Friends, All of us have been absolutely engulfed with grief over the tragedies of the past week in New York City, Washington, D.C., and rural SW Pennsylvania. We here in Minnesota have even learned that it has affected one other Centre Countian among us here -- a prominent figure on our Twin Cities sports scene. The following is from the sports section of today's (9/20) Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE: "The Twins lost 6-2 on Wednesday night to Detroit, further hindering their playoff chances even before Cleveland can come to town for a big weekend series. "The Twins failed to hit knuckle-baller Steve Sparks, missed out on the few scoring chances they had, committed a baserunning blunder and didn't look like a team that had beaten Detroit 12 of 14 times this season coming into the game. Now the Twins are 7 games behind Cleveland. "And none of it mattered afterwards. "Several players and coaches went over to Eric Milton's clubhouse stall to try to console the lefthander. Milton had just revealed to the media that his thoughts were with an old friend and high school teammate from Bellefonte (Pa.) High who was a victim of last week's terrorist attack at the Pentagon. " 'I had a high school classmate of mine who's among the presumed dead, or not accounted for, in the Pentagon [attack],' Milton said. 'So that's all I think about. I played high school basketball with him, and baseball with him growing up. He was one of my good friends and I graduated with him from high school.' "Milton sighed and put a hand to his forehead, and reporters respectfully walked away. "His friend, Jonas Panik, a 26-year-old Navy lieutenant, was confirmed dead on Tuesday. "A few players said they had been unaware of what Milton was going through. "Brian Buchanan, Milton's friend since their days in the Yankees organization, walked over, sat down next to Milton and patted him on the back. Doug Mientkiewicz sat down on the other side of him. The Twins clubhouse already had been quiet because of the loss [meaning 'the game with Detroit,' not Panik's death]. Now, players eager to leave quickly to rest up for today's noon game, remained to express concern for their teammate. " 'It kind of puts things in perspective,' one player said. "Moments before Milton mentioned his friend, he was asked about trying to catch-Cleveland in the A.L. Central. An athlete's focus and concentration levels are expected to be at full-throttle, especially in important games during September. "While Milton hit 97 miles per hour on the radar gun, the fact he was willing to start under the circumstances was a bigger accomplishment. " 'It's hard to think about being in a playoff race right now,' Milton (14-6) said. 'I know my head is not in the game. Sitting on the bench, I try to think about the game, but my thoughts are somewhere else. And it's tough to concentrate. And with the layoff, it's tough to get back into it.' "A home run by Bobby Higginson -- his first since July 19 -- and successive doubles by Tony Clark and Shane Halter gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Milton gave up two runs in the third and was replaced after the 5th inning and 82 pitches, so he can start on Sunday against Cleveland on 3 days' rest. " 'Eric left a few balls up in the zone,' Twins manager Tom Kelly said. 'And they didn't miss them.' "Jacque Jones homered in the bottom of the third to make the score 4-1. Otherwise, Sparks (11-9) shut down the Twins with his knuckleball, a pitch Kelly said he thinks moves more in domed stadiums because of the air pressure. "After the game, players initially talked about trying to hit the fluttering knuckler and trying to catch Cleveland, which lowered its magic number to clinch the division to 10. "But their challenges soon became insignificant." ================== Jonas M. Panik and Eric Robert Milton graduated in 1993 from Bellefonte Area High School, Bellefonte, Centre County, PA. Possibly both of them are cousins to many of you. Eric is my 4th cousin/twice removed through common Etters / Etris and Loesch ancestry. Some of his ancestral surnames are MILTON, RICHARDS, HOUSER, CORMAN, KING, FOGLEMAN, ROTE, MILLER, HAZEL, WHITE and SHUEY. I don't know much about Jonas Panik or his ancestry, but do know that his mother was the former Linda E. Gentzel who grad. BAHS 1966, married to one Martin Panik, Jonas' father. Fred Houts, Brooklyn Center MN (native Centre Countian)