Reusse: Vikings have been treading water in 25 years since ‘41-doughnut’

Sportswriters are suckers for reunions. Generally, they are chock full of angles that can make for easy writing. Also, there can be plenty of smiles, such as our guy “Big Herbie,” aka Kent Hrbek, taking that giant divot out of foul territory during the Twins’ 50-year anniversary game at new Target Field on Sept. 5, 2010.

Nobody does these things better and more consistently than the New York Yankees. I was a Twins beat reporter in the 1970s when they were the visitors for two of these wonderful occasions.

The Yankees had spent the 1974 and ’75 seasons playing at Shea Stadium as the original Yankee Stadium was being rebuilt. The Twins were there for the reopening on April 15, 1976, after the longest and grandest pregame ceremony a sports fan could hope to witness.

They did not limit the event to the introduction of the greatest living Yankees. They also had Red Grange and other footballers from when the stadium was home to NFL and college games. And they had Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis to represent those great nights of outdoor boxing in the Bronx.

They also had the widows representing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig — as well as the ceremonial first pitch thrown out by the starter from the first-ever game at “The Stadium.”

That was Bob Shawkey. He pitched a three-hitter to beat Boston 4-1. The date was April 18, 1923. And Shawkey was 85 when he made that first pitch to conclude the pregame ceremony in 1976.

This version of the big ballpark in the Bronx still was extra-deep in left-center field, and our guy Disco Dan Ford provided an instant shock: a 430-foot, two-run home run in the top of the first off Rudy May (Rod Carew’s un-favorite pitcher to face).

Two years later in July, the Twins were back for Old-Timers’ Day. A few days earlier, the hard-drinking and strangely popular Billy Martin had been fired by owner George Steinbrenner for what seemed a legitimate reason.

Billy had labeled Steinbrenner and star slugger Reggie Jackson with, “One’s a born liar and the other’s convicted.”

The Yankees fans were in revolt over Billy’s firing. At the conclusion of the introduction of ex-Yankees stars came the great Bob Sheppard’s surprise introduction of No. 1, Billy Martin, who would be taking a lengthy break and then return in the 1980 season as Yankees manager.

This made no sense, of course, but the full house in the stadium went berserk with elation.

The triumphant cheers went on for Martin for over 10 minutes. I was covering preps in St. Paul when he managed the Twins in 1969, but dealing with him later — well, Billy was a first-class lout, but you couldn’t convince baseball fans of that.

It was Jan. 14, 2001, that the Vikings went to East Meadowlands, N.J., as two-point favorites in the NFC Championship Game vs. the New York Giants.

This was another chance for Dennis Green, a successful and somewhat controversial Vikings coach, to take this franchise back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1976 season.

And what took place remains the most shocking outcome in the history of this franchise:

Giants 41, Vikings 0. Or, as Randy Moss, a disinterested superstar for nearly the entire contest, termed it for immortality: “41-doughnut.”

Sports reunions don’t have to be grand. They just have to be memorable. And, also numerically fitting.

Following the blowout in the Meadowlands, Green was fired with one game remaining in the 5-11 season of 2001. Mike Tice (with little financial backing from owner Red McCombs), Brad Childress, Leslie Frazier, Mike Zimmer and now Kevin O’Connell have followed.

Tice won a playoff game in the 2004 postseason at Green Bay after backing into the playoffs at 8-8. Moss scored a TD, then put his rear-end up against a goal post, either as a taunt to the Packers or as a fresh start after his no-show in the previous playoff appearance in New Jersey.

Moss was traded after that season, then returned with a horrible attitude in 2010 and contributed in getting Childress fired.

The Vikings have a 4-9 record in the playoffs in the 25 years since 41-doughnut. The Wilfs have owned the team since May 2005, they were awarded a $1.15 billion stadium for which a good share of their hunk was covered by hefty seat licenses, naming rights and other advertising granted in the stadium.

The Purple Faithful has a tendency to laud the Wilfs as great owners, as the hundreds of millions in profits roll in as an NFL franchise, and they have three playoff victories in 21 seasons of ownership.

Fifty seasons since the Vikings last played in a Super Bowl — a 32-14 thumping from Oakland to put our noble warriors at 0-4 vs. mighty AFC foes, the Chiefs, the Dolphins, the Steelers and those Raiders.

A mere 26 of the NFL’s current 32 franchises have been in Super Bowls since the Vikings last appeared in January 1977. The New York Jets won their lone appearance after the 1969 season and four franchises have not been in a Super Bowl: Cleveland, Jacksonville, Houston (Texans) and Detroit, the Vikings’ division rival and favorite patsy until recently.

Fran Tarkenton quarterbacked the last Super Bowl and two others for our lads.