"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Harmon Killebrew dies at 74

 

A sad day for Twins fans and the baseball community, as legendary slugger Harmon Killebrew passed away this morning at 74, from esophageal cancer.

Personally, Killebrew was on the down side of his career by the time I got into baseball, but I still vividly remember the Yankees yearbooks of the early 70s featuring pictures of the Twins masher as part of their “Visiting Stars”.

For what it was worth, Killebrew compiled a line of .239/.333/.455 with 22 homers in 121 career games at Yankee Stadium.

May he rest in peace.

(Over at SI.com, Steve Rushin has a nice obit.)

8 comments

1 rbj   ~  May 17, 2011 12:22 pm

Indeed, Rest in Peace.

2 Alex Belth   ~  May 17, 2011 12:23 pm

He was one of the great sluggers.

3 BobbyB   ~  May 17, 2011 1:45 pm

He was a fearsome presence in the batter's box and a good human being, too. RIP Killer.

4 YankeeAbby   ~  May 17, 2011 1:51 pm

:-(

I for one hope the Twins mash some HR's in his honor tonight against Seattle.

5 Diane Firstman   ~  May 17, 2011 2:11 pm

[3]

Well-said!

6 Diane Firstman   ~  May 17, 2011 2:33 pm
7 Bruce Markusen   ~  May 17, 2011 2:50 pm

Real good guy. One of the nicest of the Hall of Famers.

He hated playing in Yankee Stadium, especially as deep as the dimensions to left-center were at the original ballpark. In trying to think of a player that Killebrew is similar to today, Adam Dunn comes to mind. But Harmon ran a bit better and was a better athlete who could play some third base.

The Hall has now lost five Hall of Famers over the last year: Roberts, Anderson, Feller, Snider and now Killer. Too many.

8 Evil Empire   ~  May 21, 2011 10:40 am

Last year Harmon Killebrew was the guest of honor at the Rickwood Classic. He threw out the first pitch and signed autographs for hours. He smiled as I exclaimed to my son, "Ryan, he hit more homeruns than Mickey Mantle" and shook my hand. He seemed like a very nice man.

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