This Iconic Baseball Franchise Nearly Called Minnesota Home

Before the Washington Senators packed up and moved from D.C. to Bloomington, Minnesota in 1961 to become the Minnesota Twins, the Twin Cities was home to a robust minor league baseball scene.

Heck, even St. Cloud had the Rox from 1946-1971 as affiliates of the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins throughout its history.

The St. Paul Saints' original iteration lasted from 1901-1960. The team was an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox from 1933-1942 before becoming a Dodgers farm club from 1944-1960. The team hosted seven future Hall of Famers in Manager Walter Alston, catcher Roy Campanella, outfielder Duke Snider, pitcher Lefty Gomez and infielders Leo Durocher, Bill McKechnie and Miller Huggins.

Other notable Saints from this era included Ralph Branca, Don Zimmer and future Minnesota Twins manager Gene Mauch.

On the other side of the river stood the Minneapolis Millers, who were Red Sox affiliates from 1958-1960, then New York Giants affiliates from 1946-1957.

The Millers hosted 13 future Hall of Fame players including Ted Williams, Billy Herman, Carl Yastrzemski and Willie Mays.

Interestingly, in 1949 Giants owner Horace Stoneham bought 30 acres of land in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park with the intent to build a new ballpark and ultimately move the Giants to town.

Minnesota-based construction firm Kraus-Anderson talked about the history of this plot of land in a recent Facebook post:

"There is a very small lake, technically a pond, in front of St. Louis Park’s Double Tree Hotel. The walking trail that surrounds it, dotted with park benches, seems to elevate the status of this pond above nearby retention basins. In fact, this humble body of water is a city park with an official name: Candlestick Pond.

Like any good place name, it tells us a little bit about its history. In 1949 the New York Giants (of Major League Baseball fame) purchased a thirty-acre parcel on Highway 12 (now 394) and Zarthan Avenue. Giants owner Horace Stoneham planned to use this site for a new stadium and a new home for his team. When the Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins, the Giants went to San Francisco to play in Candlestick Park.

The Giants real estate subsidiary owned this increasingly valuable site for decades, and in 1966 it convinced the city of St. Louis Park to allow a name change: Yosemite Lane, that once gently curved around the recently built Cooper Theater, would henceforth be known as Candlestick Drive. When Kraus-Anderson purchased the site in 1977 the whole parcel was known as Candlestick Park. Perhaps wanting to side-step any confusion caused by memorializing a planned baseball stadium that was built elsewhere, KA immediately rechristened the site “Park Place”.

Although not all the ambitious plans Kraus-Anderson had for this real estate were realized, KA did make quite an impact on this corner of St. Louis Park. Park Place Blvd is a crucial artery through what is now an intensively developed Southwest corner of I394 and HWY 100. Candlestick Drive didn’t survive redevelopment, but the name (somewhat charmingly) did cling to the nearby pond. #TBT"