MINNEAPOLIS (KFGO) – The Minnesota Twins have removed a statue of team founder Calvin Griffith from Target Field.
The team says that while it acknowledges the prominent role Griffith played in Twins history, the Twins “cannot remain silent and continue ignoring racist comments” that Griffith made in 1978.
During a 1978 speech to a Waseca Lions club, Griffith said he decided to do make the move “when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here.”
The Twins say Griffith’s words “displayed a blatant intolerance and disregard for the black community.”
Griffith relocated the team from Washington, D.C. to Minnesota in 1961.
