RIP Harmon Killebrew, 1936-2011

Harmon Killebrew passed away at the age of 74 this afternoon.  Just like Sparky Anderson did less than a year ago, Killebrew’s death was preceded by an announcement a few days earlier that he was entering hospice care.  Sadly, he is the 4th Hall of Famer to pass away in the past half-year (Killer, Sparky, Rapid Robert, and the Duke) and Ron Santo is a 5th that should be in.  I won’t post a bunch of info about his career; you can find that elsewhere.  “The Killer” was a slugger’s slugger – never hit for hight average, struck out quite a bit, and hit a ton of long balls.  By all accounts, he was a true gentleman and is someone who will be missed by the baseball world.  I have an autographed baseball from him I got while at Cooperstown a few years ago.  It’s a somewhat memorable for me because he must have mis-heard me ask for a “573 HR” inscription and instead wrote down “HOF 1984”.  I didn’t have the heart to say anything – he was very nice and seemed genuinely happy to be out signing autographs for fans who’d travelled to the “Baseball Mecca”.  Looking back, that’s probably a better story than if he’d signed it correctly, so I’m glad he didn’t.  Below is part of a post where I compared his 1962 Topps card to this year’s Morneau heritage.

There’s some really good cards from some non-Yanks in this set.  Here’s a couple of MVP first baseman from the Twins’ franchise who also had the same card number.  Harmon Killebrew and Josh Morneau both had card #70.  After a number of close calls, Killebrew won his only AL MVP in 1969 by hitting 49 HR with 140 RBI.  Morneau matched “the Killer” with an MVP in 2006 – he had 34 HR & 130 RBI to go with a .321 average.  I went back and forth on this one.  I can’t decide – both are really great cards.  I like the overcast background for Morneau, but the upper deck in the background and the batting stance for Killebrew are solid as well. I’m splitting the difference here as well – 1/2 a point each!