Stars of the 1960s: Harmon Killebrew

4th in a series....

Harmon Killebrew played for the Senators/Twins from 1954 to 1974, then finished his career with the Royals in 1975.

Topps managed to find different photos for each of these cards. However, they forgot that on all the other 1967 Twins cards, the "TWINS" team name was green, not yellow.


Harmon hit more home runs in the 1960s than any other player.

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1964 Topps Coins

I picked up these 1964 Topps coins while out on a recent antiques expedition with Mrs. Jim from Downingtown.

My only prior coin in this set is Phillies' 2nd baseman Tony Taylor. The 1964 coin set includes two types of coins - "regular", and all-stars, with some of the same players appearing on both. These are actually before my (childhood collecting) time, although I do have a few 1971 coins from back in the day.

I've now doubled my "Warren Spahn collection", having recently acquired his 1964 Topps giant card.

It occurs to me that the only sports "cards" I have bought since 2010 are oddballs like these coins, about a dozen 1964 Topps giant cards, and some early-1960s Philadelphia Eagles.

I've sworn off buying/collecting current-issue cards (for a variety of reasons), and only collect vintage stuff. My 1966 and 1970 baseball sets are about 85% complete, and someday I will resume finishing those sets.

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!