Harmon Killebrew - RIP

[JediKooter]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=capress-bbo_obit_killebrew-6874178

[molson]

RIP Idaho's greatest athlete!

[Chief Rum]

As someone who never really got to see him play, but know of him for his accomplishments, I remain confused at the relative lack of "name rep" Killebrew had after he retired, despite the power he displayed. His power numbers were right up there with and/or beyond those of more well known players of his era like Frank Robinson, Willie McCovey, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, and so forth, but he always seemed like the forgotten guy. When I was a kid, I used to think of him as "that #5 guy", meaning the #5 guy on the HR list before steroids blew the list up (Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Robinson, Killebrew).

Here's to hoping he'll get more recognition now that he's gone.

[molson]

As someone who never really got to see him play, but know of him for his accomplishments, I remain confused at the relative lack of "name rep" Killebrew had after he retired, despite the power he displayed. His power numbers were right up there with and/or beyond those of more well known players of his era like Frank Robinson, Willie McCovey, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, and so forth, but he always seemed like the forgotten guy. When I was a kid, I used to think of him as "that #5 guy", meaning the #5 guy on the HR list before steroids blew the list up (Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Robinson, Killebrew).

Here's to hoping he'll get more recognition now that he's gone.

It's not too different than now - Minnesota was baseball Siberia. Had Killebrew been a Yankee, he would have been a better role model version of Mickey Mantle.

[ISiddiqui]

molson has likely hit upon it. Markets matter in terms of relative popularity (for the most part - every once in a while there is a George Brett or something that disrupts things).

[Ksyrup]

If you combine the market with the crappy teams he played on, it shouldn't surprise anyone. George Brett was popular because (a) he made a run at .400 and (b) the Royals were contenders during the bulk of his career.

[Sweed]

RIP Harmon.

As to how big his name was when he played and after retirement I may not have the best perspective. I grew up in Twins country, NW Iowa, and Killebrew was huge in an era of listening to most games on radio and probably only seeing a game on tv only 1 or 2 times a year until we finally got cable in 1971 and were able to see ~50 games on a Rochester, Minn. station.

I started paying attention to baseball in 1969 so "saw" the last few good years Harmon had and then a pretty quick decline starting in 1973. At the time I would never consider McCovey's name to be mentioned in the same sentence. Too me the top players were Mays, Aaron, Killebrew in that order. Keep in mind this opinion was not based on any statistical study, we're talking about an 8-9 year old boy. It would be interesting to hear what someone else my age thought or heard about Killebrew back in the '60's to early '70's (that grew up in Chicago, New York, Boston, SF, or LA).

As for team quality the Twins did have some good years in the '60s up 'til 1970. One WS, two division titles (first two years of division play), and a few 2nd place finishes before division play. Maybe not great year in and year out but overall pretty respectable.