The 1915 American Association Pennant Race

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The 1915 American Association Pennant Race

You know what baseball needs more of?

Baseball needs more meaningful minor league pennant races.

To my knowledge, 1915 was the only time that Minneapolis and St. Paul went head to head in a pennant race down the stretch.

The St. Paul Saints would actually emerge as the dominant team in the independent American Association in the 1920s. They were the midwest answer to the Baltimore Orioles.

But that was a long way away in 1915.

Minneapolis struggled during the first part of the season. They were in last place on June 3:

They improved a bit as the season went on. Minneapolis made it to 7th place by July 10:

By August 14, however, the race looked much different:

I guess that goes to show that you never know what might happen.

Now, it’s not crazy to think that a team could go 26-11 like the Millers did. Crazier things have happened in short stretches. However, it is quite remarkable to see Minneapolis advance so much so quickly.

The key series that season came on August 14 and 15. The Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints met in one of those old fashioned streetcar weekend series. August 14, a Saturday, featured a game in St. Paul, and August 15 featured the return game in Minneapolis.

And, man oh man, this must have been a sight to behold.

Minneapolis came bursting out of the gates in the August 14 game, never looking back after coming out to a quick 6-0 lead.

And they kept the pressure on during the Sunday match:

15,000 fans for a minor league game would be significant even today. In fact, I’m not sure that the current stadium in St. Paul seats 15,000.

The Millers came within 5 games of first with these two wins. After a week went by, they found themselves in first place:

There were moments in September where it looked like they might falter:

However, they were able to hold on in the end, clinching it on the next to last day of the season:

Unfortunately, the days of local rivalries and intense minor league pennant races are gone.

Do you know why?

It’s because of the colonial nature of the major and minor league relationship.

See — the problem with the farm system is that the best minor league players will inevitably be taken up to the big club in September. That means that no real pennant races can last through September, since all the best players are gone.

It’s a bad system that has done a lot of damage to the sport of baseball at the local level — and we’ll talk a lot more about that in the coming weeks.