Patrick Reusse, Laura Day earn Diamond Awards

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins, in partnership with the Minnesota Twins Community Fund and the Twin Cities Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, announced today that longtime Star Tribune columnist, writer and media personality Patrick Reusse has been named the winner of the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award and executive Laura Day has been named winner of the Terry Ryan Play Ball! Minnesota Award. A complete listing of past winners of these two awards can be found on the second page.

The duo will be honored alongside the Twins’ other annual award winners at the 18th annual Diamond Awards, which will be held on Thursday, January 26, 2023 at The Depot Minneapolis and will benefit research, education and care in brain, nerve and muscle disorders at the University of Minnesota. Since its inception in 2006, the event has raised nearly $4 million through a combination of corporate sponsorships and money raised through auction items.

Reusse began his sportswriting career in 1965 and continues to publish three columns per week, in addition to being a regular contributor to various radio and television programs. Over the course of his nearly six-decade career, he’s covered nearly every major sporting event, from the World Series to the Olympics and everything in between, using his unique style and keen eye for human interest stories to enchant generations of readers and listeners. The Fulda, Minnesota native got his start on the Star Tribune copy desk while still a student at the University of Minnesota; after stints in Duluth and St. Cloud, he joined the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1968 (including a stint as Twins beat writer from 1974-78) before returning to the Star Tribune in 1988. His distinguished and continuing on-air career, for which he was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2019, began on St. Cloud’s KFAM-AM in the mid-1960s and has spanned some of the state’s most iconic programming, including KSTP-AM’s Sports Talk series and the Sunday-night television panel The Sports Show.

A nominee for the BBWAA Career Excellence Award in 2020, Reusse has chronicled nearly 60 seasons of Minnesota Twins baseball, while championing the game at all levels, from high school and college to his beloved town ball. Universally known for his humor and legendary stories, Reusse is also renowned for mentoring and lending a helping hand to the next generation of journalists.

Day, who announced in January of 2022 that she will step away from her current role at the end of the year, just completed her 27th season with the Twins, part of a prestigious career as a sports executive that has spanned nearly four decades. During her extraordinary Twins tenure, Day’s oversight and leadership of the club’s community engagement initiatives, including as a longtime member of the Minnesota Twins Community Fund (MTCF) Board of Directors, has helped bring the joy of baseball and softball to generations of youth across the region. Under her stewardship and fundraising acumen, MTCF has grown to impact 50,000 kids annually – many of whom might not otherwise have an opportunity to play – through initiatives such as the Fields for Kids renovations grant program, Play Ball! Minnesota clinics and the Twins RBI program, among others. Day’s innate ability to build lasting and positive relationships, her love of the game and her tireless efforts to build better lives for our youth also led to the development of the MTCF’s equipment and ticket donation programs, along with the recent introductions of the Twins Girls Baseball Camp, Twins Adaptive Clinics and the annual Twins High School Leadership Academy.

The 18th annual Diamond Awards will honor the Twins’ annual award winners, including those awards voted on by the Twin Cities Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. All proceeds from the event will benefit the University of Minnesota’s innovative research and patient care focused on ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), ataxia, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. For more information on the event visit diamondawards.umn.edu or call (612) 624-4897.