tarheeltwinsfan

Thanks Nash for this up to date article.

Fantastic article and informative video. Thanks Parker.

My memories of the Twins of the 60's are vague. When the Twins moved from D.C.,I was a student at the University of North Carolina and I focused more on studies, parties, girls, and Carolina football, basketball (Dean Smith's era with Billy Cunningham, Bobby Lewis, Larry Miller and Charles Scott, among others). When I graduated from UNC in 1967 I enlisted in the Army and any thoughts of the Twins were immediately over shadowed by basic training, ( Our Drill Instructors would yell: "What's the spirit of the bayonet?" and we trainees would yell: "To Kill !", as we were changed from boys who had no cares, to soldiers who would follow orders to kill and to try to survive, which really grabbed my attention, as you can imagine. In February 1968, we were in advanced infantry training and we were called together and told that we would not finish our 8 weeks of training but that we were immediately being sent to Korea, not Vietnam. Some of the guys were high - fiving, glad we were not going to Vietnam, but I was wondering why are we being rushed to Korea. I found out after I got there. I was sent to the Second Infantry Division in Korea, since the North Koreans were initiating armed conflicts in and around the DMZ in the late 1960's(see the Blue House Raid where 31 NK commandos infiltrated through the Second Infantry Division lines along the DMZ into South Korea to try to kill the South Korean president and also read about the seizure of the US Navy ship, the USS Pueblo off the coast of North Korea, killing 1 sailor and taking 83 others prisoner for 10 months of hell. Also during this time there were ambushes in the DMZ, particularly in the summer of 1968 when my platoon had 6 of my friends shot and 2 who died in 4 separate firefights with the North Korean soldiers. I had my hands full on 24 hour ambush patrols in the DMZ and nights in foxholes along the barrier fence and 4 days at a time with 11 other soldiers from my platoon at Guard Post Gladys, slap in the middle of the DMZ. (see Daniel Bolger's excellent book,: "Scenes From an Unfinished War: Low Intensity Conflict in Korea, 1966-1969", which you can easily find it by Googling. In the back of the book, Bolger has an index of significant firefights. Look for July 30, 1968, when my 3rd platoon buddy, Michael Rymarczuk from Philadelphia, was killed on night ambush and Sept 27, 1968 when Joseph Cayer and Mike Reynolds were ambushed in a jeep in my company area of the DMZ and March 15, 1969, when a soldier from B company was killed in the DMZ and 3 others wounded in a daylight ambush. It started snowing. When the wounded were finally rescued and taken south of the barrier fence out of the DMZ, they were loaded onto a medevac helicopter to be flown to a hospital down south. The helicopter went up, then came straight down and exploded, killing the wounded, the pilot, copilot, a doctor a medic and a crew member - 8 in all. The Army said it was mechanical error, but North Korea claimed on its state radio that North Korean soldiers had shot it down. I'll never know for sure, but I think it was shot down. I am telling you all of this so you will understand how thrilled I will be to read Henniger's book about the Twins of the late 1960's. because I missed several Twins' seasons in the late 60's..

Best of luck to the newest Twins. I feel really badly for Blankenhorn. Hopefully he will be consoled by some of the older players and he will keep on plugging away.

Best of luck to Nick and Alex. We Twins fans have been waiting a long time for this, but I bet it seems like an eternity to Alex and Nick.

At least I can turn off my MLB.com Twins game of the day. Thanks to the TD writers for suffering through watching all the Twins games, some of which have been pretty difficult to watch.

Simmons is a defensive whiz at arguably the most important defensive position on the team. There is no better defensive combo at SS and CF (the 2 critical defensive positions) than Buck and Simmons.

It's a long season. But I'm tired already.

At this early stage of the season, half the line up is batting .300 or above and the other half is batting less than .200. The .300 hitters are being bunched together. They get on base, Then the hitters who are in an early season slump have been coming to bat and failing to advance the runners and failing to get hits. Simple physics,

"It's a long season !" quoting Gardy

Thanks Seth. Really enjoyable article.

And Cookie Lavagetto.

Dantes929, Are you Ron Gardenhire in real life?

At least the Twins didn't lose in extra innings today.

Are these songs to entertain the fans, or to get the particular player motivated? Seriously? Who is the music for? If it is for the fans in attendance, where is some Jelly Bean Johnson music?

Simmons' range is vast. His arm is an accurate rocket launcher. His speed is a joy to watch. His exchange of the ball from glove to throwing hand on a double play is magical slight of hand. His instincts and knowledge and hustle are motivational. Royce Lewis fans may not like this, but I say the Twins should try to extend Simmons for several more years. Then when Lewis is ready, find another position for Lewis (2B ?) or for an ageing Simmons (3B, where Simmons' rocket arm would be amazing ?)

What exactly should be the strategy with zero outs and a runner on 2nd base? Is it to swing away and hope for a hit or is it to advance the runner by a bunt, leaving 2 outs to get him home from 3B, if the bunt is successful? Or is it to hit the ball to the right side of the infield? What do the statistics show. But wait, there's more. Here is the interesting challenge, Statistics in this situation do not take into account the speed of the runner, at 2B, nor the batter's ability to bunt, nor the effectiveness of the pitcher to SO the bunter or cause a pop-up from the bunter. Plus who are the next 2 batters scheduled to hit and is there a pinch hitter available for any of the batters that inning, plus can the pinch hitter play a position in the field, what is the score, plus are we the home team or the visitor, plus who is left in the pen? Is the wind blowing? Is it raining? Has " last call" been yelled out by Wally the beer man? And the manager has a short time to input all this data, plus more that I have not thought of into the computer. My point is that there are many variables to be considered quickly, in the heat of battle, and I am very comfortable allowing Rocco to make these decisions, even though, "statistically" about half the time, these extra inning games will result in a Twins loss.,

You are correct. Sorry.

It's a joke. LOL

Thank you for the aerodynamics lessons. Interesting.

Baddoo is an interesting story. I wonder how he will be doing in 1 month? But so far, he has been awesome for the Kittens. We were thinking and posting that there was no place for him to play and so the Twins were correct to let him be selected...plus the Twins did not think he woud be selected. I sure wish he was still on the Twins. The Kittens lineup looks like it is full of former Twins.

Doc, I hope you weren't watching the game while operating on a patient.

Good article, Mathew. I hope the FO reads it and follows your advice.

Play ball.

Let's compare being a Twins fan and a UNC Tarheel basketball fan. The Heels fanbase expects nothing short of a National Championship each year. However realistically, deep down, we Tarheel fans know this is not possible. Each regular season loss hurts. However the NCAA tourney, being a one loss and you are out scenario, magnifies the pain of that elimination loss, especially since the seniors are done with their college playing. A March Madness loss and elimination puts me into a depression for about a week., especially if Duke is still marching toward a championship. How is this similar to the Twins? The Twins fan base does not expect a World series Championship each year. We Twins fans know deep down that is not possible each year. Each regular season loss hurts and angers some of us. However the post season magnifies each game and magnifies the pain of that final elimination loss most years. And again, I am depressed for about a week. The higher the expectations, the more pain we feel with that final loss. But then ...then... there is 1987 and 1991...and we remember what it was like ..and there is nothing like it...and we remember and replay moments such as: "And we'll see you tomorrow night". And through the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, we discover why we are fans of our team. It's really not the destination, it's the journey. And I'll see you tomorrow night.