Nicollet Park was a baseball ground located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The venue was home to the minor league Minneapolis Millers of the Western League and later American Association from 1896 to 1955. The ballpark opened on June 20, 1896, with a 13–6 win over Milwaukee. The new grounds were first known as Wright Field, named for one of baseball's founding fathers, Harry Wright. Area newspapers had held a contest and chose that name over "Nicollet Park" among others, awarding season tickets to the winning entrants.[Minneapolis Star-Tribune, June 17, 1896, p. 5] The papers acknowledged the built-in pun on "right field", and added to it by describing one hit in the opener as a home run "knocked by the right-fielder, across right field, out of Wright Field." The club owners were not enamored of the name, and it was soon renamed "Nicollet Park", the name "Nicollet" being ubiquitous in Minneapolis then and now. The wooden ballpark was replaced by a steel and concrete structure in 1912. Lights were installed in 1937. The first night game was played on July 16, with the Millers hosting the arch-rival St. Paul Saints. The teams had also played the previous night, in Lexington Park's first night game. The ballpark was on a small block bounded by Nicollet Avenue on the east, 31st Street on the south, Blaisdell Avenue on the west and Lake Street (or 30th Street) on the north in the present-day Lyndale neighborhood. Home plate was in the southwest corner. A small ticket office building with a Spanish-style roof stood outside the right field corner, at the Nicollet-31st intersection. Because of its location, the field dimensions at Nicollet Park favored left-handed batters. The park was considered a "homer haven" because of its official distance down the right-field line, listed as 279 feet. In fact, the distance was actually closer to 260 feet, but this never made it out of the local press. In 1955, the Millers had a team with particular home run prowess, setting the league record by decimating their own franchise record of 217 feet by smashing 241 home runs. The Millers collected 163 (nearly 68%) of those four-baggers at Nicollet Park. With the all-time league home run record in tow, the Millers went on to become the American Association champions that year. Joe Hauser hit 69 homers for the Millers in 1933. Ted Williams also made a bit