Partners & Contributors
Dave Kaplan
Dave Kaplan is a journalist, educator and founding director of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center, a nonprofit organization on the campus of Montclair State (NJ) University, which opened in 1998.
Before helping establish the Museum, where he created the exhibits and year-round public and educational programming, he was a sports reporter and editor with the Associated Press and New York Daily News. He is currently an adjunct professor at Montclair State, and has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and New Jersey Magazine.
Kaplan collaborated with baseball legend Yogi Berra on four books, including the New York Times bestseller, “When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It.” He resides in West Orange, NJ with his wife Naomi and has three grown daughters.
Stew Thornley
Stew Thornley is a writer and baseball historian who has written extensively on baseball in Minnesota. His first book, On to Nicollet: The Glory and Fame of the Minneapolis Millers, was published in 1988 and received a national baseball research award co-sponsored by Macmillian Publishing Company and the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). He was also a finalist for a Minnesota book award, as were two others: Holy Cow! The Life and Times of Halsey Hall and Electrifying Medicine (co-written with his wife, Brenda L. Himrich). His other books include Baseball in Minnesota: The Definitive History, Minnesota Twins Baseball: Hardball History on the Prairie, The St. Paul Saints: Baseball in the Capital City, and Historic Ballparks of the Twin Cities. All of his books are on his website at stewthornley.net/
Thornley is the 2010 recipient of the Tony Salin Memorial Award for commitment to the preservation of baseball history, from The Baseball Reliquary, Pasadena, California. He has been a member of SABR since 1979 and served as the organization's vice president from 2002 to 2004. In 2016 he received SABR's highest honor, the Bob Davids Award, named after the society's founder.
Thornley is an official scorer for Major League Baseball, doing the official scoring for Minnesota Twins, and is a member of the Major League Baseball Official Scoring Advisory Committee. He is also an official scorer for Minnesota Timberwolves games for the National Basketball Association.
Taylor Simons
Taylor Simons is a passionate fan and hobbyist of the game. Taylor's Interest in sports memorabilia began when he started collecting baseball cards with his friends from the age of ten. Growing up in the Twin Cities, Taylor spent many summer days at the ballpark expanding his love for baseball. Through connecting with friends and fans at Twins games, Taylor began learning more about the history and roots of baseball in Minnesota. Desiring a way to bring himself closer to history, he later embarked on a journey collecting artifacts from the St. Paul Saints and Minneapolis Millers. As his collection grew, so did the stories. Taylor is proud to collaborate with the St. Paul Saints and share these stories through the eyes of unique relics.