Wednesday, May 18, 2011

RIP - Harmon Killebrew

Harmon Killebrew passed away yesterday, from cancer at age 74. Killebrew was the first great star for the Minnesota Twins. I never saw him play in person, but I remember him as one of the top sluggers of the mid-to-late 1960s. Here are all of my Harmon Killebrew cards:


At a time when Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were fading, Killebrew, along with Willie McCovey, Hank Aaron, and Frank Howard seemed to always be at the top of the home run leaders every year.

Tonight, I decided to see how accurate my recollections were. Below are all the top home run hitters I can remember from the 1960s. This may not be a complete list, but I think I included all the big names. I gathered these numbers from each player's baseball-reference page.


Fittingly, Killebrew came out on top. (I suppose I could have looked that up somewhere, but this exercise was fun.)

By all accounts, Killebrew was as great a person as he was a player. He will be greatly missed, not only by Twins fans, but by all who remember that era fondly.

Rest in peace, Killer!