Harmon Killebrew lead the majors in home runs 6/11 seasons from 1959-1969 (the heart of the second dead ball era). During that period the league’s ERA was below 3.50, meanwhile Killebrew was slugging over .500 and getting on base some 37% of the time. Because of his tremendous power numbers, Killebrew was often called “killer.” He played 21 years of his career with the Washington Senators who became the Minnesota Twins in 1961; then went over to KC for one more season in 1975. He was born and raised in Idaho and grew up playing football and baseball, eventually standing at 5 foot 11 inches, weighing in at 213 pounds. By the time of his retirement, he was second on the all-time homer list for the American League, behind Babe Ruth.
He never hit more than .288 in his career, but that wasn’t important, nor his role. During an era when the pitching was so dominant, runs were hard to come by, so to put a run(s) on the board by one swing of the bat 573 times, it is quite special. Although, Harmon never hit many doubles or gotten 160+ hits in a season, he still was quite a player besides the power. 4 times in his 22-year campaign did he lead the AL in walks and 7 times he trotted to first base over 100 plate appearances in a season. This helped his career on base percentage reach 120 points higher (.376) than his batting average (.256). To accomplish that feat is quite impressive, as mostly the league leader is some 80 points higher.
When one takes the bat out of his hand and puts a glove on him, he may not be as brilliant, but he certainly is trust worthy at first base. Killebrew logged 7000+ innings at 1st in his career, and 6000+ at 3rd base. Playing over at 1st base, Killebrew ended with a fielding percentage of .992, and even though his range factor was a little low, he rarely ever made an error. He only committed 10+ errors at first in 3 seasons (under 10 and most of the time one is in the top 5 for less errors made). Overall, Harmon Killebrew was an exceptional leader on the Twins.
Hypothetically, statistically speaking, if a team had 9 clones of Harmon Killebrew in the lineup, the squad would win 114 games in the season (just over 70%). Although the “killer’s” stats don’t jump off the page, considering the toughness of the pitching back in the 60’s, Killebrew is one of the top 10 1st basemen of all-time. If one had to pick a player to hit a home run with the game on the line, the former AL MVP, Killebrew, might just be the guy.
