Happy Birthday to the late and great Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew. Everyone was with the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins organization during his twenty-two-year career.

Career Statistics/Accolades: 

.256 BA, 2,086 HITS, 573 HR, 1,584 RBI, .376 OBP, 1,283 RUNS

  • 13x All-Star
  • 1969 AL MVP

Over his career, he split time between First and Third Base and Left Field. However, it didn’t matter where he played. Killebrew established himself as one of the greatest pure power hitters ever. Killebrew may be a little undervalued due to his playing in the same era as Mickey Mantle, but six times he led the AL or MLB in Home Runs, eight times hitting over 40. Regarding driving in runs, nine times Harmon drove in 100 or more, and three times he led the AL or MLB. While he did strike out well over 100 times a year, he averaged 100 or more Walks in a season. Career-wise, Killebrew had 1,559 Walks to 1,699 Strikeouts, a pretty good Walk to Strikeout ratio.

Thanks to his quick hands and upper body strength, Killebrew was known for the distance of his homers. Killebrew hit the longest home runs recorded at Minnesota’s Metropolitan Stadium for 520 ft and 471 ft at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. Killebrew is one of four players in history to hit a ball over the left-field roof at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Despite his incredible production on the field and the fame that came with it, Killebrew was known for being friendly and quiet.

If you’re coming up with an all-time Mt. Rushmore on Minnesota Twins, you better include Killebrew. Still, he is the all-time franchise leader in Home Runs, Runs Batted In, and Games Played, including second all-time in Runs. The late Killebrews #3 jersey and other Hall of Fame players he played with, such as Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, and Jim Kaat are retired.

References:

  1. Harmon Killebrew Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/killeha01.shtml
  2. Harmon Killebrew via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmon_Killebrew#