Reusse: As the fan base grumbles, the Twins need a phenom more than a buyer like Justin Ishbia

The euphoria of becoming a major league sports area with the arrival of the Twins for the 1961 season remained strong throughout that first decade. There was slight disappointment in 1966, when they followed a World Series appearance with a second-place finish to Baltimore by nine games in the 10-team American League.

The Twins rebounded from that in March 1967, when there were reports from spring training on a 21-year-old second baseman named Rodney Carew.

He didn’t tear up the Grapefruit League — .232 (16-for-69), one home run, nine RBI — but owner/general manager Calvin Griffith declared Carew would start the season in Minnesota.

Manager Sam Mele was alleged to have called in the beat reporters from the Twin Cities newspapers to state: “I want you to know playing Carew is Calvin’s decision, not mine.”

As a full-on fan base for our ballclub at the time, we were anxious to put eyes on this lefthanded hitter — a kid of Panamanian descent from New York City — making the jump from the Class A Wilson, N.C., Tobs to the big leagues.

Rodney wound up batting .292 as a rookie, .273 in 1968 and then .332 in 1969. That was the first of seven batting titles in 12 Twins seasons — quite a confirmation of Calvin’s talent evaluation.

The Twins’ first real crisis with their fandom came in 1969, following a season in which they went 97-65 and won the first AL West division title by nine games over Oakland. They were swept by a great Baltimore team in three games in the ALCS.

Griffith was not happy with manager Billy Martin’s pitching decisions. Howard Fox, perhaps the most influential travel secretary in baseball history, was not happy with Martin because Billy had punched him in a hotel lobby a couple of years earlier.

In Billy’s liquified brain, he had good reason: Howard passed out the room keys when the team arrived at a hotel and Billy (then a coach) didn’t get his with proper haste.

A week after the season, Calvin fired Martin, making him a one-and-done manager in Minnesota, as opposed to five-and-done with George Steinbrenner and the Yankees between 1975 and 1988.

Twins fans went psycho. As with every other place he went, the fans loved Billy because he was extra good at verbally abusing umpires.

There was talk of a boycott by fans. If there was anything resembling social media back then, it might have worked.

The Twins went to spring training in 1970 with Bill Rigney as the new manager, and in need of a phenom to provide a distraction from the Martin obsession.

The youngster was there at Tinker Field in Orlando: Bert Blyleven, a righthander from Garden Grove, Calif., not turning 19 until April 6 (note: followers of Twins telecasts would know that, of course, what with Bert’s insistence on receiving birthday tributes on this day).

In this case, Calvin had told Rigney that Blyleven was in big-league camp merely to be seen, and not to be retained. Knowing this, the first time Rigney watched Blyleven throw batting practice, he turned and walked away.

Where ya’ going, Rig, reporters asked. “I’m afraid I’ll fall in love with him,” Rigney said.

Blyleven pitched twice in spring training and was sent to minor league camp in Melbourne, Fla., on March 24.

He was called to the Twins on June 6, 1970, two months after he turned 19.

The first hitter he faced, Lee Maye, hit a home run. After that, Rik Aalbert settled in for 287 wins, 685 starts, 4,970 innings and 3,179 strikeouts — in 22 regular seasons.

The first view of Bert amid the Billy backlash was a mere 55 years ago. The Twins have had numerous stretches when they were in trouble with the fan base since then.

There have been many times when the result was more embarrassing than last season, when a mediocre squad played over its heads for three months, then went into a 12-27 crash and finished fourth in the AL Central at 82-80.

Twitter/X and all its similar outlets have declared this to be fully a problem with the non-spending of Pohlad family ownership.

We’re supposed to be weeping because some guy we never heard of until recently, Justin Ishbia, no longer is pursuing a purchase of the Twins.

His brother Mat owns the Phoenix Suns, and pretty much has put that team in the tank (28-32) while also entering salary cap Hades — but what are Twins fans going to do, with no Ishbias in their future?

Let’s try this, instead: a spring training phenom.

I made a return visit to Fort Myers last February. Caught up with pitcher Matt Canterino. Great arm, dang near unhittable, finally healthy, excellent interviewee. Result: Didn’t pitch for entirety of 2024.

That was it for me. First spring training: 1974. Last one: 2024.

Although, there is a guy with phenom potential down there right now in lefthanded-hitting outfielder Emmanuel Rodriguez. He is quite the talent.

And there’s a 15-20% chance if you choose to visit the Fort this month, he’ll finally be healthy enough to play.