Why Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s arrival is setting MLB on fire

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Maybe if there had been Twitter in 1936 (which would’ve been hard, since even electric typewriters weren’t yet invented) then the anticipation would have been just as great on Sunday, May 3, when a skinny Californian named Joseph Paul DiMaggio stepped onto a big-league field for the first time.

Maybe if there had been instant access to every at-bat of his 1950 season at Class-C Joplin of the Western Association, when he hit .383 and cracked 68 extra-base hits, there would have been a similar buzz surrounding the Oklahoma Kid, Mickey Charles Mantle, when Casey Stengel first penciled his name into the Yankees batting order on Tuesday, April 17, 1951.

Maybe this is nothing new, the wave of adulation and anticipation that will carry Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to Rogers Centre in Toronto on Friday night, when he will make his long-awaited debut for the Blue Jays at the advanced age of 20 years and 41 days.

Maybe the only difference between yesteryear and yesterday is the fact the average big leaguer in 1936 was making $4,500 per year and in 1951 that had risen all the way to $8,000, and when you talked about someone’s “service time” it was more likely to refer to past or pending military obligations than keeping someone away from “arbitration” and “free agency” as long as possible.

(Those words really were invented by 1936, they just had never, by any account, been used in a baseball conversation.)

That doesn’t change the very important, very basic fact that Major League Baseball will be welcoming an honored guest to its midst Friday night, the son of a Hall of Famer, the 19,475th player to ever wear a big league uniform, but one who already has veteran baseball men panting about what he might be on a baseball field.

Just about a year ago — at a time when Guerrero already seemed to many eyes to be ready to play with the Jays at age 19 — in 98 games for four teams at four levels ranging from rookie ball to Triple-A, Guerrero had a slash line of .381/.437/.636 and inspired one scout to gush to The Post’s Joel Sherman:

“I put Guerrero and [Atlanta’s Ronald] Acuna ahead of Bryce Harper for what I think they are going to be. I think these kids are going to hit .310-.320 with big power every year. I thought Manny Ramirez was the greatest young prospect I have ever seen hit, and I would put these two kids with him.”

Heady stuff. Rarefied air.

“It looks like he has a chance to be a good hitter,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday afternoon. “In our division, he will certainly be. Challenge for us. I’m sure Toronto, the Blue Jays and Canada are really excited.”

A day earlier, Jays manager Charlie Montoya had said: “It’s a big moment for us. Hopefully he becomes what everybody thinks he’s going to become. That’s going to be good for all of us, for the city of Toronto, the Blue Jays and the organization.”

And baseball, of course. There are few sports that get shaken to their core in the same way baseball does when a kid shows up with a big name and a bigger game and a reputation that takes people’s breaths away. There is a cynical element to all of this in a time when organizations factor in long-term fiscal benefits, but that doesn’t detract from the moments like the one that awaits Guerrero on Friday.

Some teams have gone against the grain that the Jays have followed, and been rewarded for it. Pete Alonso started justifying the Mets’ faith in him from the start, and he is the team’s No. 1 drawing card now, 24 games into his career. Right behind him is Fernando Tatis Jr., only two months older than Guerrero, who has started his big-league career with an OPS-plus of 151 in his first 87 at-bats.

And now arrives Guerrero, at last. DiMaggio and Mantle were both slipped right into the middle of things on their debuts, the No. 3 spot on championship Yankees teams. The Jays’ immediate ambitions may not be as vast. But their hopes for their new prize are, and those hopes will begin to be realized Friday. The fanfare may be different. The curiosity is not. Now is now.