With the excitement the Minnesota Twins have provided us this season I thought I’d share my first Minnesota Twins clinic with you.
When I was a very young boy, I got word that the new
baseball team in Minnesota was bringing some staff into Moorhead to put on a
youth baseball clinic. I quickly asked my mom if I could go and she smiled and
said “Of course”. I remember I had broken in my Bobby Richardson 2
nd
baseman’s glove and I had this black bat which I absolutely loved. And guess
what? I still have them both today!
Now even though I was only 6 at the time, I knew all the
Twins names- Alison, Killebrew, Rollins,
Kaat, Perry, Pascual…I could name them all and pretty much name all the players of
the other teams too. There was longevity in those days. I loved and still love the game.
But today, depending on what side of the aisle you’re on,
the name Giuliani has its mark (good or bad) on today’s politics.
But back then, the familiar name Giuliani had the name Angelo in
front of it. Angelo Giuliani not only played this kids game of baseball, but became a scout
for the Twins and ran their youth clinics throughout the Dakota’s and
Minnesota.
He played in the majors for parts of seven seasons in the
‘30s and ’40s. He was a catcher for the St. Louis Browns, the Washington
Senators and the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was actually behind the plate when Joe
DiMaggio had his first at-bat in 1936 and was on the field at Yankee Stadium when
Lou Gehrig gave his famous farewell speech.
Moorhead’s Woodlawn Park was full of kids that day. We were
divided into groups for hitting, fielding, and running. The biggest tips for
most of us were “point your foot closest to the pitcher at a 45 degree angle
towards the mound”…”get in front of the ball when fielding” and the proper way
to slide into a base. And don’t worry about getting dirty…it was part of the
game mom would just have to deal with it.
I would find out a number of years later that Angelo
Giuliani was an avid racer….Pigeon racer! I never did understand how that hobby
worked but I guess people pointed at the birds flying over Metropolitan Stadium wondering if those might be “Angie’s”.
I can still picture that day at Woodlawn Park and THAT Giuliani that ran the clinic! Man did those guys look sharp in their major league uniforms.
(All photos courtesy of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club)
