Reusse: Twins play Giants, triggering Willie Mays memories and a question: Can we get the Black players back?

Baseball introduced interleague play in 1997, and it took until 2003 for the Twins to take on the San Francisco Giants. The series was played at the start of June in what was then named Pac Bell Park, the gem of a ballyard that had opened in 2000.

The Twins won two out of three in the 2003 series between two teams that would win divisions:

Our guys had 90 wins to finish four games ahead of the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. The Giants had 100 wins to finish 15 games ahead of the L.A. Dodgers in the NL West.

There were five more Giants-Twins series played over the next 19 seasons, including a rather strange visit to the Bay Area in June 2011. Madison Bumgarner, a lefthander destined for future Series heroism, started the first game for the Giants. He retired one batter and surrendered eight runs in what became a 9-2 Twins victory.

Momentum for a disappointing Twins team? Not exactly. They went 31-60 the rest of the way to finish 63-99.

The major leagues went to a schedule with all teams playing at least one series against each other in 2023, and the Giants arrived at Target Field on Friday night with a 13-11 edge all-time against the Twins.

From here, the sight of the Giants offers sizable nostalgia:

Perhaps not many Minnesotans are still around who witnessed Willie Mays batting .471 in 35 games for the Minneapolis Millers (before going to the New York Giants) in 1951; more of us remain who watched Willie hit a leadoff home run in the National Leaguers’ 6-5 win over the American League in the 1965 All-Star Game at Met Stadium.

It’s more than Willie’s greatness that hits home about that event. It’s the idea of what a talent-laden competition baseball could be six decades later if it had not lost so thoroughly the contest for the hearts of extraordinary young Black athletes in this country.

The reason the National League was far superior — starting with Jackie Robinson in 1947 — was that its teams, led by the Dodgers and the Giants, outhustled the AL at every turn for tremendous Black talent in the early times of baseball’s integration.

That ′65 All-Star Game — Mays, Henry Aaron, Willie Stargell, Dick Allen, Ernie Banks and Maury Wills were among eight NL starters; Frank Robinson and Billy Williams were backups; and Bob Gibson closed the win. The AL had Willie Horton and Earl Battey in the lineup, Elston Howard as a backup, and Mudcat Grant on its staff.

In 2014, Star Tribune photographer Jerry Holt and I had a chance to spend over an hour with Mays in the Say Hey Suite in the Giants ballpark. When Willie was asked if the ‘65 National Leaguers were the greatest ballclub ever assembled, he said:

“Not just that team. During that time, we were the ‘greatest’ every year.”

The major leagues had 12.7% Black players in ‘65, which means the percentage for delivering greatness was extraordinary. The number of Black players peaked at 18.7% in 1981. Downhill from there. This season started with 6.2% of players on Opening Day rosters being Black.

The talent gap has been filled with MLB’s concentration on players from Latin America. That number in the big leagues was close to 30% on Opening Day.

Yet, imagine this:

If MLB still was competing seriously for top Black athletes, to go with extraordinary Latin American talent and the best of that 65% white North Americans — well, there would be many more spectacular athletes such as Byron Buxton (when healthy) to astound us.

Royce Lewis, former No. 1 overall draft choice, back with the Twins for another injury, a Black kid from Southern California, was asked what can be done to bring back outfields such as Aaron, Mays and Stargell (with F. Robinson and Williams as backups).

“I think a lot of it is that kids play the sports that interest their parents, and football has been king for a while now,” Lewis said. “I played all kinds of sports, but my parents loved baseball. Once I got hooked, playing baseball was my goal.

“I see a few Black athletes getting a chance in the big leagues a year or two after they sign. It took me five years.”

Of course, baseball now has an added competition:

Large NIL payments to superb multisport athletes to play football or basketball. More money to play one of those sports in college than to start what’s generally a long trek to the majors.

“That’s true, but I still see more Black kids getting into baseball,” Lewis said. “I see progress.”

Unfortunately, I see Mays hitting that leadoff home run off Milt Pappas and wonder where all the Willies have gone.