He might be a Chicago guy. But Minnesotans know Mike Veeck.
Veeck grew up in the shadow of his father Bill who owned the Chicago White Sox. His first memory of baseball is walking through old Comiskey Park when his father bought the team in 1959. Mike admittedly became a Minnesotan in his years owning the St. Paul Saints.
"The thing about the Twin Cities and the Upper Midwest, is that a Chicago guy learned, that the good citizens of MSP taught us all, they asked about my family first," says Veeck. "There's no other community that I can say that that's ever happened."
The Veeck name is a legend in baseball circles. Not just as owners, but as promoters. And promoter is maybe the biggest trait Mike picked up from his father.
Now Mike Veeck is getting the Netflix treatment in a new documentary called "The Saint of Second Chances". The streaming giant has consistently shined a light on fascinating sports stories, whether that is professional golfers in "Full Swing", or famous NFL players like Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes in "Quarterback".
"I didn't name it," laughed Mike Veeck who talked to the WCCO Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar. "My mother would really roll her eyes at that."
But Mike Veeck is a different animal. He owned a tiny independent minor league baseball team in St. Paul. What makes that so special? Well, Mike Veeck made it special.
It starts with Mike's father, Bill. Bill Veeck was a Hall of Fame baseball owner. So was Bill's father, William Veeck Sr. who was President of the Chicago Cubs from 1919 until his death in 1933.
"It's just that to see the stages, to see my grandfather running the Cubs, a man with a 3rd grade education, a newspaper man," reflects Veeck. "And then my dad who, has never graduated from anywhere. And the line goes on. Of course my son, he got a master's from Northwestern showing us all up."
The Veeck name became both legendary and notorious in professional baseball as they introduced what they describe simply as "fun" at ballparks — giveaways, theme nights, fireworks, exploding scoreboards and more. It drew fans. The Veeck family became known for making a baseball game a carnival and putting butts in seats.
Remember Harry Carey's famous singing of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at Cubs games? That was Bill Veeck's idea when Carey was a White Sox announcer.
It didn't all work of course. Some of it ended disastrously. There were some radical uniforms he put on the field in the 1970s that most White Sox fans would rather forget.
Then there was the infamous "Disco Demolition" night in 1979 between a doubleheader with the Tigers. It led to a riot in Chicago and the second game was forfeited and never played. That was when it came to a screeching halt for Mike who worked in the marketing department and it was "his idea". Veeck ended up exiled from the game.
For Veeck, looking back on this life became an emotional catharsis decades in the making.
"I had always kind of viewed my father as kind of a pain in the butt, because he was already legendary," Veeck said. "Who wanted to follow that act? But my son is fourth generation and he convinced me that the way to approach this was to look at our 110 years of this, it's all we've ever done. It's all we know how to do. And it was really emotional. The whole thing was tremendously emotional. I used to say I knew everything, I never had to say another thing to my father. But after this documentary, I was wrong. I had a lot of things that I should have said to him over the years."
Mike Veeck would be back in baseball. It's the family way. After owning and running some minor league franchises throughout the 1980s, Veeck and a group of investors (including actor Bill Murray) founded the Saints in 1993, bringing Minor League Baseball back to the Twin Cities.
There might have been some lessons learned along the way, but Mike Veeck was not going to just put baseball out on the field. He was determined to bring fun back to the ballpark.
"We had established ourselves as kind of an entertainment venue, if you will, with concerts and the usual cheap theatrics that I've been accused of and rightfully so," says Veeck. "But we needed to show the caliber of play on the field. Obviously if we'd started in '93 and said, 'see great baseball!' Everybody would've said, 'Hey, we won two World Series here in '87 and '91. We're already seeing great baseball.' So we emphasized the fun."
There is a mascot pig that brings out the game balls (Garrison Squealer, Hammy Davis Jr. and - of course - Kevin Bacon), hosting the world's largest pillow and food fights, there's been a Tonya Harding Mini-Bat Night and a No One Night (locking out fans), sumo wrestling or perhaps you need a massage from a nun.
Need a haircut? Why not come to the ballpark and get that while watching baseball.
On May 31, 1997, the Saints became the first professional men's team since integration to roster a female player, Ila Borders, who would pitch four seasons and log 101 innings in independent baseball.
The Netflix show, "The Saint of Second Chances", can accurately describe the journey of Mike Veeck who has gotten his own second chances along the way. But it also speaks to some of the ways the Saints gave players a chance to still play ball. The franchise may have operated under the slogan "Fun is good" but they still played baseball, and at times played it very well.
After being suspended and released following positive drug tests in Los Angeles, Darryl Strawberry signed with St. Paul in 1996. Now Strawberry is getting his number retired by the Saints this weekend.
"He was approached by literally hundreds of clubs, but they all wanted to use Darryl's name to sell tickets," explained Veeck. "And we had the advantage because of the wonderful reception we've always kind of had in the Twin Cities. We didn't have tickets to sell, we were sold out. And so that helped me when I called them and I said, 'look, this is not you on display, this is not you having to do something that you walked away from. This is simply you having to come to an area of the country that will welcome you with open arms, and you can see if you love baseball the way you did when you were a kid. Because I know you don't love it now'. And he agreed."
Strawberry hit 18 home runs in 29 games with the Saints. That led his career back to the big leagues where he ended up winning a World Series with the New York Yankees.
"Suddenly we were a place to play," Veeck says looking back on that signing. "We were, you know, a developmental member in good standing of the farm system."
Strawberry wasn't the only big leaguer to take a turn with the Saints. St. Paul native and MLB Hall of Famer pitcher Jack Morris came to the Saints. After the MLB work stoppage of 1994-95 seemingly ended his career, Morris started 10 games for Veeck's team.
And J.D. Drew signed with the Saints after the Philadelphia Phillies drafted him No. 2 overall in 1997. Drew and agent couldn’t come to terms with the Phillies on a contract, so the outfielder played 44 games with the Saints in 1997. He hit .341 with 18 homers, helping the team to a division title, and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1998 season.
Veeck and his ownership group sold the team to Diamond Baseball Holdings earlier this year. The Saints are no longer an independent minor league team, operating now as the Twins AAA affiliate.
Oh, but there is still a pig delivering game balls. And plenty of fun because that over century old legacy of the Veeck's is destined to live on.
Directed by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol), narrated by Jeff Daniels, and featuring Charlie Day as a younger Veeck, "The Saint of Second Chances" will be shown Sunday at the Icon Theatre at West End in St. Louis Park before debuting on Netflix September 19th.