Twins Time Capsule

Because baseball, like writing, is fundamentally a 19th century pursuit there is not a shortage of commentators on the subject.  Most of them take it quite seriously and I cede the topic to them.

But mention must be made of the excellent season to date of my beloved Minnesota Twins.  Yes, my Twins.  Your baseball team affiliation is determined early in life and moving to another state does not alter it.  

They've been doing well enough this year that my son, grandson and I took in a game at their home park, Target Field, in downtown Minneapolis.

It was blazing hot, so this criminally overpriced beer was a good idea.  But I'm actually taking a picture of the big sign over the Target Field lettering.  This highlights another family artifact.

Here's a closer look at it.

These big galoots shaking hands across the Mississippi River are called "Minnie" and "Paul", representing the personifications of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  I like how old the concept is.  Here's a coin of the Emperor Hadrian with a personification of the River Nile.  Note the hippo and crocodile!

Of course the Twins logo is not 2000 years old.  But it does go back a ways.  Here's a poster that has kicked around in our family for many years.  

Clearly this is an earlier version of what now towers over center field, but it has some interesting differences and a history of its own.

Here's the very first version, created by a man named Ray Barton in 1960 when it was announced that the then Washington Senators would be moving to Minnesota and getting a new name.  Barton was told that it would only be used on paper cups and such.  The legendarily cheap Twins management paid him the princely sum of $15 for his work.  He is said to have never really been satisfied with the image. Or the paycheck.

The version on our poster premiered at the start of the inaugural 1961 season.  But take a closer look.  The "Win Twins" wording quotes a bouncy tune that the team used back then.  I remember it at the beginning of each radio broadcast....

Of course what put this image back into my mind of late has been the Twins pennant drive, one that gives us hope for another World Series appearance.  Note that the poster references the World Series and so is unlikely to have been made before they won the American League championship on September 26th.  And since the Twins ultimately did not win the Series it was probably not made afterwards as a commemorative.  So that gives us roughly a ten day window between the end of the League championship and the start of the Series.  We have a theory that the poster might have been made on the very day the Twins clinched, perhaps as part of a Welcome Home celebration, the team having won the pennant while on the road.

Perhaps haste lead to error...notice how the back sleeve of "Minnie" has been left blank!  This does not appear on any of the other versions I have seen on pennants and posters. 

As of this writing the Twins have a 4 game lead on the Cleveland Indians and look like odds on favorites to win the American League Central Division.  After that its nail biting post season play.

We hope!