A Front-Row Seat with the Sportswriters Who Sat There
Sit down with host Todd Jones and other sportswriters who knew the greatest athletes and coaches, and experienced first-hand some of the biggest sports moments in the past 50 years. They’ll share stories behind the stories -- some they’ve only told to each other.
Patrick Reusse part 1: “The Turkey is Unbeaten.”
This is part 1 of a rollicking two-part conversation with Patrick Reusse, longtime sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and a member of the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Reusse looks back at his 60 years covering Minnesota sports in his engaging, irreverent, and self-deprecating style. In this first episode, he recalls Glen Sonmor’s hockey goons, offers his classic explanation to Vikings general manager Mike Lynn about his philosophy for covering the team, and tells us how the idea for his Turkey of the Year Awards column originated and grew into a much-anticipated Thanksgiving tradition. Patrick provides some humorous tales, as well as a poignant moment with Gene Mauch, from his years as a baseball beat writer covering the Twins. Reusse also goes deep into his complicated relationship with Sid Hartman, another Minnesota media legend who was still working at age 100 when he died in 2020.
Reusse, 77, is senior columnist for the Star Tribune and is also the host of two popular podcasts: "Reusse Unchained" and "Monday Night Sports Talk with Patrick Reusse and Joe Soucheray." Patrick’s newspaper career started in 1963 as a copyboy for the Minneapolis Morning Tribune. Two years later, he began writing for the Duluth News-Tribune and Herald, then quickly moved to the St. Cloud Times. In 1968, Reusse joined the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where he went on to cover the Twins from 1974-78 before serving as that paper’s sports columnist for nine years, beginning in 1979. He moved to the Star Tribune in 1988 as sports columnist. The native of Fulda, Minnesota also became a fixture in Twin Cities talk radio and television. He was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2019.
Patrick has done radio and podcast work with KSTP-1500 since 1980, when he partnered with Soucheray on “Sunday Night Sports Talk.” They shared the airwaves together or independently on “Sports Talk” in various forms nearly every year since. Patrick also hosted “Reusse & Company” for that station (2009-10) and co-hosted “Reusse & Mackey” with Phil Mackey from 2010-14. His show “The Ride with Reusse” appeared weekdays from 2014 until September 2018. Reusse began his radio career at KFAM-AM in St. Cloud in the mid-1960s,
Reusse was also a 20-year panelist on “The Sports Show,” which aired on WUCW-TV, Fox Sports North, and Victory Sports One. Other panelists included Hartman, Mike Max, and George Chappel, better known by his nickname Dark Star.
Books:
· “Tales from the Minnesota Sports Beat: A Lifetime on Deadline.” - Co-authored with Chip Scoggins. Dan Barreiro (foreword).
· “Tony Oliva: The Life and Times of a Minnesota Twins Legend” – by Thom Henninger. Reusse (foreword).
· “Minnesota Vikings: The Complete Illustrated History” – by Reusse. Amy Klobuchar (afterword)
· “Sid! The Sports Legends, the Inside Scoops, and the Close Personal Friends” – co-authored with Sid Hartman
· “Minnesota Twins: The Complete Illustrated History” – co-authored with Dennis Brackin and Harmon Killebrew
· “Minnesota Sports Almanac” – by Joel A. Rippel. Reusse (foreword).
· “Michael Jordan Super Sports Stars Series (Stars of the Court series)” – by Reusse
Follow him on Twitter: @Patrick_Reusse
Where to Listen
Find us in your favorite podcast app.
Part 1 – Patrick Reusse transcript
Todd Jones (00:00):
Hey Pat, I've been looking forward to this opportunity to chat with you. Welcome.
Pat Reusse (00:05):
Yes. It's taken a while for this hookup, and it took a while for me to actually get hooked up this morning, but I'd say that we're doing dang fine, so-
Todd Jones (00:13):
Hey, as long as we're hooked up, that's all that matters.
Pat Reusse (00:14):
That's right. That's right.
Todd Jones (00:15):
That's all that matters. Hey Pat, 60 years into business, this year. Think about this.
Pat Reusse (00:22):
Well, yes. If I count my copy boy days. That's right. If I count my three years as the Minneapolis Tribune, copy boy, that is 60 years.
Pat Reusse (00:30):
First newspaper job was Duluth in '66, but the copy boy days, when you work two and a half years for Sid Hartman, you learn a lot of stuff about what not to do.
Todd Jones (00:43):
Oh, God. Well, we'll talk a little bit about Sid. I just wanted to clarify, you did not cover the first ancient Olympics, right?
Pat Reusse (00:52):
No, I did not. I missed those. I think the marathon was the big event, though, as far as I recall. Not the ancient ones ... what were the first ones ever? 1896, right? Wow.
Todd Jones (01:07):
I think that's right. Yeah, yeah.
Pat Reusse (01:08):
They did not have some of the events they have now, I would guess back then. They did not have a halfpipe. I don't think that existed there, halfpipe.
Todd Jones (01:20):
They did have rope climbing, I once saw.
Pat Reusse (01:21):
Right. Let's bring back rope climbing.
Pat Reusse (01:29):
How about no baseball in the next Olympics, but break dancing is coming in.
Todd Jones (01:34):
I can see you break dancing, Reusse. Actually, I think I have seen it on the road.
Pat Reusse (01:41):
I needed a lot of Tanqueray a lot longer years ago to think I could dance. But that was long ago.
Todd Jones (01:51):
Well, Pat, all seriousness here. A legendary fixture in your home state of Minnesota, columnist still Minneapolis Star Tribune since 1988, St. Paul, prior to that, from '68 to '88.
Todd Jones (02:03):
Not only you've been typing all these years. You're in a Broadcasting Hall of Fame, so that shows you how kind you are to join this show.
Pat Reusse (02:19):
Well, we had a radio show with Joe Soucheray that started in 1983. And a-
Todd Jones (02:26):
The sports show.
Pat Reusse (02:27):
And a version of it is still going on. And then I had a TV show with some great characters too, but the thing with Soucheray was a Monday Night Sports Talk, which is a bit of a cult hit for the first number of years.
Pat Reusse (02:41):
And we're now doing a podcast version of it. And it's been going on for a long time. And you know the thing about that radio money, it's just like walking in there and holding a gun up and stealing it, man, compared to — if you don't take-
Todd Jones (02:59):
Well, I got to tell you something, podcast money is not quite that way.
Pat Reusse (03:02):
No, no. Well, just trying to hook up is bad enough. But yes, it was great, we did that for the Hubbard Company here in the Twin Cities, and they've been tremendously loyal to a couple of guys who had no idea what they were doing when they walked in.
Todd Jones (03:21):
Right. Didn't you once do the show from your swimming pool? Or you used to do it while you were golfing, right?
Pat Reusse (03:28):
I did a few of those, those are more radio hits. We, usually, did the show in some kind of a studio. Although a lot of time on the phone from the road it was done too, so-
Todd Jones (03:44):
Well, you were a pioneer for writers breaking into the broadcast area. And heck, you're still writing, still doing podcast. Are you still paying for that swimming pool?
Pat Reusse (03:56):
Yes. In fact, I took a jump in it this morning, to get fired up for this podcast today. So, I'd wake me up, I'd jumped in it.
Todd Jones (04:10):
Was there any water in it?
Pat Reusse (04:11):
Oh yeah, it's doing fine. This year the opening only cost about 2,500. We opened her up, thought things were good, but the filter's gone, now. We had to get a new filter.
Pat Reusse (04:23):
So, if you're a pool owner, you know. The drama every year is what's not working that worked last fall. And that's-
Todd Jones (04:32):
Well, you've always said your pool was a money pit that has kept you working two jobs all these years, and you're still doing it.
Pat Reusse (04:39):
Yes, it is. You could add three more kids if I didn't have that pool I could have paid for. But it's nice for here in Minnesota, you get about a six-week pool season, so that's fine.
Todd Jones (04:51):
Yeah, right. I mean, the rest of the time you're ice skating on top of it.
Pat Reusse (04:55):
You know what, I managed to live my entire life here. I tried it in my little hometown of Fowler Lake skating a few times, took some horrible falls, and I cannot ice skate. I am a 77-year-old Minnesotan who can't ice skate.
Pat Reusse (05:14):
Now I grew up in Southwest Minnesota where we didn't — it was a big basketball country then, so we didn't really get into hockey for many years later than that.
Todd Jones (05:28):
Well, the thing is, you don't know how to ice skate, but you know how to tell those who do how they should.
Pat Reusse (05:33):
Yes, that's true. Although, my appreciation for hockey is more the characters that we've had come through than the actual game. Because as you know, having it in Columbus, the quotes are terrible after a hockey game. We either played hard enough or we didn't play hard, or we didn't ... once in a while you get a loose cannon who will talk in hockey, but the quotes are terrible.
Pat Reusse (06:02):
But we've had a incredible number of wonderful characters starting with John Mayasich at the University of Minnesota. He was a goofy guy.
Pat Reusse (06:12):
And then Glen Sonmor was the coach for the North Stars and the Gophers, and the greatest storyteller of all time, the late great Glen Sonmor.
Pat Reusse (06:20):
And we still have Louie Haney, an incredible resource. So, the hockey tales are fun. It's just the actual going to a game and writing a column off that's hard.
Todd Jones (06:33):
Alright. Well, give us a Glen Sonmor story. What's your favorite about him?
Pat Reusse (06:37):
Oh, what are my favorite? Well, when he was coaching the Gophers, he went into the stands in UMD after a guy who tried to grab one of the stick, and he jumped in. This is up in Duluth. And that's the rivalry was bitter.
Pat Reusse (06:59):
And he jumped into the stands, and he got his shirt torn off, and he's in the stands. And this was back in the days when hockey brawls, where they'd give everybody a two-minute penalty after they hit each other with sticks and stuff.
Pat Reusse (07:13):
And Glen got back down on the bench, and he didn't have a shirt on, and he had a tie, and he had a glass eye. And he had the biggest grin on his face you've ever seen. It was the highlight of his life that he could be back fighting.
Pat Reusse (07:31):
When he coached the north — he coached the Fighting Saints here, the WHA team, and then he was general manager. And then he went down to Birmingham. Because as the league was going to go out of business, the WHA, he was down in Birmingham.
Todd Jones (07:51):
Because they were in Birmingham. I mean, hockey, that's why they went out of business.
Pat Reusse (07:55):
The Barons, he was coaching the Barons, and he had Frank Beaton, Steve 'turd' Durbano, Gilles Bilodeau, and one of the Hanson's, Dave Hanson.
Pat Reusse (08:05):
So, he had these incredible goons. He figured the only way that he could give hockey any kind of a background in Bear Bryant country was just a brawl with everybody.
Pat Reusse (08:17):
And he had one photo on his wall later when he coached the North Stars. It was a sports cartoon from the Cincinnati Enquirer. They used to do sports cartoons, and they had Glen's goons. It was at Glen's goons. They were coming to town to play Cincinnati.
Pat Reusse (08:38):
And he was walking in, he had a chain over his shoulder, and he had those four guys all chained up, coming in behind him with blood dripping off of them and everything. And it would be great to have that cartoon. And that was the most proud thing of his career.
Todd Jones (08:58):
It was like slap shot come to life.
Pat Reusse (09:00):
The Cincinnati Enquirer felt obliged to greet him.
Pat Reusse (09:05):
I never worked for a newspaper that did sports cartoons. Did you? The sports cartoons were-
Todd Jones (09:11):
No, I don't think, I mean, I was in Cincinnati while the Enquirer, Jerry Dowling was doing those great cartoons. I think that was a fun aspect. They did a few when I worked in Columbus with some enterprise stories that I wrote. But that was only for years.
Pat Reusse (09:26):
We never had them there in St. Paul in Minneapolis. But they were great when they were — of course, editorial cartoons or some of the greatest newspaper people in the world, but we never had them in sports, which is too bad.
Todd Jones (09:37):
Alright, well, let's get back to writing. I want to hear about this. Now, I've heard this story secondhand many times, and it's about the philosophy of covering a team. And I want to get this on the record.
Todd Jones (09:51):
Vikings general manager at the time, Mike Lynn, back in the day, he was a little frustrated with you, Pat, and he wanted to know what your philosophy was for covering the Vikings. What did you tell Mike?
Pat Reusse (10:05):
Now, you got to know, Lynn and I, even though he was a complete goofball, got along very well. But I told Mike Lynn, my philosophy of covering the Vikings is when you win, I rip the other team. And when you lose, I rip you.
Pat Reusse (10:21):
And he accepted that as pretty close to the truth. But I do this thing, and we probably maybe get to it later, but I do this Turkey of the Year column, which I've been doing for like 40 years on Christmas. The only guy to ever call me up the next morning, Thanksgiving morning and say it's about time was Mike Lynn. He was waiting-
Todd Jones (10:49):
Oh, that's tremendous.
Pat Reusse (10:49):
For the honor, Mike Lynn. So, I've always had a ... but I got to tell you-
Todd Jones (10:54):
You called him the remarkable Mike Lynn.
Pat Reusse (10:56):
Remarkable, yes. Soucheray actually gave him that nickname Joe Soucheray, in St. Paul. But we always called him Remarkable Mike. And a lot of people didn't like him because the issue he had was the smirk. He couldn't wipe the smirk off his face, so it was always looked like he was up to something, which he generally was.
Todd Jones (11:17):
So, when you win, I rip the team you beat. When you lose, I rip you.
Pat Reusse (11:21):
Yes. But he asked the question. It was not exactly ...
Todd Jones (11:27):
I'm so glad to get this on the record. I've heard that story many times and it's one of my all-time favorite sports writing stories.
Pat Reusse (11:34):
Lynn was a beauty, to say the least, but I got to tell you about Lynn's revenge. Right?
Todd Jones (11:42):
Okay, alright.
Pat Reusse (11:43):
Couple three years later, he called me up and said ... this was like the mini camp days were on, but they didn't have those — they just had occasional tryouts. They didn't have these long, what do they call-
Todd Jones (12:02):
Bullshit. That's what they call it. Bullshit.
Pat Reusse (12:04):
And he called me up and said, "Hey, we got this kid we discovered, this big alignment. And he's kind of a division two guy, but we're really excited about him and be a good column for you, and a really, really nice kid because we give him a tryout out here."
Pat Reusse (12:19):
It's early summer, Twins aren't very good. So, sure. Okay. He gets-
Todd Jones (12:27):
Let's go see what the Vikings are doing. Sure.
Pat Reusse (12:28):
Yeah. I talk to this kid; I do the column. It was his daughter's best friend's fiancé. They were getting married and basically his present to this kid was getting me to write a column about him in the Stars. He had no chance to make the team. He got cut after like 20 minutes. But Lynn fed me that, and Lynn said, "What'd you think of that?"
Todd Jones (12:55):
He set you up.
Pat Reusse (12:57):
Now we're even, okay.
Todd Jones (13:01):
So, you were the Turkey of the day?
Pat Reusse (13:03):
Yes, I was. I took a hook, line and sinker. He was doing me a favor as an old pal, but-
Todd Jones (13:10):
All is fair and war in sports writing.
Pat Reusse (13:12):
Yes.
Todd Jones (13:12):
That's fine.
Pat Reusse (13:12):
That's true.
Todd Jones (13:13):
Alright. You mentioned Turkey of the Year column. It is something that originated in 1978. You hand out Turkey of the Year awards every Thanksgiving. How did this idea originate?
Pat Reusse (13:25):
Well, I got to tell you the truth. I was still drinking then. And as a drinker, a dedicated drinker, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is a necessity. And I was covering the Twins, actually, but I was writing a general interest column for the afternoon St. Paul Paper on Thursdays, and then a Sunday baseball column. And then covering the team.
Pat Reusse (13:52):
But there was my buddies out in the town I was living in prior, Lake had a big ... that Wednesday night turned into quite a late evening and shooting craps in the bowling alley and doing all this nonsense. And I really didn't want to miss that by having to go to a game on Wednesday night. And I needed a Thursday column.
Pat Reusse (14:16):
So, and I lived like 20 miles from the St. Paul Paper. And I'm driving in there on Wednesday morning saying, "What am I going to write? What am I going to write?"
Pat Reusse (14:27):
And then, all of a sudden, Turkey Thanksgiving, and it came to me, "Okay, I'll name it Turkey of the Year." And I just threw a bunch of guys in there.
Pat Reusse (14:38):
Here's why it worked though. The first one was Woody Hayes, because I went national. And a month later, Woody punched the guy from Clemson and got fired. So, it looked like-
Todd Jones (14:49):
Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. In Columbus, we say that Woody, he just was patting him. There was no punch. Right? Come on.
Pat Reusse (14:56):
Yeah, just a little close line.
Todd Jones (14:59):
A little love tap.
Pat Reusse (15:00):
Little close line. Anyway, so then, I did it and it was going to be a one off and then after Woody, and it got a big reaction. So, I brought it back the next year.
Pat Reusse (15:14):
And the first four or five years, basically, I was using national guys, Bobby Knight, Steinbrenner, guys like that, Sid Hartman, the legendary guy. And he was at Minneapolis Paper, and I was in St. Paul then.
Pat Reusse (15:29):
And basically, I just would name some guy that Sid loved every year, Bobby Knight or Steinbrenner. That was basically the theory.
Todd Jones (15:38):
You were just tweaking Sid.
Pat Reusse (15:40):
Yeah. Then in 1983, I basically turned it into local. I said, okay, this thing's gotten completely out of hand and if we're going to do it right, we got to have some courage here and do it locally.
Pat Reusse (15:53):
And I think the first local winner was Paul Giel, a Gopher athletic director who was a legendary figure. And Heisman Trophy runner up as a football player, signed a big baseball contract and was very popular and ineffective athletic director.
Pat Reusse (16:13):
And so, the first Turkey of my Year on that's local, that's on a Thursday in '83. And the next day I read in Sid's column that he had bypass surgery and was in the hospital. And I never rooted for anybody to live more than I did him in my life. Given him the honor, and he did survive that. He later did die too young of a heart attack. But-
Todd Jones (16:42):
Yeah, you don't want to receive the Turkey of the Year awards when you're receiving last row.
Pat Reusse (16:47):
Yes, that's right. Especially if you're the guy who wrote it. So, anyway. And then we went from there and made it local since then.
Todd Jones (16:59):
And you have guys like Mike Lynn saying, "Hey, it's about time you made me a Turkey."
Pat Reusse (17:03):
I tried to kill it off a few times, but people ...
Pat Reusse (17:05):
So, we've had various forms of which it came back. I even gave it to myself one year, that was going to be the last one, 2017 or '18, but then it came back again. So, anyway.
Todd Jones (17:19):
Why did you give it to yourself?
Pat Reusse (17:21):
Oh, why did I screw up? I'd messed something up. And I think just generally speaking, once the newspaper comments started and then the email started and letters, “Give it to yourself,” they did scream and holler and yell. And it always got a big reaction. So, I said, why not?
Todd Jones (17:44):
Why not? Well, you may-
Pat Reusse (17:45):
And look what my explanation for it was, but it ended up being taken way more serious by people, by the public than it should have. It was all supposed to be satirical and everything. And it ended up getting enough of a life of itself that people would get angry about it. So, if-
Todd Jones (18:10):
Well, if you live in Minnesota, especially in the Twin Cities, you certainly know about the Turkey.
Pat Reusse (18:15):
Yeah. I gave it to P.J. Here's the great thing about the Turkey of the Year, though. You can give it to some guy like Woody and then have him continue to do something really stupid and make it look like you're prophetic. But if you give it to somebody and then they do better, you can say you motivated them. So, the Turkey-
Todd Jones (18:40):
Oh, right. Credit. You take credit.
Pat Reusse (18:42):
The Turkey is unbeaten. P.J. Fleck, I gave it to P.J.one year, and the next, this was on Thursday, and on Friday they beat Wisconsin for the ... or Saturday, that Saturday they beat Wisconsin for the first time in 14 years. And they were, "Oh, how you think of that now?" And I said, "I motivated him. I gave him incentive to be a better coach."
Pat Reusse (19:06):
That was the Turkey chairman, which is what I call myself, has never been wrong. It's either, yes, you were right, he's an idiot, or you motivated him. That's it. You can never let the public win when they're complaining about who you gave it to.
Todd Jones (19:29):
Never, never, you never back down.
Pat Reusse (19:32):
I think one of my favorite was, you remember Tim Brewster, the great, great Gopher coach, Tim Brewster, who was a complete — who's now out there with Deion bringing in 45 transfers. And just a complete incompetent as a coach, but I wrote the whole thing as though it was giving it to Brewster, but it turned out I gave it to Charlie Weiss, Notre Dame. He had the same flaws.
Todd Jones (20:06):
He earned it.
Pat Reusse (20:08):
Complete egomaniacal failure. But people, "We know that you're really giving it to Brewster. You just said Charlie Weiss." And then, I think Brewster won it the next year, so-
Todd Jones (20:25):
There's a lot of layers to this Turkey of the Year. I think it's like a Russian novel. It's like some … story would've put to-
Pat Reusse (20:31):
There's times that it took me hours. I've made it quicker now, there's times that it took me hours to come up with because you got to come up with a joke for everybody. It's not easy.
Todd Jones (20:42):
Well, you mentioned Sid Hartman and you were tweaking Sid's friends, especially early on, and you and Sid had, let's just say, a complicated relationship over the years. Sid was another legendary figure in the medial world in Minnesota, lead columnist of the Star Tribune until the day he died, in 2020 at age 100.
Pat Reusse (21:02):
A hundred and a half. And we were all surprised he died. He's the only a hundred-year-old ever died and we said, "No, Sid, he died?"
Pat Reusse (22:24):
Yeah. He was phenomenal in his youth. And then when I first became a copy boy, he was a sports editor, '63. And back then, he was a sports editor, and he wrote five notes’ columns a week and did all kinds of radio stuff. And the one guy I know I was better than on the radio was Sid.
Pat Reusse (22:53):
He was unbelievable. But he was a legend beyond belief. And when I got to St. Paul, I covered the preps for a couple years, so I didn't have much to do with him. But he was the guardian of the local teams. If somebody was criticizing the local teams, he would be springing to their defense, particularly the Vikings, because he and Bud Grant were very close.
Pat Reusse (23:22):
And the Gophers, he loved the Gophers. That was his start. But he was gigantic in this town. I don't know who you could compare to.
Todd Jones (23:34):
Well, you said one time that Sid was instrumental in helping you develop your philosophy of covering sports.
Pat Reusse (23:41):
Yes, I did the opposite. So, I was a copy boy, and Charlie Johnson was actually the executive sports editor, crusty old guy. But he was writing columns for the afternoon Minneapolis Star, and Sid was writing the morning.
Pat Reusse (23:59):
I was sitting at a desk there and these two guys, Van Brocklin, that's 1965, when Van Brocklin lost a big game. Van Brocklin, the Vikings coach, lost a big game, went home, got himself full of whiskey like he usually did, and called up the next morning, said he was quitting. He was quitting as the way he'd taken this team as far as he could take them. And he was quitting.
Pat Reusse (24:28):
And now Charlie and Sid were sitting next to the desk on that Mondays digesting this about … and they were just badmouthing him. Neither of them could stand him. He abused sports writers and Van Brocklin, he was a hard guy to get along with.
Pat Reusse (24:45):
And they were both badmouthing him. And then the next day, both of them wrote columns begging him to come back. And I said, "If I ever do this, I'm not going to do that. If I have an opinion, that's what I'm going to say." So, Sid helped there, but-
Todd Jones (25:06):
Well, Sid was known for his scoops, but he was also known for ingratiating himself with the power brokers.
Pat Reusse (25:12):
Yeah. One reason he got his scoops is he had everybody in his ... I mean, well, it's funny, he had a Calvin and the Twins, that was a little rocky, that relationship. But, and the Gophers, he was particularly protective of the Gophers.
Todd Jones (25:33):
Well, but your philosophy was different. You were like, no, I'm just going to not worry about that type of relationship with anybody that I'm writing about. So, you were not afraid to take on the powerful folks, especially locally.
Pat Reusse (25:48):
Yeah. But I did get along with a lot of people because I mean, unlike Sid, I was not protective. And when Smokey Joe Salem comes in as the Gopher coach and one of the nicest guys ever. But things just went completely off the rails and Sid was still trying to protect him. And when you get beat 84 to 13 by Nebraska, it's a little hard to sugarcoat that.
Pat Reusse (26:20):
So, you end up writing rather nasty stuff and say it's time to go and all that, as they do anywhere in the country. It's just, we had a little different approach here with Sidney than with everybody else. But hey, he was a scoop monster in his day, man.
Todd Jones (26:39):
Oh yeah. He's in the legendary scoop monster.
Pat Reusse (26:41):
Yeah. He reported that Ara Parseghian at the height of his success was going to leave Notre Dame.
Todd Jones (26:50):
That was the biggest sports story in the country at that time.
Pat Reusse (26:53):
And that was him and the Chicago Tribune, which covered Notre Dame, like the home team back then, and South Bend Tribune and all those papers, all those people denied it and said it was nonsense.
Pat Reusse (27:07):
And then, he coached one more game and quit a couple of days later. And the reason Sid had the scoop is he got it from the guy who was replacing him, Dan Devine. Dan Devine, and Sid went back to when Devine was at UMD, Minnesota Duluth. And Sid and Devine were tight as could be. And Devine told Sid and gave the Sid scoops. So, he had-
Todd Jones (27:34):
That's right, Sid. I mean, that's how you know Sid had his sources and Sid had his stories and his scoops, and that's why he's a legend. I regret the fact that we weren't able to have Sid on this program because, again, he was still writing at age a hundred.
Pat Reusse (27:52):
He was on the TV show we did for 20 years. The sports show was myself, Mike Max's, this local guy, Sid and Dark Star, who was this fictitious character who became, basically, we created him on Monday Night Sports Talk. And he became this guy and he never bowed to Sid. So, they fought, but that was ...
Pat Reusse (28:20):
I'm writing a thing about a young auto racer who's an heir to the — I mean, his father runs Starkey Hearing in town and a big company. And it reminds of one of my favorite Sid moments because Sid had bad hearing problems and Starkey Hearing took care of him.
Pat Reusse (28:45):
So, every time he went out to Starkey hearing to get a new set to help with his ears and stuff, he would want to give him a plug during the show. So, one day he's given Starkey Hearing this great plug, and then Mike Max says something to him and he goes, "Huh?"
Pat Reusse (29:12):
That's my favorite moment. The guy was running Starkey then. So, he said, "Sid, if you keep giving us these plugs, you're going to put us out of business." Huh.
Todd Jones (29:24):
That's awesome.
Pat Reusse (29:26):
That show was unbelievable. It was the most poorly produced show in America. It lasted for 20 years. But I think one of my favorites was Sid's hearing again, is Sid and Steinbrenner were like tight, he was one of Steinbrenner's guys, and I always took cheap shots at George. Everybody in America took cheap shots at George.
Pat Reusse (29:48):
So, George and I, we're down to Tampa for a game that's going to be played at night, Sid and I, and says that you're going to breakfast with Steinbrenner. So, we go out to George's hotel out there on Clearwater and right on this side of when you go across the bay, and we had breakfast at George's great. We were the talk for an hour and a half.
Pat Reusse (30:16):
And it's been fine after that, I'd see George and say hello to him, but I was in Barcelona and covering the Olympics, and that was the year George was going to fix the Olympics. Remember?
Todd Jones (30:30):
Oh yeah. He was going to fix the USOC.
Pat Reusse (30:33):
And he was at the swimming which they were doing outdoors. And I sat with George for like an hour watching the swimming up there. I think George liked looking at guys in swimsuits or something, I don't know.
Pat Reusse (30:44):
But anyway, so about three months later we're on the sports show and Sid starts yelling, and Steinbrenner came up and Sid started, "You don't even know Steinbrenner, you never even met him." I said, "Sid, you and I had breakfast with him six months ago. And I sat with George and watched the swimming in Barcelona.” So, Sid says, "You went swimming with Steinbrenner because ...
Pat Reusse (31:17):
He says, "You went swimming with Steinbrenner." So, then I go into the Star Tribune, and I get one of the artists we used to have and say, okay, we need a synchronized swimming thing. So, we got a synchronized swimming picture of two girls in the synchronized swimming, and then we put George and my head on him.
Pat Reusse (31:43):
And the next week we said, "Sid (on the show we showed), here's the proof that George and I went swimming together."
Pat Reusse (31:53):
So, playing pranks on Sid was part of our existence there.
Todd Jones (32:00):
Yeah. We all miss Sid. I mean, he was such a character and such a great part of ... legendary sports writer and figure in Minnesota sports history. And we could talk for days about Sid, and again, you had a complicated relationship, but yet you wrote his biography in 1997.
Pat Reusse (32:18):
Yes, I did.
Todd Jones (32:21):
So, it was always cool to see you guys go at it and yet also know that you were comrades and all that.
Pat Reusse (32:26):
Actually, the three or four or five people you're going to remember when it's all over, he's in that list for sure.
Todd Jones (32:35):
For sure.
Pat Reusse (32:36):
Because it was completely unique. And hell, at 88 you could be walking down the street with him, and he'd be a block ahead of you. Until his early 90s, he was in amazingly physical condition.
Todd Jones (32:51):
Alright Pat, you spent all these years as a columnist, but your formative years were spent as a baseball writer on the beat.
Pat Reusse (32:59):
Yes.
Todd Jones (32:59):
From 1974 to '78. You covered the Twins as a Daily Beat reporter, and I think you once said that you didn't find a style of writing until you started traveling with the Twins in '74. What did you mean by that? Why did that impact you that way?
Pat Reusse (33:17):
I was in town here. I mean, I'd covered the preps. I was up in Duluth in St. Cloud, and boy, I was a complete novice, started at 20-years-old and would use every cliche, the old sports writing cliches and use about two quotes in a story and a 50-inch story and something like that. And a lot of play by play and stuff.
Pat Reusse (33:42):
And then I did three years as a kind of an editor and also still covering preps and stuff. Then I got on baseball, and I loved baseball. My father was big in baseball and Minnesota, we got that thing called — the ball here. And it was great. And baseball always been my number one sport.
Pat Reusse (34:07):
But you'd start off and you'd write this routine stuff, but then you'd go to Boston and see the way the Globe did it, because you'd have to go out and buy a paper then if you wanted to see what the other guy, you'd have to go down to the Shiers, which it was the newsstand down here and buy out of town papers if you wanted to see what people were writing back then in the 70s.
Pat Reusse (34:35):
And I really was not too ... I mean, once in a while Jim Murray was syndicated and you'd see some Red Smith stuff, but to get out and see how some guys did it on a daily basis, just kind of opened my eyes and hey, this should be fun. And this should be a season long drama. A soap opera. Not a today was ...
Todd Jones (35:03):
Yeah. This one particular game is not apocalyptic. It was one out of 162.
Pat Reusse (35:07):
Of course now, and with the social media and everything, we're back to every 162 games, all of them being a crisis. But it was kind of a season long narrative it became, and first couple of years they weren't real good, but then we got Mauch in here as a manager and he was like a central figure of-
Todd Jones (35:36):
Gene Mauch, right.
Pat Reusse (35:38):
The quotes were always great as long as you waited, but with Mauch you had to know he was forming his answer. And a lot of people get anxious and wait for it. And it took me a while to learn, wait 40 seconds, you're going to get a great quote. I'll tell you how good Mauch is. And do you guys use obscenities in here or on here?
Todd Jones (36:02):
Yeah, go ahead. They're cheap
Pat Reusse (36:05):
So '76, remember that's the first time the Phillies popped back up, I think '76.
Todd Jones (36:13):
Since their big collapse in '64, when he was the manager, Gene Mauch.
Pat Reusse (36:17):
And now, if you remember the Phillies, this is when only four teams went to the playoffs too, at each league, obviously. And the Phillies were doing it again. Remember early in ‘76, maybe September 10th, September 12th, all of a sudden they'd lost a bunch and it looked like they were collapsing.
Pat Reusse (36:37):
So Mauch, you got to do the story, you got to get Gene there. But the Twins played nothing but afternoon games in September every year. And they drowned 2000, 3000 a game back then.
Pat Reusse (36:52):
And I went out there early and they were taking early batting practice, and he was sitting out, standing out in the grass of Wades away from the batting cage. And I came up and made some small talk, but the purpose was to talk about the Phillies.
Pat Reusse (37:09):
And I finally said, "Gene, what do you remember about the '64 Phillies? Or what do you remember about what happened to the "64 Phillies?" And he was smoking a cigarette as always, and he went 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds. He throws a cigarette in the grass and stamps it out and says, "Only every fucking pitch."
Pat Reusse (37:43):
And then he went for a half hour, and I'm writing as fast as I could. I never asked him another question.
Pat Reusse (37:49):
So, that was the kind of guy he was. Out of town writers a lot had a hard time. But those old guys from Philly all loved him. And I could never figure out why until I — Frankie Dolson and those guys loved him. And I-
Todd Jones (38:04):
Yeah, I mean, you were studying the craft. As a young writer, you're learning by reading other writers.
Pat Reusse (38:08):
Yeah.
Todd Jones (38:09):
You're learning from a guy like Gene Mauch. I mean, you even learned how to travel right? From Halsey Hall, the radio guy. Didn't he teach you something?
Pat Reusse (38:16):
Halsey was my-
Todd Jones (38:20):
Halsey Hall taught you something about traveling.
Pat Reusse (38:22):
Halsey was this incredible character that was with the Twins, I think their first 14 years on the broadcast. But before that, he was a sports writer and a radio guy. He was on the Gopher broadcast, and he covered the Millers for years. The Minneapolis Millers the ball club sometimes they said.
Pat Reusse (38:42):
And he also was on the ... WCCO radio was this giant, and they did a newscast every night from 10 to 10:30, even once TV showed up they were huge, but Halsey did the sports. And sometimes Halsey would do his 10:20 sports hit this when he had a one in the morning deadlines, so he'd go to the game, go do his sports, but sometimes he'd start drinking and forget to write his story. So, they had to track him down, or somebody else had to put it together or something.
Pat Reusse (39:20):
But he was this great character, but legendary cheap guy too. Like a lot of guys from The Depression was legendary cheap. So, he used to bring this valise under the Twins flights, because we flew with the Twins. Then they'd make your arrangements and then the paper would reimburse them.
Pat Reusse (39:41):
And he'd have this valise and it'd be three jugs in there, and it would be three bottles of gin. He loved gin, but he didn't want to pay hotel prices, so he brought them with him, and I'd say "Halsey, you get free drinks on the airplane, everybody's got drinks." I said, "What do you bring your own booze for?" He says, "Patty, my boy, you never know when you're going to run into a local election."
Pat Reusse (40:08):
But he was a great, very smart guy, great guy. But-
Todd Jones (40:15):
Well, that was a good lesson for a young writer on the road.
Pat Reusse (40:18):
I only was with him one year, but he was so much fun. It was great.
Todd Jones (40:23):
Well, you saw some great Twins players those years. Larry Heisel, Rod Carew, Lyman Bostock. Lyman Bostock is a guy that people forget about what a great player he was, tragically was murdered at age 27. I think you used to call him Jibber-Jabber, right?
Pat Reusse (40:38):
Well, not me so much. He used to call me Poison though. Poison Pen. But we got along great. I mean, Rodney and I got along great, but he was grumpy, he was moody. And Heisel was quiet, but Bostock couldn't stop talking.
Pat Reusse (40:56):
But that '77 team could score thousands of runs. The pitching was terrible. But that was Lyman's last year. And the St. Paul Paper didn't go to California, Anaheim for a three-game road trip one time. And so, I wasn't with him.
Pat Reusse (41:19):
I get a call at six o'clock in the morning at home and it's Lyman and Lyman had talked to the LA Times and ripped the Twins about being cheap and the fans, yeah, the fans, they don't support us and blah. Actually, they were drawn pretty well that year.
Pat Reusse (41:38):
But he was a very sensitive guy. And he called me up and says, "Poison, you got to help me out here. I didn't say any of that stuff. I didn't say. You got to write something." And I said, "Lyman, you said it all, but what do you want me to ... they didn't make it up Lyman, but what do you want me to say?"
Pat Reusse (41:56):
So, Lyman told me, "Ah, blah, I love the fans, blah, blah, blah." So, I crank out a piece for the afternoon paper to help him, hopefully. But unfortunately for him, the St. Paul Dispatch never got across the river. But I don't know if the fans didn't get on him anyway. There weren't enough fans worrying about the St. Paul Paper in the first place.
Pat Reusse (42:22):
But that's the kind of guy he was. And in '78, the Angels were in town late in September. And I went down, talked to him for a while, but then he's leaving and I'm on the other hall. I'm leaving the Twins clubhouse and he's down at the other end and he yelled at me, "Hey, Poison, be good. Be nicer to my buddies."
Pat Reusse (42:51):
Because he had some of his, Willie Norwood and some of his other friends were now the Twins outfielders. And they were not doing too well. And I said, "Alright, see ya." And they came back, went down to Gary, Indiana. I went down to Chicago and went to see his relatives in Gary, Indiana and got shot to death.
Pat Reusse (43:10):
Riding in the car, it was a bad ... I did a 10-year anniversary piece on that, talked to the uncle who was with him in the car and that was a terrible thing because he was a great guy. He was a great guy. A great player too, going to be a hell of a player.
Todd Jones (43:26):
Well, he gave you a good name, Poison.
Pat Reusse (43:27):
Poison, yeah.
Todd Jones (43:28)
I love that name.
END OF PART 1 – ADD IN TAPED OUTRO SCRIPT RIGHT HERE TO CLOSE EPISODE
Hide TranscriptRecent Episodes
View AllPaul Hoynes part 2: “Those Teams Probably Saved Baseball in Cleveland.”
Press Box AccessPaul Hoynes part 1: “I'm Sweating Bullets, Shaking, Trying to Calm Myself Down.”
Press Box AccessWriters Bear Witness to Memorable Moments from March Madness
Press Box AccessJerry Tipton: “You could just walk into the Kentucky coach’s office.”
Press Box AccessHear More From Us!
Subscribe Today and get the newest Evergreen content delivered straight to your inbox!