Home plate went missing just before the Minnesota Twins last game at Metropolitan Stadium in 1981. Ballpark access was apparently a little easier back in the day and a couple of presumably young pranksters dug it up and it was never heard from again.
The Twins managed to locate a new one, though, and it was used in the final game against the Kansas City Royals. After the game, the historic plate and the three bases were given away in a raffle to those in attendance.
The winner of the plate was a college kid named Bill Bill Schnobrich, who worked part-time as a peanut vendor at the Stadium. There’s no doubting he’s the one who has it because photographers snapped his picture, holding the plate alof
Schnobrich has moved to southern California but he was back in the Twin Cities recently and picked the plate up from a friend who’d been holding onto it. No doubt familiar with the prices some stadium memorabilia has been fetching in recent years, the Bible teacher is now thinking about selling it according to this little two-page feature in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
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