When I was a kid my dad took me to a lot of baseball games. We went to minor league games until 1961, when the Minnesota Twins came to Minneapolis. I was at a game at Metropolitan Stadium the day Harmon Killebrew turned 25.
"He can't be 25," I said. "He's bald."
I was a dumb kid.
Killebrew had everything but hair. Major League Baseball was new to our part of the country, and we needed somebody to make the Twins feel like ours. Many of us chose Killebrew.
At that age, I wanted runs. A final score of 8-6 was good, but 10-8 was better. The Twins collected power hitters, and Harmon was the best of them. He came out of Idaho, which seemed far away and exotic, and he had country power. Forearms thick beneath his uniform, he made a living out of going deep.
A lot of hitters claim they don't go to the plate looking to hit a home run. Killebrew admited that he did. He hit 573, which is why he's in Cooperstown.
Harmon played the way our dads wanted us to. He didn't call attention to his exploits, no matter how far they traveled, and he didn't yell at umps. He was a gentleman athlete.
Killebrew died from cancer Tuesday at the age of 74.
I never met him, but in interviews he always was gracious, humble and kind. As an adult, the only sports heroes I have are the ones I had as a kid.
Killebrew was one of them. So maybe I wasn't so dumb.
Thought of you first when the news came down.
Posted by: Dan Phillippi | May 17, 2011 at 03:33 PM
"He was a gentleman athlete." I think that says it all! Wonderful column, Tom.
Posted by: sam ogilvie | May 17, 2011 at 07:54 PM
I heard this morning on TV that the player in the MLB symbol is from a photo of him. That's cool !
Posted by: pantherstalk | May 18, 2011 at 09:12 AM
Just Google 'd about my comment above. Should have done this first !!!
Interview with Mr. Dior.;
His son once heard a radio broadcaster say that Minnesota Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew served as his model for the logo. Mr. Dior's response: "That's completely untrue. It's not Harmon Killebrew. It's not anyone in particular."
Posted by: pantherstalk | May 18, 2011 at 09:17 AM
... grace dignity respect honor integrity decency courage ...
... long gone from todays filthy rotten spoiled greedy (b)rats ...
... pro sports like America has fallen and that not nostalgia but fact ...
...those who aid and abett this downfall are equally as guilty ...
... the solution begins with the man in the mirror ...
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