By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Dick Stigman’s 1963 baseball card is very special for card collectors in Otter Tail County who saw Stigman pitch in his growing up years.

The native of Nimrod (east of Perham and north of Wadena) and future Minnesota Twins pitcher started his pro career with the old Fargo-Moorhead Twins of the Northern League in 1954. Stigman came to the Twins in 1962 along with first baseman Vic Power in the deal that sent Twins pitcher Pedro Ramos to Cleveland.

It was a thrill for county residents to see Stigman pitch for the Twins at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, currently the location for the Mall of America. Stigman was a member of the Twins’ 1965 American League championship team that lost in the seventh game to Los Angeles in the 1965 World Series.

Stigman, as noted on the back of the baseball card, led the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts (181) when he played in 1959 for San Diego which later became a major league expansion team 10 years later, in 1969.

In 1963 Stigman started 33 games for the Twins and won 15 of them. He pitched 241 innings and had 15 complete games, during a far different era of major league baseball compared to today.

“I could have won 20 games that year if I had received more run support, but it averages out over the years,” he said. 

Stigman retired from baseball in the late 1960s. He lived with his wife Patti and children in the Twin Cities where he still resides. Stigman worked for a manufacturer that produced loose leaf binders and index tabs.