Flashback: Baseball's Lefty Miller had colorful career

June 11, 2008

By GENE McGIVERN/St. Thomas Sports Information

If novelist W.P. Kinsella is looking for a college baseball sequel to his 1982 book Shoeless Joe -- the inspiration for the 1989 film Field of Dreams -- he should stroll through St. Thomas' archives.

The writer who introduced us to Archibald "Moonlight" Graham would love the tale of Fred "Lefty" Miller, St. Thomas Class of '08. That's 1908.

Thanks in large part to information uncovered by fellow Darwin, Minn., native Dave Kelly, Miller's unique story led to his October 2007 induction into the St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame. He's one of just three pre-1909 graduates in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Athletic Halls of Fame.

Among those on hand to celebrate at the St. Thomas hall induction were Miller's 90-year-old son, Fred, Jr., of San Diego, who lived the first 15 years of his life in Minneapolis and attended St. Thomas Academy one year.

Great research

Kelly, a retired accountant who now lives in Bloomington, has followed Minnesota amateur baseball all of his life, especially his hometown Darwin teams from Meeker County. Lefty Miller was the second oldest of the 10 Miller brothers, a clan that kept local baseball rosters filled for parts of four decades. Kelly pored through libraries and newspaper archives and supplemented his research with interviews of Miller's family.

"Lefty was the best pitcher ever to come out of Meeker County, and I don't think it's a stretch to say he's one of the best pitchers we've ever had from Minnesota," Kelly said. "His father John W. Miller, was said to be the first pitcher in Meeker County ever to throw a curve ball, and six of John's sons were pitchers. The more I looked into Lefty's background and found such rich information, the more impressed I became. No one, not even his family, knew all the details of his career."

New York Giants outfielder "Moonlight" Graham played two innings in the field and never came to bat in his single game in the major leagues, in June 1905. Kinsella liked his name and story so much that he inserted Graham as a fictionalized character who gave up his major-league baseball dream to save a young girl's life.

In real life, "Moonlight" Graham moved from North Carolina to Chisholm, Minn., where he served as the town doctor for more than four decades and is remembered as "Doc" Graham.

Just when "Moonlight" Graham was making his footnote in history in the summer of 1905, Miller was scaring the daylights out of opposing hitters as a dominating town-ball pitcher. His services weren't just limited to Darwin.

Kelly said Miller's summer job was to pitch for various town teams from Minnesota to North Dakota to Michigan. That allowed him to earn most of his $260 in annual St. Thomas tuition, fees, room and board.

"In those days," Kelly explained, "the rules and customs were different. Teams would pay a few top guys, usually pitchers, to play for them in weekend games or tournaments."

Tough Tommie

Miller's impressive three-year St. Thomas baseball career concluded 100 years ago. In that 1906-1908 era, long before any postseason opportunities existed, St. Thomas had a 28-3 overall record. The lone blemishes on Miller's 13-2 mound record were close losses to Notre Dame and Minnesota.

In three seasons with the Tommies, Miller faced six Division I teams and had 11 complete-game, nine-inning pitching outings. He struck out 14 or more batters seven times, with a high of 20 in a 1908 game vs. Northwestern (Wis.). Miller had an estimated 1.17 ERA, with 195 strikeouts and only 31 walks and 49 hits allowed in 131 career innings. He had a dominant 8-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio as a senior. He also batted .350 in his senior season.

As a junior, he struck out 16 in a nine-inning, 8-5 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes. That spring he also silenced Luther (Iowa) in two meetings -- a one-hit shutout, and a second victory when he struck out 15 and allowed two hits and one run in nine innings. Against Macalester, he threw eight innings of hitless relief in 2-1 loss, but later in that season he threw a two-hit shutout in a 5-0 win. Miller's lone loss as a junior came against Notre Dame in a game where he allowed only three earned runs and struck out 11, but his defense committed four errors.

As a senior, Miller fanned 10 and allowed three earned runs over nine innings in 6-5 win over Nebraska, and struck out 16 in two-hit shutout win over Marquette. His lone loss of 1908 was a 2-1 decision to the Minnesota Gophers in a game in which he recorded 11 strikeouts and gave up just two hits, both singles.

Pro Career

Like Moonlight Graham, pro baseball and medical studies were in Miller's future. The fall after his St. Thomas graduation, he enrolled in medical school at the University of Illinois-Chicago. That summer he began his professional pitching career with the St. Paul Saints, a member of the American Association, one step below the major leagues.

According to Kelly, the highlight of Miller's first pro season were his two shutout wins in four days, including a 3-0 blanking of the rival Minneapolis Millers on July 4 before a packed stadium at St. Paul's Lexington Park. That was a marquee event as the Saints and Millers celebrated the national holiday by playing one game of their doubleheader in Minneapolis, the other in St. Paul.

The 1908 Saints, who averaged nearly four errors per game, eventually finished 43 games out of first place, and an illness cut short Miller's season.

Miller attended medical school in the fall, winter and spring months and was unavailable for spring training. He joined his pro teams each June. He pitched in 1909 with the Seattle Turks and posted a 14-12 record. He pitched one game in 1910 with Seattle, then was traded to the Vancouver Beavers and won 13 games with six shutouts. At the end of the 1910 season, Miller was drafted by General Manager Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics.

Mack wanted Miller to quit medical school to focus on baseball, but Miller refused. He eventually got his release from the Athletics' organization and pitched in 1911 with the Fort Worth Panthers, the Oakland Oaks and the Tacoma Tigers.

He received his degree in medicine and surgery in June 1912, and started his internship. In 1916 he married Agnes Toomey, a registered nurse, in her hometown of Sleepy Eye. Miller set up a practice in Minneapolis, where he worked until 1932. He practiced medicine the next 10 years in Elgin, Ill.

Seeking a drier climate, he moved to San Bernardino, Calif., in 1942, where he worked until retirement. Miller died in 1971 at age 85.

Hometown Heroes

After his medical career began, Lefty Miller's baseball days were limited to occasional town ball games. But he was part of one last special memory for his hometown fans in Darwin.

"The 10 Miller brothers challenged the town team from Litchfield to a game in September 1921," Kelly explained. "They hung posters in both towns and had stories in the newspapers. Litchfield was always our biggest rival. The Miller brothers won 4-3."

By then, Lefty, age 35, played first base and had passed the baseball torch to his younger brothers. Joe Miller pitched and struck out 17 in the Litchfield victory. Ironically, earlier that year, Joe Miller, a World War I veteran who was attending dental school, earned tuition funds pitching for the Chisholm Mavericks in the semi-pro Mesaba Range League. The same place where Moonlight Graham was the town doctor.

Darwin's 1936 team placed second in the state amateur tournament -- easily a top-five all-time memory in that community. That Minnesota runner-up squad included former Tommie standout Phil Gallivan, a hired gun who pitched in the White Sox organization, and Lefty's youngest brother, Earl Miller.

Darwin's theory of evolution may have skeptics, but there's no doubting the Darwin, Minn., theory of relativity: Lefty Miller and his relatives could play the game, and his legacy will live on in his hometown and at St. Thomas.

Fred Miller in his St. Thomas days.

Lefty posed for this photo with the Seattle Turks

Miller on an early trading card with Seattle.

At last fall's Hall of Fame induction, Fred Miller, Jr., (left) and Lefty's grandson were on hand to celebrate. (Mike Ekern photo)