Four-plus years after going to St. Cloud, Reusse arrived in St. Paul writing for the Pioneer Press. Later he switched to the Star Tribune and between Minneapolis and St. Paul newspapers has been writing a column for three decades. Ask other journalists about Reusse and many will say his touch (how he uses words and phrases) is among the best in the country. When Reusse began writing he copied the clichéd filled style of most sportswriters during that era. But Reusse worked at his writing, thinking about how he enjoyed taking a “mild situation” and exaggerating it, or a “horrible” one and understating it. He also read and admired the country’s best sportswriters including a roster of legends in Boston such as Will McDonough, Bob Ryan and Leigh Montville.
Reusse started covering the Twins for the Pioneer Press in 1974. He enjoyed “turning a phrase,” working with the excitement of writing under a deadline, and also fitting in a few hours of daily drinking.
An addiction to alcohol forced a decision in April of 1981. Twins vice president and friend Clark Griffith had told Reusse to call him when Reusse was ready for treatment. “There was no risk to my job or anything like that,” Reusse said. “I got sick of being hung over. I was single, (and) my first wife had divorced me in ‘79. I was running around with a younger crowd and acting goofy. Just got sick of being hung over and one Sunday morning called Clarkie and the next morning I was in Saint Mary’s (for recovery).”
That spring the North Stars were in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Reusse grew up without exposure to hockey and to this day struggles with his interest in the sport. He said the “good news” about being in treatment was he avoided about “30 days of hockey columns.”
Reusse hasn’t had a drink of alcohol since April 27, 1981. He said it’s “the greatest feeling in the world” to see a police car’s lights in his rear view mirror and know “they can’t hurt you and ruin your life.” Then he added: “Fortunately I did my heavy drinking in the ‘70s when drunken driving was legal.”
Alcohol is the easiest of addictions, Reusse said. He’s seen others struggle with booze, cigarettes and over eating. He has battled a weight problem for years, using crash diets and seeing the pounds fluctuate.
“I must be at 300 now,” he said. “It’s terrible. I haven’t tried one of my crash diets for about three years now. I am ready probably for another one. Obviously it’s (the extra weight) not healthy.”
Reusse, who weighed 170 pounds in high school and 190 after treatment for alcoholism, has no major health problems but is worried about his weight and so, too, is his family. “I am concerned,” he said. “I am like everybody else. I am afraid I am going to tip over.”
But Reusse has seldom missed a day of work and remains energetic. “It’s amazing how lucky I have been with my healthy considering how fat I am,” he said.
Reusse “loves writing baseball” and he talked about the “smaller the ball, the better the scene” theory of sportswriting. Baseball and golf, he believes, offer special opportunities to describe the scenes with the fields, courses, stands, galleries and more, not just the “combatants.”
Then Reusse brought up Gophers football and how many readers believe he is a “big U basher.” He followed Minnesota teams in the 1950s and remembered sobbing as a 12-year- old when the top 10 and undefeated Gophers lost to Illinois in 1957, a season that held promise of a national championship.
Reusse said it amuses him when he walks into a Gophers game now and fans ask him to write “something good.” That’s not up to him, he said, that’s on the Gophers. “People think that you go to a game thinking you know what you’re going to write. No, you go to a game to see what happens.”