I love digging into baseball’s long rich history and discovering players with parallel paths.  

During my research on the Millers and the Saints, I found Charlie and Babe Ganzel.  These two were father and son respectively.  Both played for the Minneapolis ball club, both were cut, and then both joined the Saints.  Charlie, the father, jumped-the-Mississippi in 1884.  Babe, the son, followed in his father’s footsteps 54 years later.  

What makes this father/son duo really remarkable is that both of them went on to beat the Minneapolis team that cut them. And Babe didn’t just win a game or two like his father.   In his first year as their manager, Babe’s Saints won the 1938 American Association pennant when few believed he’d succeed.   In ’38, the Millers were known as the “Fence Crackers”.  After ’38, the Saints were known as the “Miller Killers”. 

 I love uncovering these interwoven tales of baseball and family.  Go Saints!