In 1948, or so the legend has it, the Major League Baseball Winter meetings were held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was because there were two minor league teams in the community, the Millers in Minneapolis, and the Saints, in St. Paul. The headquarters was the original Radisson Hotel on 7th Street near Hennepin Avenue.

The meeting took place in early December and attracted executives from Major League and Minor League teams who were accompanied by sports writers and other reporters.   As occurs in Minneapolis at that time of the year, a polar vortex did what polar vortexes do, that is dump sub=zero weather on the city. With the morning air a brisk -20, a writer from Georgia stepped out of the hotel onto 7th Street, and, as he gasped for breath after inhaling the arctic blast, was heard to exclaim, “Thank God the South didn’t win the Civil War or we might of had to occupy this place.”  

I heard this story from a fellow who claimed to be right there.