Reusse: Twins fans return to Target Field puzzled

There were a couple of decades when the crowds for Twins games would increase in August, even in losing seasons. Those were the days when the rural population was larger, the kitchen radio was stuck by grease on AM-830, and the entire Good Neighbor crew spent the day plugging their ballclub.

Heck, if you were lucky and came in from Lismore or Dalton or Hackensack, you might wind up on Randy Merriman’s “Fan in the Stands” pregame show.

There were also can’t lose promotions at Met Stadium, including Nuns Day and Campers Weekend. And even before Las Vegas came up with a spinoff, the younger and more rambunctious Twins followers had the slogan: “What happens on Campers Weekend, stays with Campers Weekend.”

This was when the metropolitan area basically ended at Hopkins to the west and Woodbury was 50 houses and cornfields to the east.

The metropolitan area is now gigantic and those residents must carry the Twins at the gate, what with the rural folks who are living off agriculture now raising three kids on two sections rather than 10 on 220 acres.

Which brings us to Friday night’s game against the Kansas City Royals at beautiful Target Field, coming as it did after the home team departed nine days earlier following a 13-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in a Wednesday matinee.

This dropped the Twins to 51-57, 12 games in arrears in the American League Central and on pace for the lowest attendance in the non-pandemic seasons since Target Field opened in 2010. Ah, what a year that was, 94-68, with attendance of 3,223,640, and a vision of glorious times ahead.

More often than not, the Twins have been on probation with the Minnesota sporting public since then. We did have the outfit that took advantage of MLB using Titlists in 2019 that won 101 games and hit a record 307 home runs, but then came COVID-19 and that magic disappeared.

The Twins won a playoff series in 2023, and the fact they sold some tickets for those games caused the customers to start applauding themselves for their great loyalty. And when they stopped coming after that, they blamed new Twins chairman Joe Pohlad for suggesting a “right-sized payroll.”

Allowing Sonny Gray to leave for St. Louis became the equivalent of Calvin Griffith trading Bert Blyeven to Texas in 1976, which is humorous.

Let’s face it — the Twins weren’t really on the cusp of excellence in 2024, with or without ol’ Sonny. They were 82-80 last season, and what took place this winter guaranteed they would not be improved in 2025.

Ty France? Wow, that guy can really get hit with a baseball … let’s go to the ballyard. I was excited enough about these HBPs to look through my old Topps cards to see if there was a Willie “Puddinhead” Jones in there from the 1950s.

The Twins traded a bullpen, any position player an opponent wanted and, undeniably, spent a lot of money. OK, that pile was $33 million to get rid of Carlos Correa, but they did spend.

There were great shouts of angst heard about the Twins and the Pohlad family stabbing the local sporting public in the back.

Most of whom spent the week asking the key question in Minnesota sports: “I wonder how J.J. McCarthy is going to look in his eight or 10 plays against Houston in the Vikings’ exhibition game on Saturday?”

The baseball customers were definitely late arriving on Friday to see the new Twins, and there was a modest attempt to detect sentiment.

The Andersons, Jerry and Sara, from St. Cloud:

“I’m not happy; I’m hopeful,” Sara said. “We won two of three in Detroit with these new guys.”

A group of four younger Twins hardcores also arrived earlier — wanting to get started on some brews as part of a bachelor party.

“They sold everyone,” Mitch Callister said. “And they didn’t get that much back. I’m down on ‘em completely.”

Several nods of head came from the companions. They ripped the Twins a bit more before being asked, “Where’s the wedding?”

Answer: Zumbrota. Is the bride from there? Nope.

Nearby, LeRoy and Charlene Paullina were making their 15th annual trip to Target Field from the farm in northwest Iowa with grandson Taylor, the hardcore Twins fan.

“I didn’t like the Duran trade,” Taylor said. “I didn’t like the Varland trade. They made no sense.”

There were another handful of fans quizzed. It was nearly unanimous that the trade offending most was sending Duran to the Phillies.

I mentioned to a couple of these critics that the Twins staff might be working on Duran-style, lights out, blaring production to mark a ninth-inning entrance for Justin Topa.