(June 29, 1936 – May 17, 2011)
Killebrew was a stocky 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), 210-pound (95.3 kg) hitter with a compact swing that generated tremendous power. He became one of the AL's most feared power hitters of the 1960s, belting 40 homers in a season eight times during an era in which pitching was dominant. In 1965, he helped the Minnesota Twins reach the World Series, where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had his finest season in 1969, hitting 49 home runs, recording 140 runs batted in (RBI), and winning the AL Most Valuable Player Award. Killebrew led the league in home runs six times and in RBI three times, and he was named to eleven All-Star teams. He hit the most home runs for any player in the 1960s.[2]With quick hands and exceptional upper-body strength, Killebrew was known not just for the frequency of his home runs but also for their great distance. He hit the longest measured home runs at Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium and Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, and was the first of just four batters to hit a baseball over the left field roof at Detroit's Tiger Stadium.
Despite his nicknames and his powerful style of play, Killebrew was, in fact, a quiet, kind man who was not much given to the partying lifestyle enjoyed by his peers. Asked once what he liked to do for fun, Killebrew replied, "Well, I like to wash dishes, I guess."[3]
Early life
Harmon Killebrew was born in Payette, Idaho to Harmon Clayton, Sr. and Katherine Pearl (May) Killebrew, and was the youngest of four children. His father, a painter and sheriff, was a member of an undefeated Millikin College football team. He was later named an All-American under eventual Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Greasy Neale.[4][5] According to family legend, Harmon Killebrew's grandfather was the strongest man in the Union Army, winning every available heavyweight wrestling championship.[5] Clayton encouraged Harmon and his brothers to stay active in various sports before his sudden death in 1953 at age 59.[5]As a child, Harmon played baseball at Walter Johnson Memorial Field, named after the Hall of Fame pitcher who spent part of his childhood in Idaho.[6] Killebrew earned 12 letters in various sports and was named an All-American quarterback at Payette High School. His uniform number was later retired by the school.[4][7] He was offered an athletic scholarship by the University of Oregon, but opted to attend the College of Idaho instead.[8] In his youth, he was a farmworker, where he lifted 10-gallon milk cans, each can weighing about 95 lb (43 kg).[9]
In the early 1950s, Idaho Senator Herman Welker told Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith about Killebrew, who was hitting for an .847 batting average for a semi-professional baseball team at the time.[6][10] Griffith told his farm director Ossie Bluege about the tip and Bluege flew to Idaho to watch Killebrew play.[11] The Boston Red Sox also expressed interest but Bluege succeeded in signing him to a $50,000 ($408,571 in current dollar terms) contract on June 19, 1954.[7][10][12]
Professional baseball career
Washington Senators
Killebrew's contract put him under Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Bonus Rule, which required that he spend two full seasons on the major league roster.[10] Making his major league debut four days after signing and six days away from his 18th birthday (becoming the youngest player in the majors at the time), Killebrew was called on to pinch run for Clyde Vollmer, who had drawn a bases-loaded walk off of Chicago White Sox starter Jack Harshman while pinch hitting for Senators reliever Chuck Stobbs.[13][14] On August 23, 1954, Killebrew made his first start in the second game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics. He hit two singles and a double as the Senators won the game, 10–3.[15] A year and one day after making his major league debut, Killebrew hit his first major league home run on June 24, 1955 in the 5th inning off Detroit Tigers starter Billy Hoeft, five days shy of his 19th birthday.[16] In his first two seasons, Killebrew struck out 34 times in only 93 at bats, contributing to a .215 batting average with four home runs.[10] Killebrew also had defensive difficulties at third base, where he played behind veteran Eddie Yost.[10][14]Killebrew with the Senators in 1959.
In 1956, Killebrew's bonus period expired and he was sent to the Senators' minor league affiliate in Charlotte of the South Atlantic League.[1] He returned to the majors in early May. On May 29, after being forced into action when regular second baseman Pete Runnels was injured early in the game, Killebrew hit two home runs in the game, including only the second ball ever hit over a wire barrier in Memorial Stadium's center field.[17][18] Killebrew had a .115 average through June 16, and as a result was sent back to Charlotte; he finished the season there with a .325 batting average and 15 home runs in 70 games.[1][17][19] Killebrew spent most of the 1957 season with the Southern Association's Chattanooga Lookouts, where he hit a league-high 29 home runs with 101 runs batted in (RBI) and was named to the All-Star Game, despite a shoulder injury and a home stadium where hitting home runs to left field was difficult.[1][19][20] While Killebrew was in Chattanooga, he became the only player to hit a home run over the center field wall at Engel Stadium, 471 feet (144 m) from home plate.[21] In 1958, he was briefly promoted to Indianapolis of the American Association but struggled and was sent back to Chattanooga for most of the season.[20] Killebrew finished the season with 38 games played in Indianapolis and 86 in Chattanooga, where he hit .308 with 17 home runs.[19] He also played a combined 22 games for the Senators in 1957 and 1958.[14]Calvin Griffith, who had taken over the Senators after his uncle Clark Griffith died in 1955, decided Killebrew was ready to become the Senators' regular third baseman and traded the 32-year-old Eddie Yost to the Detroit Tigers on December 6, 1958.[10][22] Killebrew had a slow April in 1959, his first season as a regular in the majors, but he picked up the pace in May.[23] From May 1 to May 17, he had five multi-home run games and his first five-RBI game on May 12.[10][23] With 28 home runs by mid-season, he started the first 1959 All-Star Game and was a reserve in the second. Killebrew garnered so much attention in Washington that he was visited by President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, who frequently attended games.[24] The Cincinnati Reds offered Griffith $500,000 for Killebrew but were turned down.[24] Killebrew finished the season with 42 home runs to tie for the American League lead; it also tied the Senator's single-season record set by his teammate Roy Sievers two years earlier.[10][25] Despite his breakout season, he was ineligible for the Rookie of the Year Award because of his previous sparse experience. Instead, the award went to teammate Bob Allison.[26]
Killebrew was bothered by injury early in the 1960 season. In March, he had surgery for nasal irritation, though he did expect to be ready for the start of the season.[27] He then missed much of May due to pulling his hamstring and later re-injuring it.[28] After returning from injury, he remained in the lineup for the rest of the season, finishing the year with 31 home runs in 124 games.[1] However, Killebrew's arrival and home runs did little to improve the Senators' record, as they finished in the second division of the American League every year he played in Washington, including four years in last place.[22] Following the 1960 season, the Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Twins.
Minnesota Twins
1961–1965
For the franchise's first year in Minnesota, Killebrew was named team captain by manager Cookie Lavagetto.[29] He responded by hitting 46 home runs, breaking the franchise record he had tied two years earlier.[25] He also accumulated 122 RBIs, batted a career-best .288, had a slugging percentage of over .600 for the only time in his career, and had a career-high seven triples.[14] Killebrew finished the season leading the Twins in home runs, runs, RBIs, total bases and walks, and tied for the team lead in triples.[1] On June 12, 1961, Killebrew had the only five-hit game of his career in a losing effort by the Twins.[14][30][31] Killebrew was named to both 1961 All-Star games. He did not play in the second game, but in the first game, he hit a pinch hit home run to give the AL its first run.[32] After the season ended, Killebrew took part in a home run hitting contest with Jim Gentile and Roger Maris, who broke the single-season home run record that year with 61; Killebrew hit 20 to win the contest.[33]After his seven-triple season, his speed began to decrease, which was the result of Killebrew pulling his quadriceps during the 1962 season.[34] Killebrew moved to left field, and over the course of the season he hit 48 home runs, 126 RBIs, and had 107 walks, all career highs at the time.[14] He led the league in both home runs and RBIs, and no one else in the AL hit as many as 40 homers.[35] Killebrew's 48 home runs also broke the franchise record for the second year in a row.[25] The Twins' record improved from 70–90 in 1961 to 91–71, but the team still finished five games behind the eventual World Champion New York Yankees. Killebrew's batting average dropped from .288 in 1961 to .243 and he struck out a career-worst 142 times, leading the AL.[14] After hitting under .200 in both April and June, Killebrew missed the 1962 All-Star Game, the last season he was not named an All-Star before 1972.[36] On July 18, Killebrew and Bob Allison became the first teammates since 1890 to hit grand slams in the same inning as the Twins scored 11 runs in the first.[1][37][38]
In 1963, Killebrew hit 45 home runs despite missing the second half of April and early May with injuries.[14][39] The Twins were 9–13 when Killebrew returned but they recovered to post a 91–70 record.[40] With the Twins well out of contention on September 21, Killebrew hit three home runs in a game for the only time in his career.[30][41] On May 2, 1964, in a game against the Kansas City Athletics at Kansas City, Killebrew hit a ninth inning home run off reliever John Wyatt which helped send the game to extra innings. In the eleventh inning, Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall, and Killebrew, in that order, hit consecutive home runs, the first three off reliever Dan Pfister and the fourth, Killebrew's, off reliever Vern Handrahan.[42] Killebrew again broke his franchise home run record in 1964 by hitting 49 during the season.[25] Although he played left field the past three years despite a below-average throwing arm, knee surgery before the 1964 season contributed to his eventual move to the infield and he played only 19 games in the outfield over the remainder of his career.[14][34][43]
The Twins finally won the AL pennant during the 1965 season. On July 11, the day before the All-Star break, defending AL champion Yankees had a one-run lead over the Twins going into the bottom of the 9th inning, but Killebrew hit a two-run home run for the win. It was considered the most dramatic home run in Twins history until Kirby Puckett's Game 6 homer in the 1991 World Series.[44] Two days later, Killebrew started the All-Star Game in front of the Twins faithful at Metropolitan Stadium and hit a game-tying two-run home run, erasing what had been a 5–0 National League lead.[45] When Killebrew was elected to play first base on his fifth All-Star team, he became the first player in All-Star game history to be elected at three different positions after previously been selected to play third base (1959 and 1961) and left field (1963 and 1964).[46]
Killebrew drove in the tying or winning run seven times in 1965 before suffering an injury on August 2.[47] During a game against the Orioles, Twins third baseman Rich Rollins made a poor throw to first and while trying to save the play, Killebrew collided with the runner and dislocated his elbow, putting him out of action until mid-September.[48][49][50] Despite his absence, the Twins went 28–19 and even extended their first place lead.[47][51] In the 1965 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Killebrew and Zoilo Versalles led the Twins with .286 batting averages but the team hit only .195 overall against the Dodgers' pitching. Killebrew hit his only World Series home run off Don Drysdale in the Game 4 loss. Overall, Minnesota was shut out in three other games, twice by Sandy Koufax, and the Dodgers won the series in seven games.[52]
1966–1969
On June 9, 1966, in the seventh inning of a game against the Kansas City Athletics, Killebrew was one of five Twins players to hit home runs. The others, in order, were Rich Rollins, Zoilo Versalles, Tony Oliva, and Don Mincher. These five home runs still stand as a Major League record for the most home runs batted in a single inning, and were hit off starter Catfish Hunter (two) and relievers Paul Lindblad (two) and John Wyatt (one). Having already homered in the sixth inning off starter Hunter, Killebrew then homered again in the seventh inning off Wyatt for the last of the five same-inning home runs.[53]On June 3, 1967, Killebrew blasted the longest home run ever hit at Met Stadium, a shot that landed in the second deck of the bleachers.[54] For the season, Killebrew hit 44 home runs with 113 RBI and the Twins went 91–71, but it was the year of the Boston Red Sox. With Minnesota holding a one-game lead, their last two games were in Boston. Having only to win one game to clinch the pennant, Killebrew hit a home run in the first game and two hits in both, but Boston won both games and Minnesota finished in a second place tie with the Detroit Tigers.[55] Killebrew then finished a distant second in Most Valuable Player Award voting to Boston's Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski.[56]
The 1968 season was an off-year for Killebrew, but he was still selected for his 8th All-Star Game. After a strong start, he hit below .200 in both May and June and his average stood at .204 with 13 home runs going into the break.[57][58] In the All-Star Game itself, Killebrew stretched for a ball while playing first base and slipped on the Astrodome turf rupturing his left medial hamstring.[45][59][60] At the time, the injury was considered career-threatening, but he returned to limited action in September.[58][60] The Twins would finish the 1968 season below .500 for the first time since 1961.
After his serious 1968 injury and enduring seven months of rehabilitation, Killebrew was still in pain but rebounded to win his only Most Valuable Player Award in 1969.[45] He set career highs in RBIs, runs, walks and on-base percentage, tied his career high with 49 home runs, and even registered eight of his 19 career stolen bases. He led the AL in home runs, RBIs, on-base percentage, walks, and intentional walks and knocked in the winning run 20 times while playing in all 162 games.[14][61] His home run, RBI, and walk totals from 1969 are all still team records[1] and Killebrew's 145 walks is tied for the 20th highest single season total in MLB history and 7th highest for a right-handed batter.[62]
On July 5, Killebrew set a career-high with six RBIs in a game against the Oakland Athletics.[30][63] That personal best lasted barely two months when on September 7 he hit a three-run home run and a grand slam for seven RBIs, all in the first two innings, again defeating the A's.[30][64] Killebrew led the best offense in the league and rookie manager Billy Martin's Twins won the new AL West division. In the 1969 American League Championship Series, however, the Baltimore Orioles used the league's best pitching staff to shut down Minnesota and sweep the series.[60] Baltimore avoided Killebrew by walking him six times in the three games, as many times as they walked the rest of the Twins team.[65]
[edit] 1970–1974
In 1970, Killebrew was one of only four players from the 1965 pennant-winning club still with the team, but they again won the West division crown.[66] Killebrew hit 41 home runs with 113 RBIs, but finished third in MVP voting behind teammate Tony Oliva and award winner, Baltimore's Boog Powell.[67] As in 1969, they faced Powell and the Orioles in the 1970 American League Championship Series, but again were swept. Killebrew and the Twins' offense fared better than in 1969, but the pitching staff allowed 27 runs and the Twins never led after the 2nd inning of Game 1.[68]The 1970 season was the last time that Killebrew reached the 40 home run plateau and also his last postseason appearance. The team mirrored his decline, never finishing higher than third in the AL West during his last four years. In 1971, the 35-year-old Killebrew led the AL with 119 RBIs and appeared in his last All-Star Game, hitting a two-run home run off Ferguson Jenkins to provide the margin of victory.[14][69] But, outside of the injury-shortened 1968, his home run and slugging percentages in 1971 were his lowest since he started playing regularly in 1959.[14] Killebrew hit home run number 498 on June 22, 1971, but a sprained right toe made his run to milestone number 500 a slow one. He hit number 499 more than a month later and finally hit number 500 off a Mike Cuellar slow curveball in an August 10 home game.[61][70][71] However, he wasted no time in hitting No. 501, knocking a Cuellar fastball over the fences later in the same game.[61][71]
In 1972, his RBI total dropped to 74 and his slugging and batting averages continued to fall. In 1973 and 1974, Killebrew combined for only 18 home runs and 86 RBIs while his playing time was reduced by injury.[14][72] In December 1974, he was given the option of staying with the Twins as a coach and batting instructor, managing the AAA Tacoma Twins, or being released.[73] He chose to be released.
[edit] Kansas City Royals and retirement (1975)
Harmon Killebrew's number 3 was retired by the Minnesota Twins in 1975. |
Killebrew hit 573 home runs in his career, currently eleventh best all-time (fifth best at the time of his retirement). At the time, 573 home runs was the most by an AL right-handed batter, and second in the AL only to Babe Ruth. Killebrew recorded 1,584 RBI in his career and 1559 bases on balls (which is currently 15th on the all time list).[74] He also finished with the record of having the most plate appearances (9,831) in his career without a sacrifice hit (which has since been broken by longtime Chicago White Sox 1B/DH Frank Thomas with 10,074 plate appearances).[14][75]
[edit] Career hitting statistics
Totals | 2435 | 8147 | 1283 | 2086 | 290 | 24 | 573 | 1584 | .256 | .376 | .509 |
Post-retirement activities
Harmon Killebrew in 2007
Killebrew was first eligible for the Hall of Fame in 1981 and received 239 votes, or 59.6% of the vote.[76] In 1982, Killebrew received 59.3% of the vote, taking a backseat to Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson, who made it in their first year of eligibility.[76] After receiving 71.9% of the vote in 1983, Killebrew said that not getting in that year was more difficult to accept than the previous two times, and asked "Why do the writers feel there only has to be a certain number inducted each time?"[77] In 1984, Killebrew received 83.1% of the vote and was elected to the Hall in his fourth year of eligibility, joining Luis Aparicio and Don Drysdale as electees.[76]The street along the south side of the Mall of America, the former site of Metropolitan Stadium, has been named "Killebrew Drive" in his honor. In 1974, his uniform No 3 was the first to be retired by the Twins and he was one of five Twins to have their numbers retired (in addition to the MLB-wide retirement of Jackie Robinson's No 42).[1] Banners that hung above the Metrodome's outfield upper deck, resembling baseball cards, showed the retired numbers: Killebrew (3), Rod Carew (29), Tony Oliva (6), Kent Hrbek (14) and Kirby Puckett (34). In 1999, he was ranked 69th on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players[78] and was nominated as a finalist for Major League Baseball's All-Century Team.[79] When the Twins moved into Target Field in 2010, Gate 3 on the southeast (centerfield) side of the stadium was named in his honor. There are also corresponding gates for the team's other retired numbers.
MOA entrance and Killebrew Drive
Following his retirement, Killebrew was a television broadcaster for the Twins from 1976 to 1978, the Oakland Athletics from 1979 to 1982, the California Angels in 1983 and back with Minnesota from 1984 to 1988.[80][81][82] While with Oakland, he also served as a major- and minor-league hitting instructor.[83] In the late 1980s, Killebrew started running into financial problems. In July 1988, a year after he and his wife divorced, his house went into foreclosure and, in 1989, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that he had fallen $700,000 into debt.[72][84] Soon after, Killebrew's health failed. In May 1990, he was rushed to the hospital with a collapsed lung and damaged esophagus.[85] Together with a subsequent abscess and staph infection, Killebrew endured three surgeries and nearly died. He used a wheelchair for some time post-surgery. However by December 1990, his health was improved and he was remarried.[72][85]He was involved in a Boise, Idaho insurance and securities business.[82] Killebrew moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in 1990, where he chaired the Harmon Killebrew Foundation.[82][86] Killebrew founded the Danny Thompson Memorial Golf Tournament in 1977 with former Idaho congressman Ralph Harding. Played annually in late August in Sun Valley, Idaho, it has donated more than $8.6 million to leukemia and cancer research.[87] Thompson was a Twins teammate who continued his major league career while suffering from leukemia; he died in December 1976 at the age of 29. Killebrew Canyon at Heavenly Mountain Resort is also named after the baseball star, who skied the outer limits of the resort after his retirement from baseball.
Personal life and legacy
Killebrew had five children with his wife Elaine before their divorce in 1989.[84] In 1990, he married Nita[85] and their family consisted of 9 children, 23 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.[88] Killebrew converted to Mormonism, joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while he was still an active major leaguer, and never smoked or drank.[89]On December 29, 2010, Killebrew announced that he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and started treatment.[90][91] On May 13, 2011, Killebrew announced via a Minnesota Twins press release that he was ceasing treatment and entering hospice care, because his illness had progressed beyond his doctors' expectation of cure.[92] To honor Killebrew, the Twins announced that they would wear their 1961 throwback alternate jerseys at home for the remainder of the 2011 season.[93] Killebrew died on May 17, 2011 at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona at the age of 74, a month and a half short of his 75th birthday.[94] Following word of his death, the Twins released an official statement:
No individual has ever meant more to the Minnesota Twins organization and millions of fans across Twins Territory than Harmon Killebrew. Harmon will long be remembered as one of the most prolific home run hitters in the history of the game and the leader of a group of players who helped lay the foundation for the long-term success of the Twins franchise and Major League Baseball in the Upper Midwest. However, more importantly Harmon's legacy will be the class, dignity and humility he demonstrated each and every day as a Hall of Fame-quality husband, father, friend, teammate and man.
—Twins' President David St. Peter, Star Tribune[95]
Killebrew easily holds the all-time home run record among players born in the state of Idaho with 573; Vance Law is second with 71.[96] Reggie Jackson once said, "If Harmon Killebrew isn't the league's best player, I've never seen one. He's one of the greatest of all time."[61] Despite rumors that Killebrew was the player depicted in the Major League Baseball logo, some of which were spread by Killebrew himself, according to the creator, Jerry Dior, it was not patterned after Killebrew or any other specific player.[97] Killebrew is however the model for the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association, an organization which Killebrew helped found in 1982.[98]Killebrew was known as an all-around gentleman and during his playing career it was well-known that he always had a kind word for friend and foe alike—even the umpires:
The Killer was one of the most feared sluggers in baseball history, but he was also one of the nicest people ever to play the game. He was one of the few players who would go out of his way to compliment umpires on a good job, even if their calls went against him. I'd call a tough strike on him and he would turn around and say approvingly, "Good call." And he was the same way in the field. And he never did this to get help on close plays, as some players do. The man hit 573 major league home runs and no umpire ever swung a bat for him.
Tape measure home runs
Harmon Killebrew's red bleacher seat overlooking the flume ride at the MOA's Nickelodeon Universe in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Killebrew's strength was demonstrated by several "tape measure" home runs that he hit in the prime of his career.In Splendor of the Diamond by Rich Westcott, a book of interviews with baseball stars, Killebrew said that his first home run in the Majors was his favorite, coming off Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium. "Frank House was the catcher. When I came to the plate, he said, 'Kid, we’re going to throw you a fastball.' I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. I hit it out. It was one of the longest home runs I ever hit. As I crossed the plate, House said, 'That’s the last time I ever tell you what pitch is coming'."[9]
On August 3, 1962, he was the first batter ever to hit a baseball over the left field roof at Tiger Stadium, a seldom-reached target as contrasted with the old ballpark's cozy right field area. Only three others would accomplish this feat during the next 37 seasons before the stadium was closed.[100]
On May 24, 1964, Harmon hit the longest measured homer at Baltimore Memorial Stadium, 471 feet (144 m) to deep left center. The ball landed in the far reaches of the bleachers.[101] The only player to hit one completely out of the Orioles' stadium was Frank Robinson in 1966; his blast was reported as about 451 feet (137 m), or about 20 feet (6.1 m) less than Killebrew's hit.[102]
On June 3, 1967, Killebrew hit a 520-foot (160 m) home run, the longest measured home run ever hit at the Twins' Metropolitan Stadium and the longest in Twins history.[54][103] That event is commemorated at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, which includes a plaque marking home plate, and one red-painted seat from the Met which was placed at the location and elevation of the landing spot of the home run.[54] The new Target Field has a statue of a Gold Glove outside of Gate 34 and it is exactly 520 feet from Target Field's home plate.[104]
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