Ray Barton’s most enduring work looms over center field at the Twins’ new stadium, a half-century after he created it. Barton, a cartoonist and illustrator from St. Paul, sketched out ballplayers “Paul” and “Minnie” shaking hands, an image that became the franchise’s signature logo. Barton, 80, died at home Sunday. Although the logo has long been a visual fixture on Twins’ uniforms, the team revived it in a big way at Target Field. Whenever a Twin smacks a homerun, the cartoon characters are activated and appear to be shaking hands. The Twins commissioned the drawing in 1961, in time for the team’s inaugural season. As lore has it, the earliest rendering of the logo appeared in a wire service photo in January 1961, just months before the team’s opening game at the old Met Stadium in Bloomington. The original logo had the letters “MT” for the Minnesota Twins on the players’ jerseys instead of the “M” for Minneapolis on one and “StP” for St. Paul on the other. The words “Win Twins” have been replaced with “Minnesota,” but the primary design of the logo featuring two players on opposites sides of a river shaking hands with a baseball in the background has remained virtually unchanged over the past five decades, said Clyde Doepner, the Twins’ team historian. Former team owner Calvin Griffith chose the logo because “he wanted to have a feeling that Minneapolis and St. Paul were getting together,” Doepner said. “And that the team represents the region.” The emblem has been part of almost every Twins uniform since the team began play. It was absent only on the 1972 road uniforms when only the faces of “Minnie” and “Paul” were shown, and on last year’s gray pin-striped road jersey, which featured commemorative patches of the Metrodome and former owner Carl Pohlad. “It’s a very unique logo and perhaps the most unique in all of baseball,” said Doepner. “It’s lasted all these years. I hope he is proud.” (via Artist who created Twins’ handshake logo dies at 80 | StarTribune.com)
