It must be a tough moment in anyone’s life when they decide it’s time to give up. It isn’t so much the coping with your looming destiny so much as we all know we are mortal and going to die, but it’s the leaving those behind. We all have family, friends, associates that will forever be a bit emptier in the world without us.
And for a Hall-of-Fame baseball player, that world is even bigger. Minnesota Twins great Harmon Killebrew came to the decision that he was no longer going to fight esophageal cancer.
“It is with profound sadness that I share with you that my continued battle with esophageal cancer is coming to an end,” Killebrew said in a statement released by the Baseball Hall of Fame on Friday.
He further said he would spend his final days in hospice care with his wife by his side.
Killebrew made his pro debut with the Washington Senators in June of 1954, and appeared in four games before he ever had an official at-bat, scoring one run. He then appeared as a pinch hitter in two straight games in August and was 0-for-2. In those games, the Senators had an 0-6 record. He started his first game August 23rd and was 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a walk. The Senators won that one 10-3, and Killebrew’s Hall-of-Fame career was off and running.
He was only a .256 career hitter, but is 11th on the all-time home run list with 573 and was the American League MVP in 1969, leading the league with 140 RBI, 49 HRs and 145 walks.
He was a unique character. There has never been another major leaguer with the first name Harmon or the last name Killebrew.
Killebrew was one of a few successful so-called “bonus baby” free agents. The rules were basically said anyone signed to a contract with a bonus exceeding a certain amount of dollars had to go to majors. Sandy Koufax was another successful bonus baby signee. They were basically young high school studs and the rule was trying to prevent teams from paying too much in bonuses, figuring not too many would want a young player wasting time on the bench. And it’s that reason very few worked out…many were signed but so many failed because they never got true minor league seasoning.
Many were also hated by teammates because not only did they waste bench space, they got big bonuses to do so.
Killebrew was hated by few. Most who played with him called him a class act his entire career, so it’s only fitting that now that he’s come to terms with his final days, he departs the same way…classy.
Great post! I almost posted about it earlier today, glad I didn’t. lol