LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Fargo-Moorhead, Daytona Beach, Green Bay[5]
On May 6, 1953, the Fargo-Moorhead Twins defeated Sioux Falls in their Opening Day game by a score of 12–3. A record crowd of 10,123 fans came to Barnett Field. In the game, Roger Maris got his first professional baseball hit.[6] That season, Twins player Frank Gravino would hit 52 home runs.[7] The Twins would host the Northern League All-Star game and defeat the Northern League All-Stars by a score of 8–4.[8] The Twins finished with a record of 86–39 (improving from their record of 44–80 in 1952[8]) and bested Duluth to win the Northern League championship.[9] Roger Maris was selected as the 1953 Northern League Rookie of the Year.[9]
^Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 152, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0
^Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
^Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 54, Tom Clavin and Danny Peary, Touchstone Books, Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4165-8928-0