The Nicest Guy in Baseball

In February 1992, the Twins created a new public relations arm for the business end of the operation—a corporate communications department—something other major league teams were starting to do. “Most teams until around that point had only one PR department focused on what I’d call baseball communications,” St. Peter says. “You know, when you sign a player, you get the information out on that player. There was never a lot of PR as it relates to the business—ticket sales, stadium efforts, corporate partnerships, community involvement, and all of those things.”

St. Peter won the job as head of the new department and moved to the long, low building in front of the Metrodome. He has been there ever since. The Twins kept giving him more things to run—community affairs, ticket sales, corporate partnerships. By 1999, he was senior vice president of business affairs, essentially responsible for all sales and marketing.

In 2002, Jerry Bell stepped aside as team president to devote all of his time to a push for a new stadium. He formally became president of Twins Sports, Inc., the team’s corporate parent. (At this point, Twins Sports oversees only the team and the stadium project. It briefly included Victory Sports, a regional cable and satellite sports network that folded in 2004 after less than a year on the air. St. Peter says that Twins Sports might add new ventures in the future.) St. Peter was named as Bell’s successor.

The new stadium is expected to add $40 million a year to the team's revenue, and St. Peter promises that some of that money will swell the payroll pot.

He kept getting promoted, and he proved he could handle everything we gave him,” Bell says. “He performed at every level. He’s smart, he’s a very hard worker, he knows what needs to be done, and he knows how to do it.” As icing on the cake, Bell says, St. Peter “cares a lot about the franchise from a personal perspective. It’s not just a job to him.”

Executive board member James Pohlad, Carl’s eldest son, says that the family simply followed Bell’s advice in elevating St. Peter to the president’s role. “We count on people inside the organization to plan for succession and to have people they can recommend,” Jim Pohlad says. “Jerry’s recommendation was Dave. We never looked at anybody else.” He says his family has been more than happy with the result.