"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Harmon

The best I ever saw play baseball and the nicest man you'd care to meet. If you have half an hour, check out the Home Run Derby between him and Mickey Mantle.

4 comments:

BrianFlash said...

That's the classic right handed swing. So sweet they turned it in to the logo for MLB.

RIP Killer.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

I remember Harm And Kill A Ball from when I was a kid, which is saying something because I didn't give a flip about American League teams, what with me being a Philadelphia boy and all, but Killebrew was such a presence that even I knew about him. Just a great player. Only 74! That just seems so young to me.

He and Charlie Manuel, the Phils' manager, were evidently great friends, and Manuel say he took HK for granted because he was always disappointed when Killebrew didn't homer. That's saying a lot - a guy's so good you expect him to homer every at-bat!

Can't watch the derby - I'm at work.

wildknits said...

I have fond memories of meeting him as a kid standing outside the Met stadium when the players would come in to practice.

This was back in the day when the stadium officials would let us "sneak" in after the 5th inning.

SteveQ said...

G: Harmon frequently talked about Charlie Manuel and always had nice things to say.

What impresses me most about him is that those who played with him said things like, "If we were behind, we knew if we just did our jobs, Harmon would win it for us... and if we lost, the other team just got lucky and we'd get 'em next time."

In the derby, Harmon wins 9-8.