Atheism and Baseball

One of the original American League baseball teams, the Washington Senators, were one of the teams to move west, in 1960. They moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Twins. The Twins cap sports an interlocking "T" and "C", signifying the "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

There was about a decade where the Twins didn't wear that interlocking "TC" cap, but instead wore an "M" for "Minnesota". This, once you know some of the region's history, angered the people in St. Paul.

Minneapolis and St. Paul had been a hotbed for minor league baseball for years, like many cities around this country. Minneapolis had the Millers and St. Paul had the Saints, and they were fiercely independent and had a rowdy rivalry. When the major league team adopted the "M" caps, the folks in St. Paul were upset, claiming it was another example of Minneapolis trying to exert their dominance over St. Paul.

Eventually they switched back to the "TC", and people don't really care so much, maybe. But, there is a minor league team playing in St. Paul, calling themselves the Saints, but they play in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, a minor league in the old-fashioned sense, in that they're not slaves of the major leagues--they have no connection to big-league teams. They also have mascots like the T-Bones, Lemurs, and Air Hogs.

In any case, on August 10th of this year, by way of a joint sponsorship from the Minnesota Atheists and the American Atheists, a promotion will be turning the "St. Paul Saints" into the "Mr. Paul 'Aints". Seriously.

At the stadium they're planning on covering the "S" in all instances of the name "Saints" all around the stadium; they'll have tables with scientific literature about molecular structure and evolution; and after the game they'll enjoy some good old-fashioned engineering of gunpowder--fireworks.

Nobody's quite sure how the reaction will be. I'd rock a "Mr. Paul 'Aints" shirt.