Some people look at America's pastime - the game of baseball - as a religion.
Then, it was only appropriate that a church was the setting for a presentation by one of the biggest names in Minnesota Twins history.
The Traverse des Sioux Library System hosted Harmon Killebrew as the first of three in a "Storytellers" series. And the "Killer" didn't disappoint.
Today's baseball is more than a game, it is a business with big dollar amounts tossed around. Such was not the case in Killebrew's era.
He told the story of how he was signed to his first contract as a 17-year-old Idaho kid, a contract his mother had to sign because he was underage. He inked a three-year deal for $6,000 a year, plus a $4,000-a-year signing bonus.
"Idaho Sen. Herman Welker told Clark Griffith (owner of the Washington Senators) that he thought there was this kid out in Idaho who could save the Senators," Killebrew told from the church's altar. "I think to finally shut Welker up Griffith sent Ossie Bluege out to watch me play."
As the Twins will soon re-learn, weather has a way of getting in the way of a good baseball game; Bluege's visit to Payette, Idaho, was no different. "It was raining, and I said it didn't look like we were going to play that day. Well, the skies cleared and the town's people knew there was a scout there to see me play so they made sure the field would be ready ... they poured gasoline on the field" to dry it out.
In that game, Killebrew didn't disappoint the crowd, or Bluege, by hitting a mammoth home run.
"The next day, Bluege paced off the home run and said it was 470-some feet." That sealed the deal, and Killebrew and his mother signed that "lucrative" deal on June 19, 1954, 10 days shy of his 18th birthday..
His first major league homer would come about a year later on June 24, 1955, when he strolled to the plate in the fifth inning against the Detroit Tigers and Billy Hoeft. "I remember coming to the plate and catcher Frank House tells me, 'Hey kid, we're going to throw you a fastball.' Well, sure enough here comes a fastball and I crushed it. ... as I crossed the plate, House said, 'Hey kid, we're not going to throw you a fastball again'."
Killebrew said the best advice received came from his father, Clayton, when he told his son, "Don't lose your composure; if you do, the other team will see that they can get to you." The younger Killebrew held onto that. "I never got too high when we won, and I never got too low when we lost."
When asked who was the toughest pitcher he ever faced, Killebrew surprised the crowd by saying Stu Miller. "I batted against some great pitchers, but I could never hit against Stu Miller. I think I got two hits in five years against him."
Killebrew said he tried to get scientific to try to crack Miller's delivery: "I decided to count to three. So I saw him wind up and when he let the ball go I counted 1-2-3, and I swung and hit a home run. I only remember getting one other hit against him."
Home runs were aplenty for Killebrew in his 22-year career, all but one of those seasons played for the Washington Senators-Minnesota Twins. He played the 1975 season with the Kansas City Royals.
It was fitting that in that final season, two milestones occurred while the Royals visited the "Old Met" stadium in Bloomington. First, on May 4, his trademark No. 3 Twins jersey was retired before the game. He homered in his first at-bat in the game.
Then when the Royals visited the Met again on Sept. 18, Killebrew hit a home run off of the Twins' Eddie Bane, for the last home run of his career, No. 573. "People asked me why I hit my last home run off of him, and I said, 'Well I didn't know it was going to be my last one.'"
Killebrew's homer total still has him in the top 10 all-time on career home runs, but current Twins' player Jim Thome is the closest active player with 565 home runs (as of April 8). A look at some of the names above Killebrew will remind baseball fans of how the game has changed since the Washington Senators signed a young Idaho man for $6,000 a year.
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Back Roads: Baseball is a religion
Originally published in the April 16, 2010, print edition.
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