Search Results for: killebrew

Book Review: Harmon Killebrew: Ultimate Slugger

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I recently received a review copy of Harmon Killebrew: Ultimate Slugger.  The book was written by Steve Aschburner with a foreword by Jim Thome and published by Triumph Books. Steve Aschburner is a long time sports writer, covering all four major league sports and NCAA basketball.  His primary area of emphasis is NBA basketball, but between this book, and his 2008 work “The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: Minnesota Twins”, it is clear that he has a soft spot for America’s Pastime and the Minnesota Twins. As a Twins fan not old enough to have seen Harmon Killebrew play for the Senators/Twins, nor old enough even to remember him calling games for the Twins on television, reading Ultimate Slugger provided an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with one of the greatest men to ever play professional baseball.  Not only did I learn a lot about Killebrew, but I learned Continue reading Book Review: Harmon Killebrew: Ultimate Slugger→

The Late Great Harmon Killebrew

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For those going to the Twins games during the next three days, you will get a special treat. Starting today, on the main concourse inside gate 34, there will be a display of Harmon Killebrew’s personal memorabilia collection. It may be your last chance to see some of these items – unless you take one of them home! All these items will go up for auction in Kansas City during the All-Star Game on July 10th. It makes me wonder if the auction is actually going to be DURING the game or if the players who are going will miss their chance to get some of the items. I’ll have to check on that… At any rate, YOU will actually have the opportunity to bid on these items as well. There are three different ways you could participate: by Phone at 610-524-0822 Online at www.huntauctions.com  or you could GO Live in person Continue reading The Late Great Harmon Killebrew→

Harmon Killebrew Day

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There are a great many Twins fans heading into downtown to join with others to commemorate the life of Harmon Killebrew. Here’s all the details if you want to join Knuckleballs’ own JimCrikket and the rest. My advice is to get there as early as possible. What: Public memorial When: 7:10 p.m. today (broadcast coverage on FSN will begin at 6:00 pm) Where: Target Field (gates open at 6) Scheduled speakers: MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, Rod Carew, Paul Molitor, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau What fans should know: Event is free and open to everyone. General admission seating. Concession stands will be open. All attendees will receive a commemorative program. Due to the solemnity of the day, Governor Dayton has declared today to be Harmon Killebrew Day here in Minnesota. I thought I would share his declaration here in it’s entirety. Whereas: Minnesota Twins legend and Hall of Continue reading Harmon Killebrew Day→

Celebrate the life of Harmon Killebrew

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  I’m not sure what kind of coincidence comes into play that the Twins are in Arizona on the same day as Gentleman Killer’s funeral but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  It allows Cuddyer, Morneau, Nathan, & Gardenhire to act as pallbearers for Harmon in addition to Molitor, Oliva, Carew & Quilici.  Additionally, Bert Blyleven will be giving the eulogy. I have no idea how this will effect the team as a whole but I’m sure that they are all grateful to be able to pay their respects to his family in person. I was very glad we were able to share the funeral with anyone who was able to watch and our thanks to Kare11 for using an embeddable video code! Here is the video provided by Kare11 that you can watch at your leisure if you were unable to watch. It was Continue reading Celebrate the life of Harmon Killebrew→

The Next Step for Harmon Killebrew

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It breaks our hearts but Harmon Killebrew and the Twins announced this morning that the progression of his illness has now gone beyond the treatment stage. His doctors have informed him that there is nothing more they can do. He’ll be entering hospice care in order to spend his remaining days in the most comfortable way possible with his family. I’m sure all of Twins Territory will share in sending him and his family all the best thoughts, prayers and good wishes we can. There are few players in the history of the game who have contributed to as many generations of their team as The Killer has. We can’t begin to thank him enough, not only for his time on the field as a Minnesota Twin but for all the investments into young (and some not so young) players who have followed him and to the residents of Minnesota and Continue reading The Next Step for Harmon Killebrew→

Book Review: “Game Used: My Life In Stitches with the Minnesota Twins”

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Of all the non-players connected in some manner with the Minnesota Twins over the near-60 years that they’ve been in existence, I’m not sure you could find one more recognizable to Twins fans than Dick Bremer. If you’ve been watching Twins telecasts since 1983, you’ve been watching him on television for some 37 years. But I saw him first. It is possible, if you listened to “Duke in the Dark” on KCLD in St. Cloud several years before his debut in the Twins’ broadcast booth, that you heard him before I did, but I and my fellow long-time Cedar Rapidians had the pleasure of watching Bremer report on sports for WMT-TV (Channel 2) in Cedar Rapids in 1979. During spring training a year ago, I was on the back fields with Twins Daily’s Seth Stohs watching the minor leaguers when Bremer walked up to us and struck up a conversation Continue reading Book Review: “Game Used: My Life In Stitches with the Minnesota Twins”→

Sorting Through the BS

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A whole LOT of sports stuff has been going on over the past week or so. Whether you’re a Twins fan, a Vikings fan, a college football fan or a fan of one a team in one of those sports leagues I don’t really give a crap about like the NBA and NHL, there’s been so much stuff happening, that you could spend almost all day reading stories on every major sports site, just to try to understand all of it. Who has time for that? Well, I do, of course. I have time for pretty much anything. For me it’s just motivation that’s lacking. I just don’t WANT to read all that crap. But I’ve read enough that I’m going to perform a public service and cut through all the bullshit and tell you what you really need to know about the things we care about. So let’s get Continue reading Sorting Through the BS→

Flirting With an Old Addiction

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I did something recently that I hadn’t done in probably 15 years. It used to be a habit. In fact, in retrospect, it may have actually become my very first true habit – something I came to feel I needed. Whether it was a good habit or a bad habit is probably open to debate, depending on one’s perspective. The habit had its roots in my youth. My dad was a baseball coach, so I spent most of my spring and summer playing or watching baseball. I spent a lot of time around the high school players that my dad coached and wanted to do pretty much anything that would make me feel connected to real ballplayers. I turned five years old during the Minnesota Twins’ first season of existence in 1961 and it was at least indirectly because of the way my friends and I followed that team in Continue reading Flirting With an Old Addiction→

Twins First “Game 7”: 48 Years Ago

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It was October 14, 1965. It was Game 7 of the 1965 World Series and the Los Angeles Dodgers sent Sandy Koufax to the mound to face the Minnesota Twins and Jim Kaat. Both pitchers were starting on two days’ rest. That’s right. TWO days’s rest. The two pitchers had faced one another in Game 5 in Los Angeles. Thanks to Jesse Lund of Twinkietown.com, I spent my late afternoon and early evening thoroughly enjoying a walk down memory lane while watching the video below. It’s the 1965 Game 7 in its entirety. Ray Scott, who was one of the voices who brought the Twins in to my room so many nights as a child through the magic of a transistor radio, had the play-by-play of the first four and a half innings and Vin Scully took it from there. Scott returned for the bottom of the ninth as Scully Continue reading Twins First “Game 7”: 48 Years Ago→

GameChat – Angels @ Twins, 7:10pm

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There will be a Moment of Silence before the start of the game tonight to recognize the victims from today’s events at the Boston Marathon. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved. For baseball itself, tonight’s game is “confuse the heck out of everybody night” with the whole team wearing Jackie’s 42. I was always a big supporter of ONE PERSON wearing the number and letting teams figure out however they chose who that player would be…  It’s my personal opinion that having everyone wear really makes it a lot less special. There are a lot of people who will probably disagree with that but as you guys already know, that doesn’t change my opinion one iota.  😉 Anyway, let’s see what happens tonight..  it’s still kind of cold out there folks! LA Angels @ Minnesota Bourjos, CF Mastroianni, CF Trout, LF Mauer, C Pujols, 1B Morneau, Continue reading GameChat – Angels @ Twins, 7:10pm→