Friday, July 17

This edition of the Baseball Traveler newsletter lands in your inbox on Shoeless Joe Jackson's 139th birthday. Let this be a reminder that the 2026 MiLB at Field of Dreams game takes place on Aug. 11. Maybe you'll be there. In the meantime, thanks for being here.

You hear the one about the nun who gave massages at a Minor League ballpark?

That might sound like a joke but there's no punchline here, just a simple statement of fact: For three decades, a massaging nun by the name of Sister Rosalind Gefre was a beloved part of the St. Paul Saints gameday experience. Gefre, often referred to as Sister Ros, passed away at the age of 96 on June 15. The back of her baseball-themed Mass card employed a more creative death euphemism, however: Sister Ros was "traded to the Angels to live among the Saints."

"She had a really awesome sense of humor, just such a zest for life," said Saints executive vice president of business affairs Tom Whaley, who hired Sister Ros prior to the Saints' inaugural 1993 season. "She was just a wonderful human being."

To understand how Sister Ros came to work for the St. Paul Saints, you must first understand the St. Paul Saints. The team has served as the Minnesota Twins' Triple-A affiliate since 2021, but they were founded by baseball maverick Mike Veeck as an irreverent, anything-goes independent league alternative to the Twins. The Saints couldn't beat their Major League neighbors at their own game, so they played their own.

Outside-the-box thinking and outrageous gimmicks, sometimes involving Saints co-owner Bill Murray, was standard operating procedure. A ball pig delivered baseballs to the umpire, a tradition that continues to this day. Instant replays were provided in Mime-O-Vision, featuring literal mimes reenacting what had just occurred. And, yes, a nun in the stands gave massages while the game was going on.

 "We were always on the lookout for what we referred to as sight gags, and that was putting things in a ballpark that might not necessarily be there," said Whaley. "A friend of mine, Pete Orme, and I were there the first year. We were sitting at an eight-foot table with two telephones and two yellow pages [phone books] and we’re just skimming through the yellow pages trying to get ideas. We get to the M's, get to massage, and of course there are some less reputable massage establishments in the yellow pages and we’re having some fun with that."

With sordid connotations still on his mind, Whaley happened upon the listing for Sister Rosalind Gefre.

"I said, 'Pete, you Minnesota people are pretty twisted if that's what you've got going here.' And he laughed, 'No, no, she's real.' He knew the whole backstory."

That backstory was that Sister Ros, a North Dakota native who grew up speaking German, was first exposed to therapeutic massage while helping care for her ailing mother. She came to believe in its restorative powers, following Jesus' example that "through touch the body, mind and spirit are healed."

Sister Ros founded her first massage practice in the 1980s, with the mission of destigmatizing the profession. It was an uphill battle; her business was raided by the vice squad while disapproval from her peers led to her moving out of her convent. She persevered, going on to operate therapeutic massage schools and clinics throughout the Twin Cities region.

When Whaley called Sister Ros to pitch the idea of giving massages at Saints games, she replied in her thick German accent. "Oh sweetheart, I don't know anything about baseball." What she did have, however, was a sense of humor.

Sister Ros gives a massage to former Saints player Kevin Millar.

"I think she got the gag right away and she's a bit of a ham, too," said Whaley. "She liked being out in front of people, but behind it all was this very devout, faithful nun with a mission. … It just surpassed everything we thought it would be."

Sister Ros quickly evolved from ballpark curiosity to ballpark staple, from sight gag to spiritual connection. Fans who wanted a massage simply signed up upon arriving at the ballpark; Whaley said that it was a "very rare night" when she wasn't completely booked.

"Certain people have what they call the 'it.' Where when you are speaking with them, the world pretty much stops and it's just you and the other person. She had that ability in spades," said Whaley. "That's why folks loved having her at games, because they knew, 'Yes, I'm going to spend a great 15 minutes getting a head and neck massage and I'm going to feel better.' But it was more than just a massage. It was that nobody ever walked away from Sister feeling anything but wonderful."

Over the course of three decades, two ballparks and a shift from independent to affiliated ball, Sister Ros touched the lives (and bodies) of thousands upon thousands of Saints fans. The team paid tribute over the years via a series of ballpark giveaways, including 2006's bobble-hands and a 2024 bobblehead featuring Sister Ros being hoisted in the air by Saints manager George Tsamis and Bill Murray. Now, in the wake of her having been "traded to the Angels," the Saints are paying tribute again.

"She passed away [on June 15] and we had a game the following night, so we made arrangements with her office to bring her massage chair over and we had a little table set up with some flowers and a nice picture of Sister. … We did have a beer sitting there, which she would never go without," said Whaley. "But we are going to do a fuller recognition of her life [on July 18], and what she meant not just to the Saints but the entire community of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"She had such incredible reach and meant so much to so many people and I'll miss that. I'll miss that presence."

But before I do: Apologies for getting the dates of my upcoming trip wrong in last week's newsletter. I’ll be visiting the Williamsport Crosscutters on Friday, July 17 and the Wilmington Blue Rocks on Saturday, July 18. And -- breaking news! -- I'll be visiting CarMax Park, the new home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels, on July 25-26.

If you enjoyed the story on Reno Aces' photographer David Calvert in last week's newsletter, then check out my interview with him in episode 560 of The Show Before the Show podcast. David speaks with clarity, vulnerability and humor about his cancer diagnosis and ongoing recovery.

Thank you for reading. Get in touch anytime via email at benjamin.hill@mlb.com and please follow me on Instagram (@thebensbiz), X (@bensbiz) and Bluesky (@bensbiz.bsky.social). I enjoy hearing from you.

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