Minneapolis ? Whether the Minnesota Twins are surging toward the postseason or stumbling through a rough summer, Carl Pohlad always has kept his composure.

Perhaps that’s one reason why running a baseball team at his age is still practical – and a passion. Pohlad will spend his 90th birthday today at the Metrodome, hoping his Twins can start a critical three-game series against the division-leading Chicago White Sox off with a victory.

“We’ve had some great years here, and we’ve had some poor years,” general manager Terry Ryan said. “But he’s always been supportive.”

That’s not to suggest he doesn’t get frustrated with failure, like during a stretch of eight straight losing seasons from 1993-2000 or even during a recent stretch this year when the Twins nearly fell out of postseason contention by dropping 22 out of 33 games.

But Pohlad, a billionaire who built his fortune in banking and bought the club in 1984, always has believed in the people he pays to run the front office, scout for talent, make decisions in the dugout and take the field.

“He’s never been one to micromanage,” Ryan said. “Yet he’s about as competitive a guy as I’ve seen.”

Pohlad, whose comments these days are rare, declined an interview through the team. Despite an ailing back, hip, knee and ankle that require a walker or a wheelchair to get around, Pohlad faithfully attends almost every home game – usually stopping by manager Ron Gardenhire’s office to chat before they begin.

“He still likes baseball, I’ll tell you that,” Gardenhire said. “He likes this team, of course, and he still has a lot of fun coming to these games.”

Pohlad always asks the manager who’s pitching. When the answer is veteran right-hander Brad Radke – who has a history of giving up runs early in the game – the owner offers a bit of advice.

“He says, ‘We’ve just got to get him through the first couple of innings,”‘ Gardenhire said, smiling.

Last week, Pohlad attended the owners’ quarterly meeting in California while the Twins were completing a sweep of the White Sox.

“He got a kick out of it,” Gardenhire said. “He said, ‘Reinsdorf was squirming.”‘