Born Calvin Robertson on December 1, 1911 in Montreal, brother of 2007-CBHFM-inductee Sherry Robertson, he was the nephew of Clark Griffith, a former major leaguer and owner of the Washington Senators. Calvin was from a poor family and when his natural father Jimmy Robertson died, Clark Griffith began raising Calvin and then adopted him in 1924.

The youngster became a baseball junkie under his uncle’s tutelage, and was known to have spent countless hours in the living room figuring out batting orders and farm team acquisitions to help the team as a youngster. Calvin played baseball and basketball at Staunton Military Academy from 1928 to 1933, and then baseball at George Washington University beginning in 1933. Following that, he managed in the minor leagues in Chattanooga and Charlotte from 1937 to 1941. He moved into several administrative positions throughout the organization, including secretary-treasurer and then vice president beginning in 1942. By the early 1950?s, Calvin was basically running the Senators’ day-to-day operations, and he was handed the ownership of the team after the senior Griffith’s death in 1955.

Calvin Griffith was instrumental in bringing the club from Washington to Minneapolis in 1961, where he served 24 more years as president and principal owner of the Minnesota Twins. The Twins won three AL West titles under his reign (1965, ’69, ’70), one AL pennant (1965), and they hosted the MLB All-Star Game in 1965, the year that Calvin was awarded the AL’s Executive of the Year award. He was inducted into the Twins’ Hall of Fame in 2000, and the organization named the team MVP award after him. Canadian Justin Morneau won that award in 2006 and 2008. There are currently a row of seats in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome named “Calvin’s Seats,” which are used to host underprivileged families at Twins home games.

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