Twins remove statue of former owner for racist comments in 1978

The Minnesota Twins have removed a statue of former team owner Calvin Griffith from Target Field, the club announced Friday.

"While we acknowledge the prominent role Calvin Griffith played in our history, we cannot remain silent and continue ignoring the racist comments he made in Waseca in 1978," the team's statement read. "His disparaging words displayed a blatant intolerance and disregard for the black community that are the antithesis of what the Minnesota Twins stand for and value."

Griffith was the owner of the team when he helped move the franchise to Minnesota from Washington, D.C. in 1961. But his reasons for relocating were virulently racist.

"I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota," Griffith said in 1978, according to Howard Sinker of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "It was when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ball games, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. It's unbelievable. We came here because you've got good, hardworking, white people here."

The statue was erected at Target Field in 2010 to celebrate the team's 50th season in Minnesota. Now it's coming down 10 years later.

"Our decision to memorialize Calvin Griffith with a statue reflects an ignorance on our part of systemic racism present in 1978, 2010, and today," the statement continued. "We apologize for our failure to adequately recognize how the statue was viewed and the pain it caused for many people - both inside the Twins organization and across Twins Territory.

"We cannot remove Calvin Griffith from the history of the Minnesota Twins, but we believe removal of this statue is an important and necessary step in our ongoing commitment to provide a Target Field experience where every fan and employee feels safe and welcome."