Harmon Killebrew

One of my favorite baseball stories of all time is about Harmon Killebrew. I've cut & pasted here from a recent mailing I got from the Hall of Fame ... This Wednesday, on June 29, Hall of Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew, who spent all but one of his 22 seasons with the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins, will celebrate his 69th birthday. Born in 1936 in the small town of Payette, Idaho, Killebrew remembers learning the game of baseball at an early age. "My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard," recalled Killebrew last year during Induction Weekend. "Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass'; 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.'" The Killebrews ultimately raised one of baseball's great power hitters, as their son tallied 573 home runs in his career, which ranked fifth all-time at the time of his retirement in 1975. The 11-time All-Star won the American League MVP Award in 1969, when he led the league in home runs, RBI, walks, and on-base percentage.