REVIEW: ‘The Pride of Minnesota’ by Thom Henninger

This will be a fun read for a fan who followed these teams very closely. The pitching and hitting from these teams was terrific and those battles with Baltimore so frustrating. Blair, Belanger, and Brooks Robinson seemed to steal a few runs with their gloves every game. It was a very turbulent period in U. S. history,   but the Twins  were excellent.

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..

tarheeltwinsfan - thank you for your service and an interesting post about the times.

I too thank you tarheeltwinsfan for your service and sacrifice to keep this country free and safe! You have made Minnesota proud and brought me a piece of history I wasn't aware of. This testimony has given me a greater respect and appreciation for you! God bless you!