On the recordMay 18, 2011
I rise to talk about a Minnesota icon. Minnesotans and baseball fans across this country are celebrating the life of Harmon Killebrew today. We lost the great slugger yesterday. I never met Mr. Killebrew, which is kind of hard for me to believe, because, similar to so many Minnesotans, I felt that I knew him. He was the heart of the Minnesota Twins franchise, not just because of the towering home runs he hit but because, on and off the field, he carried himself with so much dignity and grace and humility. I was 9 years old when the old Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Minnesota Twins. We were so excited to have a major league team in Minnesota, and Killebrew was the heart and the anchor of the franchise, batting cleanup and cracking out 400-foot-plus home runs with his unbelievably powerful swing. By 1965, Killebrew, along with Tony Oliva, Zoilo Versalles, Bob Allison, Earl Battey, Jim Perry, Jim Kaat, and Mudcat Grant unseated the Yankee dynasty and took the American League pennant. I was sitting along the left field line of Metropolitan Stadium the game before the All-Star break that year when Killebrew hit a ninth-inning walk-off homer to beat the Yankees. It was not a typical Killebrew home run. It was a line drive that just shot out of the park into the left field stands, and it sent us into the All-Star break in first place. I, along with lots of Twins fans, believe that was the blow that was the key to that season.…
