St. Paul Saints to honour shady past with Crooks Haven Ghostly Gangsters alternate identity

The St. Paul Saints, Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins in the International League, unveiled an alternate identity the pays tribute to their hometown’s association with some of history’s most notorious criminals. The Saints’ new Crooks Haven Ghostlys Gangsters brand will evoke images of John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Ma Barker, and Alvin “Creepy” Karpis—all of whom made their way to St. Paul during Prohibition.

The “Crooks Haven” portion of the brand is a reference to St. Paul’s nickname during the 1920s and ’30s, when gangsters, robbers, and bootleggers made the city the center of their operations, with the help of corrupt politicians who turned a blind eye to covert activity.

And it’s not just gangsters, but Ghostly Gangsters. Per the team, Wabasha Street Caves, an area of St. Paul that contained restaurants, night clubs, and speakeasies, is widely considered one of the city’s best-known haunted locations. A popular story holds that a waitress at an establishment called the Fireside Room overheard shouting and gunshots during a poker game, only to have all evidence of the men involved disappear into thin air before police could intervene.

The “Gangsters” portion of the nickname is not only based on St. Paul’s history of criminal activity, but it’s a wink and a nod to the Saints themselves. For most of their history, the Saints have been an independent team, during which time they were well known for outrageous and sometimes controversial promotions. They’ve calmed down a bit since 2020 with their newfound Triple-A affiliation, but the team holds on to that reputation.

“Many might consider the Saints the outlaws of Minor League Baseball,” the Saints said in a statement. “Rule breakers. Mischievous. Antiestablishment. Check, check, and check.”

The new identity contains two logos, a cap logo featuring an angry, anthropomorphic baseball wearing a fedora, and a primary logo with the legend “Ghostly Gangsters” in a prohibition font, with a fedora, suspenders, and a red tie, evoking gangsters’ mode of dress in the Prohibition era.