Patrick Reusse: Twins leave top affiliate shorthanded

Rochester, N.Y., has been home to an International League franchise continuously since 1899.

There are only five other American sports franchises that can claim to have played in the same city and the same league for a longer period: the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals of the National League.

The Rochester Broncos won the International League title in that initial season of 1899. The Rochester team also carried the nicknames of Hustlers, Colts and the Tribe before becoming the Red Wings in 1929.

The Red Wings and their forerunners have this in common: They have provided at least one title in every decade since Rochester took up permanent residence in the International League.

It goes like this: 1890s (one title), 1900s (two), 1910s (two), 1920s (two), 1930s (three), 1940s (one), 1950s (three), 1960s (one), 1970s (two), 1980s (one) and 1990s (two).

Rochester signed on with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1929, and that's what led to the nickname of Red Wings. Cardinals players who came through Rochester included Stan Musial and Bob Gibson.

Baltimore replaced St. Louis as Rochester's affiliate for the 1961 season and provided powerhouse teams featuring Boog Powell, Eddie Murray, Bobby Grich, Don Baylor and Cal Ripken Jr., to name a few.

Peter Angelos bought the Orioles in 1993. He had led the franchise into deterioration by the late '90s.

"They had so many problems in the organization that what was happening with their Triple-A affiliate was way down the list," said Naomi Silver, head of the Red Wings board of directors.

Silver and her employees dropped the Orioles in favor of the Twins for the 2003 season.

"I was expecting a backlash from some of our fans because of the 42-year affiliation with Baltimore," Silver said. "I received one letter of protest from a longtime Orioles fan."

Silver's father, Morrie, was a Rochester businessman. In 1956, the Cardinals put up the Red Wings for sale, and Morrie led a local effort to buy the team.

He formed Rochester Community Baseball Inc., and that company, with more than 8,000 stockholders, still owns the Red Wings. The Silver family has the most shares. Morrie died in 1974. His wife, Anna, represented the franchise into the late '80s, and then daughter Naomi took over.

"My mom is 90, and we still get her to some games," Naomi said. "She's like most of the fans. Her presence at a game depends on the weather.

"For us, when you look at the two W's, weather is always more important than wins."

That's good, because the Twins have provided an inept, undermanned product to Rochester baseball fans for the past month.

How bad is it? The Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Philadelphia's new Class AAA affiliate, opened the season 0-12 and 4-28. And yet the Pigs are within four games of Rochester in the IL's North Division.

On Thursday night, the Red Wings lost 11-3 to Pawtucket -- their 22nd loss in 27 games. Manager Stan Cliburn had one extra position player: backup catcher Ryan Jorgensen. The Red Wings fell to 19-31 on the season with a 9-1 loss to Pawtucket on Saturday night.

Dan Mason has been Red Wings general manager for 19 years. In the minor leagues, GMs are charged with getting fans in the ballpark, not personnel matters. Fair enough, but what happens when the manager -- in this case, Cliburn -- screams "help" and nothing happens?

"If Dan felt it was a dire situation, he would talk to [Twins farm director] Jim Rantz," Silver said.

Mason was political in a Friday conversation, saying: "There's been a rash of injuries in the big leagues, leading to several call-ups. And now we've lost Denard Span to a broken finger.

"Fortunately, we did get back Darnell McDonald from injury Thursday, so we had three outfielders. And we're getting an infielder, Felix Molina, for this weekend.

"We've been a couple of players short, but these things happen over the course of a season."

Over the course of the 2000s, the Red Wings do not have an International League title. And now that the goal for this season has become to stay ahead of the IronPigs, that leaves only 2009 for the Twins to maintain Rochester's decadal tradition.

Adopting a firm policy that the Class AAA manager should have at all times more than one extra player might help.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com