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NICK CHANAKA: That's all I ever wanted to do in my whole life, was to play baseball. I wanted to get to the big leagues.

LEIF ENGER: At 63, Nick Chanaka of St. Cloud still shakes hands like he's gripping a bat. He's physically fit, light on his feet, and it doesn't take much to imagine him in a Rox uniform, fielding short hops at first base. Chanaka arrived here in 1948 from his home in Washington DC, and played just one full season for the Rox. It was a year of blistering competition.

NICK CHANAKA: At one stretch towards the end of the season, we had won 20 out of 22 games. And the team that was in first place still gained ahead on us. That's how good they-- And that was Grand Forks. That was a New York Yankee farm team.

LEIF ENGER: The Rox and the old Northern League they belong to disappeared in 1971 after a long, slow fade. But to Chanaka and most St. Cloud natives over the age of 35, the Rox are still the home team.

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St. Cloud in 1946 was a middle-sized Middle American town looking for something to do. The Second World War was over. The soldiers back home. There were no interstate highways, no shopping malls, and no Minnesota Twins an hour down the road.

And then, the Northern League, an eight-team Class C baseball league that stretched from Wisconsin to Manitoba, had an opening for a new franchise. St. Cloud jumped at it, formed a board of directors, signed up players, and hastily built a ballpark. The Rox took the field and began to win ball games in dominant style. The fans welcomed them like prodigal sons.

MARIE MAGNUSON: I almost had tears in my eyes when they lost, especially if the game was close. And you got to stay to that last pitch. They just might do something.

LEIF ENGER: Marie Magnuson was in her 20s when the Rox came to town. She and a group of friends went to every game they could, sitting down close to the baselines so Marie, who was born blind, could hear the action on the field.

MARIE MAGNUSON: You could hear the people running down the first base, and hear what they said, and hear the umpire say strike and ball. And if I got left alone in a ballpark, I'd pretty well know what was going on.

LEIF ENGER: The players, Marie says, became family to St. Cloud, playing as if the stands were filled with their mothers and sweethearts. They won eight Northern League pennants over 25 seasons. They made small-time pay, around $200 a month during the '40s, and then, only during the short regular season. There was no Spring Training pay.

Most lived with host families to make the money stretch. And that sense of proprietorship, of brushing sleeves with the big time, translated itself into enormous enthusiasm at the ballpark. The Rox consistently gave their fans a reason to cheer.

FRANK FARRINGTON: The first year, we won the pennant by 26 games. And it was our first year in the Northern League.

LEIF ENGER: Frank Farrington was Sports Editor of the St. Cloud Daily Times in 1946. Now retired, he lives in Rochester, and golfs with prodigious discipline. He is 82, and steady on the club. He imparts advice, and hits long drives with equal authority.

FRANK FARRINGTON: Keep your right elbow tucked in, keep your head down, and follow through.

LEIF ENGER: The arrival of the Rox was exciting for Farrington who suddenly had a professional team to write about. He'd played some town ball himself as a kid in South Dakota, and his interest gradually pulled him toward the game until he ended up the team's business manager. That was in 1950. An uneasy time for baseball.

Although Jackie Robinson had become the first Black man in the major leagues three years before, the Northern League was still almost entirely white. The league in the 1950s weathered desegregation and flourished through it. But as the economy grew, bringing with it television and an onslaught of new entertainments, Minor League Baseball had to work harder to compete.

FRANK FARRINGTON: There were other things to amuse the people-- The Twins, transportation, interstate highways. People could take long-weekend trips.

LEIF ENGER: At the last, Farrington says, it was the endless list of leisure time choices that broke the Northern League. In 1970, the city tore down Municipal Stadium and threw the pieces into the Mississippi. Now there's a shopping center there. The Rox played one more season in a smaller park nearby, winning one last pennant in a Northern League that was down to four teams.

Nick Chanaka and his son were on hand for the last game played at the old stadium. When it was over, and the fans were pouring over the field in search of souvenirs, his son brought him back the tattered first-base bag to help him remember. Not, he says, that he'll ever forget.

NICK CHANAKA: They all-- you go down the street, and I mean, everybody knew you. I mean, it's crazy. That was the closest I'd ever get to playing Major League ball, and having people say, hey, there goes old Nick down the street there, or something like that. And we had youngsters coming up and asking me for the autograph. I said, wow. I were amazed. I couldn't believe it.

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LEIF ENGER: Former St. Cloud Rox first baseman Nick Chanaka. This is Leif Enger.

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