The Nicest Guy in Baseball

He seems to be telling the plain truth as he sees it. This quality makes him a powerful champion for the team’s point of view, which he expounds on in speaking engagements that he tries to accept once or twice a week, sandwiching them between staff meetings about matters involving the stadium, player negotiations, corporate sponsorships, and marketing plans.

Because the new ballpark comes with a 30-year lease, he says, “it will entrench the Minnesota Twins in this marketplace for the next generation of fans. That’s worth an investment by the community, in my mind. Ultimately, they’re going to have a place where they can come together—as families, as friends, as business associates—and do it around baseball. I think that makes our community a better place.”

Twins owner Carl Pohlad would draw jeers for talking that way, his voice met by a chorus pointing out that legislative approval of the new stadium, according to a Forbes estimate, instantly increased the team’s market value from $216 million to $288 million. (In fairness, it’s worth noting that the Pohlads kicked in $145 million for the ballpark.)

"Baseball is more than a game," St. Peter says. "It's central to the fabric of the quality of life in this region."

St. Peter not only gets away with the civic-asset argument, he sounds sincere and persuasive. And he doesn’t miss the chance to point out a clause in the lease agreement requiring the Pohlad family to share a percentage of the sale price with the public if the team is sold within 10 years. That unusual stipulation “wasn’t imposed on us,” he stresses. “That was something our ownership brought to the table with Hennepin County in negotiating our deal before it went to the legislature.”

Yes, but should the finances of baseball and other pro sports—from players’ salaries to the value of franchises—be propped up and inflated in the first place by publicly subsidized stadiums?

St. Peter doesn’t try to defend or excuse the broader economics of subsidization. “The reality is, that horse left the barn a long time ago,” he says. And he lets it go at that.

When Walters was in journalism school at the University of Minnesota, he says, “I had a professor who said, ‘Always be asking yourself, “Why is this SOB lying to me?”’ With Dave St. Peter, you never ask yourself that.”