony Urbaniak, a SABR member, wrote an article entitled "1947 Aberdeen (SD) Pheasants" for the Minor League History Journal. The following are excerpts:

<In 1946> "when the Browns agreed to furnish players to Aberdeen, all of their minor league teams had already been made up and the Pheasants opened the season with castoffs from training camp. Gus Albright, a former minor league player of some note, was secured as the manager.

"Those castoffs jumped right into first place and for no reason anyone could discover held on through the month of May. Out of this original group sent to Aberdeen only two were to move above the class C level in baseball. Ironically, Albright farmed out one of the two to a "D" club before the season started. Sent to Pittsburgh, KS, for more experience was Don Lenhardt, later to become a big leaguer. The other was Andy Piesik, who had two excellent years in right field for the Pheasants and later made it as high as the Pacific Coast League. Arm trouble forced his retirement.

Lenhardt

"The great start by the motley crew took the city by storm. In businesses all over town the conversation centered on the Pheasants. Games started at 5:30 p.m. because there were no lights in the ball park at that time. But enthusiasm for the Pheasants soon brought funds for the lights which were turned on for the first time in mid-June. The bubble burst on first place in late May and <president Ben> Siebrecht began pulling strings eventually replacing most of the club and winding up with a capable team that finished fifth, just missing a spot in the four-team playoffs. Out of that first season came a 'fan club'. This was a group of several hundred baseball enthusiasts who occupied the bleachers in back of first base at every home game. To the visiting teams and umpires they appeared to be equipped with leather lungs.

"The 1947 Northern League season was set in motion with a meeting of club presidents and league directors in St. Cloud, MN on March 7, 1947. At this meeting president of the league, Herman White of Eau Claire, had formally notified the club officers that league members had voted to increase the expense monies per month per team to $2,800 as compared to $2,200 the previous season. The $2,800 figure was the maximum limit allowed a class C league team. The player salary was also increased from $145 to $180 per month. The season was to open on May 6 and close September 1. It called for the playing of 126 games. It was shortened from September 7 to September 1 to insure playoff attendance... The league representatives also discussed the mechanics of operation for the opening season, such as hotel accommodations and meal allowances for players.

"The 1947 season started for Aberdeen with the selection of a manager...Don Heffner, an ex-major leaguer who played shortstop for the New York Yankees. Manager Heffner led a ball club that was a front runner all the way. Crowds in excess of 3,000 persons were commonplace and there was never a dull moment as the fiery Heffner took on the umpires while his talented players clubbed the opposition. <A>...ticket drive was composed of twelve two men teams that canvassed the business district to sell books of tickets at twelve dollars each, with each book containing fourteen grandstand seats. Chairman of the drive was Alfred Lindboe, club secretary-treasurer...

Heffner

"The...season presented numerous changes for Pheasant fans. The board of directors...increased admission prices...to 75 cents plus 15 cents tax for grandstand seats and 50 cents plus 10 cents tax for bleacher seats. All ladies' admission tickets, either for grandstand or bleacher seats, were to remain at 50 cents with Saturday a free Ladies Day. Prices the previous season were 75 cents for grandstand, 50 cents for bleachers and 50 cents for ladies, all taxes included. In the statement announcing the increases, president Siebrecht said 'It is the opinion of the directors that the increased cost of operating a professional baseball team forces us to make this twenty percent federal amusement tax. This year we ask the fans to pay it. Traveling expenses are also higher this year than what they were a year ago due to the fact that hotels in practically every league city have raised the rates normally charged to baseball teams. The only way to make additional money is to ask the fans to pay the federal tax which was absorbed last year.'

"The Pheasants reported to Aberdeen on May 2...<and> the stockholders greeted the arrival of the team by having a dinner in the Golden Pheasants Inn, the new concession room at the Municipal Ball Park. After the meeting the players and the manager...had a brief meeting in which president Siebrecht outlined the work that had been done at the ball park. The improvements included the new concession stand, one of the most modern in the country, which was to be open all ball game nights. Siebrecht said the profits made from the concessions were to be used to meet the annual payment of $2,500 on the pall park lighting system. Approximately $12,000 remained to be paid on the lights and an additional expense of bracing poles had to be paid for. Other improvements were a new women's rest room and the painting and overhauling of the grandstand and bleachers. In addition, the outfield fence was moved back because during the 1946 season the hitting of home runs was an everyday occurrence. Heffner was pleasantly surprised by the...park. 'It is every bit as nice as the Sportsman's Park in St, Louis,' he said. I know we're going to like it here and I'm sure Aberdeen is going to be proud of this group of ball players.'

"The...season opener was at Fargo-Moorhead on May 6... A record opening day crowd of 5,000 fans sat in near freezing temperatures to watch the game. The Pheasants defeated the...<home> club by a score of 6-1. Ralph Schwamb, Pheasant rookie right hander, was the opening day standout. The lanky young athlete struck out nine men and issued three walks, as he hand-cuffed the hard hitting Fargo-Moorhead club, allowing only one unearned run. When...<'Blackie'> Schwamb joined the...squad in the spring of 1947, manager Don Heffner labeled him as a pitcher who's headed to the major leagues. Schwamb was in and out of Heffner's doghouse most of the season. He finished the year with two victories for the St. Louis Browns. After the 1949 season, he was involved in a killing in California and sentenced to a long term in San Quentin. Reports were that he never lost a game in some ten years as the star hurler of the San Quentin ball club. He was eventually paroled and pitched briefly in the Pacific Coast League

Schwamb

"The Pheasants faced two straight postponements after opening day due to cold weather and returned home with a 2-0 record for their home opener against Sioux Falls. A crowd estimated at 3,500 paid admissions was on hand for the first glimpse of the 1947 version of Northern League baseball. All of the customers went home happy. The Pheasants rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to defeat...Sioux Falls...5-1. <They>...were front runners all the way... <as> in the month of May,...<they had> an incredible record of 17-3 and held a three game lead over the second place Sioux Falls club...Key injuries didn't seem to effect the classy Pheasants during the early months of season. On the third day,...Don Lenhardt , Pheasants star left fielder, broke his foot while sliding into second base... The...injury caused him to remain out of action for a month and a half. Three other Pheasants team members, who missed numerous games during...May were Dan Schneider, Don Goehring and Cal Hague...

"Among the players who enjoyed a remarkable start were John Morris, who led the league in RBI during May with twenty-four. Andy Piesik was second in the league in batting with a .408 average...<and he> also accumulated the top number of hits at forty and was tied with two others at ten for the greatest number of stolen bases during the month... The...season can be classified as one of the wildest in Northern League history. Umpire disputes and forfeited games were particularly an everyday occurrence. The first forfeited game occurred on May 18...The Pheasants were trailing Superior by a score of 10-8 when Superior players got involved in a fight and failed to get a batter up to start the fifth inning, causing... <them> to forfeit the game. The trouble started when...<the> players came to their dugout at the end of the fourth inning...<and> Richard Demmer <a spectator>, a former Northern State Teachers College football and basketball star and a man identified as the Superior bus driver, became involved in a pushing affair at the gate entrance at the end of the first base bleachers. Most of the Superior players jumped the fence to join the fight. It was pretty well established that only one or two spectators became involved <and> the affair ended before a police squad car arrived. In the meantime, umpire Bill Husty had an announcement to make over the public address system for Superior players to send a man to bat or forfeit the game. When the batter didn't appear, they declared the game forfeited. The umpires retired to their dressing room. Efforts by the Aberdeen club officials to have the game resumed for the benefit of the fans were unsuccessful. Husty said that under the rules of baseball, the game was forfeited and that was the official decision.

"The Pheasants had the longest winning streak...during the season <at> fourteen <which> included ...their second forfeited victory of the season. On June 20,...the manager Paul Bowa of the Duluth Dukes called his team off the field in the last of the fourth inning after protesting a balk called by umpire Tournavac. The balk scored 'Heinie' Mueller from third base with the go ahead run. This drew a spirted protest from Bowa and two or three Duluth players. After an argument of several minutes, ...Tounavac summoned a policeman to escort him off the playing field. Duluth players ran off the field as policeman took Bowa through the gate. <Then> everyone, including <Bowa>, soon returned. <He> promptly waved his team into the dugout and forfeited the contest. Under league rules, Bowa could have been subject to a maximum fine of $200 <and> Duluth Baseball Association could have been fined an additional $250...

"The most memorable game of the...season was one the Pheasants lost. Aberdeen was working on a twelve game winning streak. The Duluth Dukes piled up a 16-0 lead in three innings. The Pheasants fire-power was such that no one considered the contest settled. Rookie Don Larsen, who joined the club when Tim McCarty quit, took over on the mound in the fourth inning and held the Dukes to two runs the rest of the way. Heffner's batters started striking back and <had>a big rally in the eight that cut the Dukes margin to 18-16. Aberdeen loaded the bases with two out in the last of the ninth and Lenhardt lined a single to left field. One run scored and Tom Caciavely, trying to score from second, tripped and fell over the third base bag. He had to scramble back preventing what seemed to be the tying run. A pop up ended the contest with the Dukes winning 18-17.

"During the month of August, ...manager Heffner was suspended on two different occasions for disputing with the umpires. Heffner's first five day suspension occurred on August 1, following a dispute in an Aberdeen-Duluth game. With Aberdeen leading 12-7, Heffner protested a decision of the umpire and became so persistent that he was ejected from the game.. The suspension announced in Eau Claire...by league president...White, barred Heffner from any ball park where his athletes were playing for five days. <He> said that the umpire reported considerable difficulty in getting Heffner off the field <as he> refused to leave the park <and> heckled the umpire throughout the entire game. After Heffner's suspension, Dan Schneider, Pheasants' first baseman, became the acting manager. Don's second suspension occurred on August 8 <in a game against Eau Claire when> he was ejected from a game two days after he had returned from his first suspension...

"Aberdeen fans had a special night on August 28...for...Heffner. The event was a regularly scheduled game against the Grand Forks Chiefs. The fans were invited to contribute to an appreciation fund instead of paying the admission price... President Siebrecht said 'We know how the fans feel about him. They join us in acclaiming him as the league's best manager and one of the finest handlers of baseball and in a way that has made the season one of enjoyment and complete harmony for the entire ball club. Fans who have followed the Pheasants all season know and appreciate this and have asked for an opportunity to pay tribute to manager Don Heffner: Directors fo the Pheasants are pleased to give the fans the opportunity.' The fans contributed $1,022 as their gift to Heffner...

"In July, the Pheasants had compiled the amazing record of winning 33 out of 36 games on their home lot. The first base bleacher group jokingly asked for a partial refund of the admission price because they seldom had the opportunity to see nine full innings.

"In addition to winning the 1947 pennant, Aberdeen also had it's first Northern League batting champion and most valuable player in Andy Piesik <who> finished the season with a .379 batting average. The Pheasants also finished second in the Shaughnessy playoffs <which were> designed to reward the first four teams <in the standings>. The first round matched the first place team against the third place team and the second place team against the fourth place team. Each series was the best of three out of five games. The two winners then met in a four out of seven series for the playoff championship. Admission prices, under league rules, were the same as regular season prices <and> the players received their regular salaries for the time consumed by the playoffs and also received a bonus of $25 for each player on the winning club and $15 for each player for each player on al losing club. Each player on the <championship team> also <was given> an additional bonus of $50. The league also set aside a fund of $1000 as the regular season prize <as> the pennant winner received $600 and the second place team was awarded $400.

"The Pheasants...finished the regular season with 83 wins and 33 losses... <and> won their first playoff series <when> Fargo-Moorhead forfeited <because> they used a player at an illegal position. John Tayoon, Fargo shortstop, was injured in the opening game of the playoffs <and they> were granted permission to replace <him> with a shortstop from another club...<which was> Glenn Selbo, the Grand Forks third baseman. This violated the league rules in two ways. First Selbo did not play shortstop for Grand Forks during the season <and second> when he was inserted into the Fargo line up it was in place of Tony Dercale, the third baseman, instead of...Tayoon.... The Pheasants eventually lost the Shaughnessy playoff championship to the second place Sioux Falls club.

"Among the key players on the 1947 Pheasant teams were catchers John Morris and Larry Bucynski. Morris almost made it to the majors, <but> his only problem was getting under high fouls and "Big John"solved that easily. He would holler "take it Heinie" and third baseman, Heinie Muller, would come in to make the catch. The rest fo the infield consisted of Dan Schneider, Tommy Caciavely and shortshop Bill Wright. Wright was considered a cinch to make the major leagues but he was cut down by tuberculosis. An All-Star outfield was headed by Don Lenhardt, Bob Okrie and Andy Piesik. Howie Howerton replaced Lenhardt when he suffered a broken foot during the month of May. Lenhardt made it to the majors <and> Piesik almost got there. Okrie was well on his way when he was stricken with leukemia and eventually died. Aberdeen had to wait until 1964 for another Northern League pennant winner."

Orlando Cepeda

In his book "Baby Bull - From Hardball to Hard Time and Back", Orlando Cepeda wrote about his Northern League season:

"In 1956 the Giants sent me to class C with St. Cloud, in Minnesota. I wasn't the only third baseman in spring camp. In fact, there were two or three others. So manager Charlie Fox gave me a first baseman's glove and sent me to first. I adapted quickly and became a full-time first baseman. I had a great year with St. Cloud in 1956, winning the Northern League triple crown. I hit .355 with 26 home runs and 112 RBIs."

Glenn Gostick

Glenn Gostick, the late SABR member and catcher for the 1952 Duluth Dukes, remembers playing in Sioux Falls at Howard Wood Field. "There was so much room between home plate and the back stop that on a wild pitch, you had to run forever to get to the ball." By 1955, baseball was no longer being played at that field.

Bill Freehan

In his book "Behind the Mask", Bill Freehan referred to his playing days in the Northern League as follows:

"I decided to turn pro. I signed with the Tigers for a total of $125,000. Detroit's wasn't the highest offer, but I took it for three reasons. One, the package was good enough; two, I was from Detroit; and three, because the Tigers had no outstanding catcher. I figured I could get to the majors pretty quick. I put most of my bonus money into stocks, promised myself I'd get my degree from Michigan during the off-season (which I have, in liberal arts), and reported in 1961 to the Tigers' Northern League farm team, Duluth-Superior. I played thirty games for Duluth-Superior and batted almost .350. I was on my way."

Bob Beattie

After the 1958 season, Aberdeen Pheasants catcher Bob Beattie was scheduled to ride with Bo Belinsky and Steve Dalkowski home to Warwick, RI. On the day they were to leave, Bob's girl friend Ginny Babb caught up with him and asked if he was really leaving town. "I thought I was. Bo had this big red Olds and said he wanted an answer when he came around the block," recalled Beattie. "He came around the block and I told him I was staying." Bob stayed in Aberdeen until March 1994 when he moved to Sioux Falls..

The 1958 season was not a great one for Beattie, who had led the 1957 Sooner State League with 27 home runs. "I thought the game was easy, but then I came up to Aberdeen and was terrible, " said Beattie. "I hit .236 on the button and had five home runs. It was a pretty good league with good pitching. It was cold weather and in fact, it snowed for our first series against St. Cloud," Beattie remembers. "And yet there were some fans there. That season could go down as Aberdeen's worse team*. We ended up with a good team but didn't start with one."

In the Fall of 1958, Bob went to college in Aberdeen, played football and got married. In 1959, he was released by the Orioles. He then returned to Aberdeen for another year of college and football. The Indians signed him for the 1960 season and he played in Burlington, NC, in the Carolinas League and then with the Charleston Charlies of the Eastern League. In 1963, Beattie played for the Ottawa football team of the CFL as a cornerback, running back and punter. During the season, he tore cartilage and stretched ligaments in his right knee. In '64, he graduated from college and begin to coach high school football before getting his masters in 1966 when he became an college assistant coach.

In 1965, Beattie was a coach with the Pheasants and as late as 1993 still caught for an amateur baseball team in Aberdeen.

* <it was>

Cal Ripken Sr.

In his book "The Only Way I Know", Cal Ripken Jr. made these comments about his dad who managed in Aberdeen for three seasons:

"As a coach and manager, my father was such a fixture with the Orioles organization for so many years - almost four decades - that a certain mythology built up around him. His temper was part of that mythology. During one of the two years <actually three> he managed the Aberdeen club, he was at the bottom of the pile in one of the worst fights anyone could remember. This happened in Winnipeg. If I know my father, he was trying to win that fight while breaking it up as well. The next day the two managers dressed in Indian robes and smoked a real peace pipe at home plate when they came out to exchange lineup cards for the game. My mother has the picture. "

Cal Sr. wrote in his book "The Ripken Way" about his 1964 Aberdeen Pheasant team:

"I had very good talent on my '64 club at class C Aberdeen, South Dakota. We had seven* future major leaguers on that club - pitchers Jim Palmer, Eddie Watt and Dave Leonhard, outfielder Lou Piniella, shortstop Mark Belanger, catcher Andy Etchebarren ** and first baseman Mike Fiore - and we went 81-34, won the pennant by twelve games and I was named Northern League Manager of the Year."

*Actually, there were eight players from that team that made the majors.

** Etchebarren did not play on the '64 Pheasants. Other players who reached MLB, from that team, were pitchers Mike Davison and Tom Fisher.

Dave Nicholson

Michael Fedo wrote in "One Shining Season" the following on Dave Nicholson:

"I never saw him play in person in the big leagues, but viewed him early on when he was with Aberdeen, SD, in the defunct class C Northern League, while I worked as public address announcer at Wade Stadium in Duluth...Nick's big bat and strong arm left little doubt that 1959 summer that he would star in the majors as well. He struck thirty-five home runs in '59 - many of them vanishing into the horizon. He knocked in 114 runs in a league which scheduled only 120 games for it's teams. He was nineteen years old then, completing his first full season as a pro player and the crowds at the Northern League parks buzzed with anticipation every time be stepped to the plate. There was always a sense of impending drama, that something was going to happen."

Dave signed with the Baltimore Orioles in 1958 for $115,000 - a huge sum for it's time. It didn't work out for Dave or the Orioles as he batted only .212 and hit 61 home runs in 538 games (151 as an Oriole) over seven years (1960, 1962-67). He was, however, the closest thing Aberdeen Pheasants' fans ever saw approximating Hank Aaron or Harmon Killebrew in their MLB primes.

Philbert the Pheasant

Tony Urbaniak wrote about one of the first baseball cartoon character logos:

"Business people always realize a good promotion and name recognitions as very important for any commercial endeavor. A contest among the fans picked the name Golden Pheasants for the ball club in Aberdeen and it was later shortened to Pheasants. That resulted in the birth of Philbert the Pheasant. Gordon Haug, advertising artist at the Olwin-Angell department store, visited the Aberdeen American News sports department one day with some cartoons of a Pheasant in various stages of gloom and doom. He was christened Philbert and promptly became a front page fixture after each Aberdeen game. His various poses depicted the previous day's fate of the club.

"And just as business logos spin of changes, and new characters so did Philbert. He became the 'father' of two other characters. Another Browns' farm team was the Stockton Packers in the California League and 'Pete the Packer' made his appearance a year or two later. When the Browns moved to Baltimore, the Orioles public relations department came up with 'Ollie the Oriole' who is still on the scene."

Ross Horning

Ross Horning played for Sioux Falls and Duluth in 1942. His explanation of his trade during the season:

"In the summer of 1942,1 was having a good year. I was the second baseman for Rex Stacker's Sioux Falls Canaries in the Northern League. Having finished a two-week home stay, we were in Duluth for the beginning of a two-week road trip. Being the visiting team, we had taken infield practice first. The home team, the Duluth Dukes, were on the field.

"Along the first base side, I was playing pepper with some other Sioux Falls players. A young man, wearing a sharp business suit, suddenly appeared. He said to me, "What size uniform do you want?" I responded, "Why? I already have one." He came back with, "You have just been sold to us."

"Out of the blue, I had to change sides. I left the Canary first base side, went into the Duluth dressing room, changed uniforms, and came out on the Duluth third base side. Several of the Sioux Falls' players hollered at me, 'What are you doing over there?' I replied, 'How do I know what I am doing over here.'

"The game started. Now, being the home team, we batted last. Pitching against me for Sioux Falls was my good friend and fine pitcher, James 'Bud' Younger. I played third that night for Duluth, not second, as I had for Sioux Falls. I made two great defensive plays at third and got three base hits. The biggest reason I was able to get three hits that night was that the Sioux Falls catcher and manager, Tony Koenig, told me every pitch that Jim was throwing. After the game, Tony said, 'I just wanted you to have a good night with your new team.'

"But for basic economic reasons I did not want to play for Duluth. I had just paid my own expenses for two weeks in Sioux Falls, and was looking forward to the two-week road trip on which the team would pay my expenses. With Duluth, it was another two-week homestand where I would have to pay my own keep.

"I argued with the Duluth management for nearly two hours. Finally, they told me sharply that if I didn't play for them, I wouldn't play for another team the rest of my life. That is the reality of the 'Reserve Clause.' [As it was in 1942]

{Ross "Bumps" Horning also played for Sioux Falls in the Western League in 1941 (.228), Sioux Falls in 1946 (.293 - All Star second baseman ) and 1947 (.241). Later in 1947 he played with Hutchinson (Western Assoc.) and finished at Quebec (Cand-Amer) in 1949 (.056.). He went on to get his degree at George Washington University and was a Fulbright Scholar to India. He became a professor of history at Creighton University.]

Rance Pless

Gaylon H. White researched and wrote the following regarding Pless in 2001:

"In fourteen seasons as a professional baseball player, Ranee Pless was never kicked out of a game. If an umpire missed a call, Pless might protest by saying, 'That was close.' He practiced what his father, Garfield, a tobacco farmer and semipro baseball player, preached to him as a youngster: 'Go up there, swing the bat, and keep your mouth shut.' According to a sportswriter who covered hundreds of games involving Pless, he was a "high-class gent" who 'would be an odds-on favorite to win any popularity contest among his fellow gladiators.'

"So it's ironic that forty years after Pless hung up his bat and glove to return to his roots in Greeneville, Tennessee, he is often remembered for striking the first blow in a free-for-all in September, 1957, when he was a star third baseman for the Denver Bears of the American Association.

"Memories of the "basebrawl for the ages" started by Pless were conjured up when the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox squared off in a fight early in the 2000 season that got eleven members of the two teams ejected from the game. Sixteen players, managers, and coaches were subsequently suspended a total of 82 games--the harshest penalty for fighting in baseball history. The true test for the Tigers-White Sox fight, however, will be if anybody remembers it forty years from now.

" 'When I think of Ranee Pless, I think of that fight,' says Ralph Houk, who managed Pless at Denver in 1957 and is now retired and living in Winter Haven, Florida. 'It turned out to be quite a fight.' Frank Haraway, a former sportswriter for the Denver Post, gives this account of the fight, which took place during the ninth inning of a game in Denver between the Bears and the St. Paul Saints:

" 'No one in the ballpark could believe it when Pless, playing third base, simply laid his glove on the ground and went after St. Paul manager Max Macon, who had been needling him from the third-base coaching lines following a bean-ball episode. Other players got Pless pulled away from Macon but by this time Houk had decided to take on Macon. He backed Macon clear over to the railing along the leftfield line. I remember especially that Macon, having trouble enough defending against the whirlwind fighting tactics of Houk, suddenly was struck on the side of the head, almost in the face, by the handbag of an aroused woman fan who reached over the railing and swung the bag like a lethal weapon.'

"As Houk recalls, the woman fan was wearing high-heel shoes. 'She hit Macon in the head with one of her shoes,' he says. 'I went crazy,' Pless says today, chuckling over the images of Houk, an ex-Marine, and the high-heeled fan pummeling Macon as players from both teams pushed, shoved, and flailed away at each other. 'They tore my shirt off trying to hold me.'

"Macon taunted opposing hitters by yelling 'Stick it in his ear!' to his pitchers. Stan Williams, pitching for the Saints, would eventually star for the Dodgers, where he continued to claim the inside of the plate--and a bit more--as his own. 'He'd hit at least two batters a game,' Pless says. 'And four or five more would hit the dirt.'

"In the fourth inning Williams drilled Denver's Jim Pisoni in the back. Moments later, Williams fired a pitch over Pless' head. 'I didn't say anything,' Pless points out. Denver pitcher Ed Donnelly retaliated in the seventh inning by hitting St. Paul's Granny Gladstone. But for Pless, revenge would not be complete until Macon, the chief architect of this and earlier bean-ball wars, was silenced. Houk says: 'Ranee told me before he went out to third base in the ninth that if Macon said one more thing, he was going to get him.' Macon knew trouble was brewing. During Denver's eighth-inning turn at bat, he called his bullpen pitchers and catchers into the Saints' dugout along the third-base line. And he went to the third-base coaching box wearing a helmet under his cap. Then Pless swung into action--literally-'I hit that helmet and the thing popped. I didn't know he was wearing a helmet. The fight was on after that.'

"Players from both teams stormed the field, "pushing, shoving, throwing uppercuts and everything else," remembers Pless. Where was Williams? 'He was dodging bullets," Pless jokes. "He was out there but, really, I don't remember seeing him. I had my hands full.'

"The two managers staged the main event and were the last combatants to be separated by Denver police-men who came down from the stands to restore order. Houk 'scored a clear-cut decision' over Macon, the Denver Post reported the next day. Says Pless, who wound up near the left-field stands where the managers were going at it: 'Ralph threw a couple of good punches, I tell you. He nailed him good.'

"Pless knew what it was like to be hit in the head by a professional fastball. At Nashville in 1952, he suffered a double fracture of the left cheekbone when Jerry Lane of the Atlanta Crackers beaned him after he had slammed a three-run homer off Lane in his previ-ous at bat. The beaning ended a season in which he hit for a .364 average, best in the Southern Association. Pless' performance in Nashville earned him a trip to the New York Giants' spring training at Phoenix, Arizona, in 1953. Then 27, he was up against the Giants' starting third baseman, Hank Thompson.

" 'Through the lone weeks The story goes on to report that Giants manager Leo Durocher was puzzled by 'the kid's inability to live up to his advance notices" until he learned of the beaning at Nashville. 'I never knew it until the kid told me the day he left,' Durocher explained. "He said he'd been gun-shy at the plate and jittery and uncertain in the field. But he said he'd be able to shake it off in a few weeks and that he'd be back. It wouldn't surprise me if he gets back before too long. He was working under a heavy handicap this spring. Remember Joe Medwick after he was beaned? It took him a long time to get over the jitters, too.'

"Of his early days in Minneapolis, Pless recalls: 'The pitchers knew I'd been hit in the head and they didn't let me forget it for a while.' He overcame his fears to become one of the most feared hitters in the league. 'He was poison to the Bears when he played against them for Minneapolis,' notes Haraway, the Denver sportswriter. In three seasons at Minneapolis (1953-55), he batted .322, .290 and .337. That last was good enough to win the batting title and, combined with 26 home runs and 107 runs batted in, earned Pless the league's 1955 Most Valuable Player award.

"Despite the MVP year at Minneapolis and his reputation as 'the best hitter in the minors,' the Giants still had no room for Pless on their roster. They traded him to Kansas City. 'It would be unfair to take him up and keep him on the bench,' a Giants official said. On hearing about the trade, Frank Hiller, a former Giants pitcher and teammate of Pless on the '53 Millers, said: 'Pless could be the finest third baseman in the American League. He's the kind of fellow who has to play every day to do the kind of job he's capable of doing.'

"After watching the 1956 Athletics at spring training, sportswriter Jimmy Cannon wrote: 'This is an awful ballclub. We all cherish small victories. Old men are proud when they run after a bus and catch it. Guys with sons who play tennis in the sun across summer afternoons believe it is evidence of vitality when they take the stairs two at a time. They still don't belong on the same field with the Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, White Sox, or Tigers. They have a private tournament, involving Washington and Baltimore.' True to form, the Athletics lost 102 games to finish last in the American League.

"The thirty-year-old Pless saw little action behind Hector Lopez at third and Vic Power at first , appearing mostly as a pinch hitter . He batted only 85 times, getting 23 hits for a .271 average. 'I felt like I deserved a better chance,' Pless says, adding that A's manager Lou Boudreau 'made up his mind in the spring who was going to play and that's the way it went.' In 1957 Pless was back in the minors where he finished his career three years later. In fourteen seasons - half in the American Association and International League, the highest of the minor leagues--Pless posted a batting average of .303, with 2,014 hits, includ-ing 153 home runs. He batted in 1,083 runs and scored 1,053 more.

" 'I'm amazed that Rance was not in the major leagues longer than he was,' says Houk, who went on from Denver to manage twenty years in the major leagues for the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and Boston RedSox. 'He was a good defensive third baseman. He was a clutch hitter. He was a winner--the kind of guy you wanted on your team. He'd be playing every day in the big leagues today.'

"Bob Oldis, a former major-league catcher and team-mate of Pless's in Denver and Richmond, says, 'You've got to be in the right place at the right time. Ranee was in the wrong place when Hank Thompson was coming up with the Giants. If he'd been in another organization, I believe he would've got his time in the big leagues.'

"Watching major-league baseball on television at his home five miles outside Greeneville makes Pless, now seventy-five, want to pick up a bat and hit again. 'There is not enough pitching to go around,' he says. What about the 'basebrawl' between the Tigers and White Sox and the suspension a few weeks later of Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez for hitting a batter with a pitch?

" 'If somebody in front of me hit a home run, I knew that I might as well sit my tail on the ground,' he says. 'But if I went down, you went down the next trip up. Nowadays, the pitcher is protected. I know you have to pitch inside to be effective,' Pless continues. 'But you've got a few pitchers who are headhunters and they should be stopped. They could hurt somebody!'

"That's essentially the same message Pless delivered to Edward Doherty, the American Association president, the day after the Denver-St. Paul fight forty-four years ago. 'We had a meeting in the clubhouse,' Pless recalls. 'He said, 'You've never been in trouble. I can't believe this.' I said, 'Somebody is going to get killed if something is not done about this. That guy could kill a man!'

"After a long silence, Doherty said, 'Well, I tell you what--Don't do it no more!' That ended the meeting. Nobody from either team had been kicked out of the game, and Pless, the guy who started the "basebrawl for the ages," was never fined or suspended."

----------------------------

Sources:

Aberdeen American News

Saint Paul Pioneer Press

Duluth News Tribune

The Associated Press

Minor League History Journal, vol 1, number 1 (1991), pub: SABR

Minor League History Journal, vol III (1994), pub: SABR

The Washington Times

"The Only Way I Know" by Cal Ripken, Jr. with Mike Bryan, pub: Viking Press

"Roger Maris - A Man for All Seasons" by Maury Allen, pub: Donald I. Fine, Inc.

"Behind the Mask - An Inside Baseball Diary" by Bill Freehan/edited by Steve Gelman and Dick Schaap, pub: Popular Library

"Sweet Lou" by Lou Piniella and Maury Allen, pub: Bantam Books

"Chasing the Dream" by Joe Torre with Tom Verducci, pub: Bantam Books

"Baby Bull - From Hardball to Hard Time and Back" by Orlando Cepeda with Herb Fagen, pub: Taylor Publishing

"The Perfect Yankee" by Don Larsen with Mark Shaw, pub: Sagamore Publishing

"Palmer and Weaver - Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine" by Jim Palmer and Jim Dale, pub:Andrews and McNeel

"I Had a Hammer - The Hank Aaron Story" by Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler, pub:Harper Collins

"One Shining Season" by Michael Fedo, pub: Pharos Books

"The Ripken Way" by Cal Ripken, Sr. with Larry Burke, pub: Pocket Books

Topps Company

"Minor League Player" by Ross Horning as printed in "The National Pastime" number 20 (2000);pub: SABR

"Rance Pless Gets Tough" by Gaylon H. White as printed in "The National Pastime" number21 (2001);pub: SABR