September 27, 1959: Harmon Killebrew ties Rocky Colavito for AL home-run title on final day

The eyes of the baseball world were focused on the National League pennant race as the 1959 regular season ended on Sunday, September 27. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves, tied for first place, each won their final game, forcing a best-of-three tiebreaker series.1

But there was also a down-to-the-wire contest in the American League, albeit one of an individual nature. Since the end of June, the league’s home-run race had been a two-man battle between Rocky Colavito of the Cleveland Indians and Harmon Killebrew of the Washington Senators.

Colavito had a breakout season in 1958, his third full year with the Indians. The outfielder hit 41 home runs, with 113 RBIs and a .303 batting average. His home-run total was second only to Mickey Mantle’s league-leading 42 homers.2

Killebrew signed with Washington in 1954 as a 17-year-old bonus baby.3 He inherited the Senators’ full-time third-base job after the team traded 12-year starter Eddie Yost to the Detroit Tigers in December of 1958.4

In 1959 Killebrew’s fourth-inning home run in Washington’s Opening Day victory against the Baltimore Orioles was the first of the season in the AL.5 By the end of April, he had three homers, as did Colavito.

Then the fireworks began.

Killebrew hit 15 home runs in May.6 He started on the first day of the month with a two-homer game in Detroit, including the game-winner in the 10th inning. It was his first of five two-homer games that month.

Colavito hit 10 home runs in May, trailing Killebrew 18 to 13 at month’s end. He narrowed the gap in one game by hitting four consecutive home runs against the Orioles in Baltimore on June 10.7  By the end of July, Killebrew had 33 home runs and Colavito 30.8

Two homers in Cleveland’s win against the Yankees on August 25, followed by another one the next day, gave Colavito the lead, 38 to 37. The right-handed sluggers traded blows the next two weeks as Colavito maintained his slim margin, 41 to 40.

Heading into the season’s last weekend, however, the 26-year-old Colavito had not hit a home run in 10 games. Killebrew, 23 years old, had not hit one in 11 games. Both were suffering from their longest homerless streaks of the year.

The seventh-place Kansas City Athletics were in Cleveland for a four-game set. The second-place Indians, eliminated from the pennant race three days earlier, helped the eighth-place Senators’ chances of climbing out of the cellar by beating Kansas City twice in Friday night’s doubleheader. Colavito hit his 42nd home run in the nightcap. Driving in a run in each game, he led the league with 111 RBIs.

Washington couldn’t capitalize on Kansas City’s double defeat, losing to the Boston Red Sox, 10-4, in the first contest of their three-game series at Fenway Park. Killebrew had one single in three at-bats, extending his homerless game streak to 12.

One game behind the Athletics with two to play, Washington lost on Saturday to the Red Sox, 5-4, in 11 innings. Killebrew’s 41st home run, a three-run shot in the fourth, gave the Senators an early lead. Boston’s Jackie Jensen doubled in the ninth, driving in two runs to send the game into extra innings. His two-out solo homer in the 11th ended the contest. Jensen’s three late-inning RBIs gave him a total of 112 for the season, moving him ahead of Colavito.

With the temperature in the low to mid 70s,9 Sunday’s season finale attracted 9,110 spectators to witness what many speculated was Ted Williams’s last game. The 40-year-old Red Sox star was suffering through the worst year of his major-league career, battling age and various ailments.10 Appearing only as a pinch-hitter during September, Williams started the season’s last two games in left field.

But Red Sox fans would not be seeing Jensen, the AL’s reigning MVP. The 32-year-old outfielder had hinted earlier in the season that he was considering retirement. Jensen was asked about his plans after Saturday’s heroics. “It would be a nice way to finish, wouldn’t it?” he said. He decided to skip Sunday’s game and caught a train back to his Nevada home.11

Washington manager Cookie Lavagetto put Killebrew in the leadoff spot for the first time all season, potentially giving him an additional chance to hit a home run.12 He rewarded his manager by hitting a single to start the contest. Bob Allison walked, but Red Sox right-handed starter Jerry Casale (12-8) retired the next three batters.

Washington started 20-year-old rookie Jim Kaat. Making the second start of his career, the left-hander allowed two runs in the bottom of the first. Boston’s first three batters singled, with Williams, hitting in the third spot, driving in Don Buddin with a single. Frank Malzone’s one-out sacrifice fly scored the second run.

The Red Sox added four more runs in the second inning. After a hit batter, a walk, and a sacrifice, Buddin hit a three-run homer into the left-field screen on top of Fenway Park’s “Green Monster” wall.13 Kaat hit the next batter, and Williams doubled, driving in another run. By the end of the inning, Tom McAvoy, making his only major-league appearance, had relieved Kaat, and Boston led, 6-0.

Killebrew doubled in the third with one out. The Senators failed to score after a groundout, a walk, and a popout. Leading off the fourth inning, Washington’s Roy Sievers – the AL’s home-run king two seasons earlier – homered on a 3-and-2-pitch into the left-field screen.14

With one out and none on in the fifth, Killebrew blasted a 2-and-0 pitch over the left-field screen for his 42nd home run.15 Colavito was in the process of going 0-for-4 in Cleveland’s loss to the Athletics, giving Killebrew at least four more innings to possibly take the outright home-run title.16

In the seventh, Killebrew singled off southpaw Frank Baumann, who had relieved Casale to start the sixth.17 In the bottom of the inning Williams came to bat with one out. After singles in his first two at-bats, he had grounded out in the fourth inning. In his final at-bat in the game and possibly his career, Williams popped up to third.

The score remained 6-2, Boston, as the game headed into the ninth inning. Killebrew, with two singles, a double, and a home run in four trips to the plate, came up with one out. Facing Baumann again, he grounded out to short.

Baumann retired the next batter to complete four innings of scoreless relief. Casale received credit for his 13th win, tops on the Boston staff. The win gave the Red Sox (75-79) sole possession of fifth place.18

Kaat, roughed up early, was charged with the second loss of his young career. But Washington’s other three rookie pitchers who followed him (McAvoy, Jack Kralick, and Ralph Lumenti) allowed only one hit over 6 2/3 scoreless innings. Despite finishing last again, the Senators (63-91) posted their highest win total since 1954.19

Williams returned in 1960 to play one more year for the Red Sox. Playing at home on the season’s final day, he hit his 521st career home run in his last at-bat.

Colavito was traded to Detroit in 1960, two days before Opening Day. He never again led the league in home runs. He did lead the league in RBIs in 1965, the year he returned to Cleveland.

The Washington franchise relocated to Minneapolis-St. Paul and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. Killebrew led the AL in home runs five more times after the move. He played 21 years for the Senators/Twins, then spent his final year with the Kansas City Royals in 1975. Fittingly, he hit the 573rd and last home run of his career on September 18, 1975, at Metropolitan Stadium, home of the Twins since the team’s arrival. Killebrew was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984.

Author’s Note

Colavito and Killebrew did meet head-to-head after the season in the original Home Run Derby. Filmed in December of 1959 at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field, episode 5 features the two in an extra-inning battle won by Killebrew, seven home runs to six.20

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Merrick and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Harmon Killebrew, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS195909270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1959/B09270BOS1959.htm

Notes

1 On September 27, the Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, 7-1. The Braves defeated the Philadelphia Phillies at home, 5-2. The next day the Dodgers won the first playoff game, 3-2, in Milwaukee. They won the second playoff game on September 29 in Los Angeles, beating the Braves, 6-5, in 12 innings. The Chicago White Sox clinched their first American League pennant in 40 years on September 22, defeating the second-place Cleveland Indians, 4-2. The Dodgers beat the White Sox in the World Series, four games to two.

2 Colavito finished third in the AL’s 1958 Most Valuable Player voting, behind MVP Jackie Jensen of the Boston Red Sox and Cy Young Award winner Bob Turley of the New York Yankees. Mantle, the MVP in 1956 and 1957, finished fifth despite having the highest WAR (8.7) in the AL.

3 Bob Addie, “Nats Take Over New Role as Power, Inc.,” The Sporting News, May 27, 1959: 3. Killebrew received $30,000 over his first three years, which under the rules in effect at the time required that he be kept on the major-league roster for two years. He played in 47 games for the Senators in 1954 and 1955. From 1956 through 1958 he split time between the minor and major leagues, appearing in a total of 66 games for Washington during those three years.

4 Washington traded Yost, infielder Rocky Bridges, and outfielder Neil Chrisley to Detroit for infielder Reno Bertoia, outfielder Jim Delsing, and infielder Ron Samford on December 6, 1958.

5 Washington and Cincinnati each hosted the opening game for their respective leagues on April 9, with the rest of major-league play beginning the next day. Frank Robinson hit the NL’s first homer of the season in the fourth inning of the Reds’ win against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  

6 Killebrew’s 15 homers in May were the most he hit in any month during his 22-year career.

7 Colavito was the second AL player to perform this feat. Lou Gehrig did it on June 3, 1932, against the Philadelphia Athletics. “Four or More Home Runs in a Single Game,” SABR.org, https://sabr.org/research/article/four-homers-one-game. Accessed September 2025.

8 Bob Allison had 27 home runs at the end of July but hit only three more the rest of the season. Despite his drop in home-run production, he was the AL Rookie of the Year for 1959 (30 homers, 85 RBIs, and a .261 batting average).

9 “Weather Reports Boston and Vicinity,” Boston Globe, September 28, 1959: 28.

10 His .254 batting average in 1959 was the only time he hit below .300, and it was 90 points below his lifetime .344 average.

11 “Jackie Jensen’s Baseball Days May Be Finished,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Morning Union, September 27, 1959: 7. Jensen did decide to retire, but after sitting out the 1960 season he came back to play for the Red Sox in 1961. He then retired again, this time for good. Jensen had a fear of flying, hence his decision to travel by train from Boston to his home in Nevada. 

12 Bob Addie, “Killebrew Hits 42d, Nats Lose Finale,” Washington Post, September 28, 1959: 14.

13 Roger Birtwell, “Sox Take Finale; Casale Gets 13th,” Boston Globe, September 28, 1959: 25.

14 Addie, “Killebrew Hits 42d, Nats Lose Finale.”

15 Addie, “Killebrew Hits 42d, Nats Lose Finale.” Killebrew hadn’t homered off Casale in 14 previous plate appearances that season. Killebrew had managed two singles, a double, and four walks against him prior to this game.

16 The games in Cleveland and Boston both started at 2 P.M. The duration of the Indians’ game was 2 hours and 29 minutes. The Senators’ game took 2 hours and 22 minutes. Colavito’s last at-bat was with one on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth and occured after the Senators game ended. A home run would put him ahead of Killebrew, but he grounded into a game-ending double play.

17 Killebrew crushed lefties in 1959. He had a 1.213 OPS, with 6 home runs in 76 plate appearances. Against right-handed pitchers, his OPS was .827, with 36 home runs in 572 plate appearances.

18 Boston was one game ahead of sixth-place Baltimore before Sunday’s games. The Orioles beat the Yankees, 3-1, in their finale to finish with a 74-80 record.

19 The Senators improved to fifth place in 1960, posting a 73-81 record. While neither McAvoy nor Lumenti pitched again in the major leagues after this game, both Kaat and Kralick became members of the Twins’ starting rotation in 1961. After experiencing another losing season in their first year in Minnesota, the Twins finished second in 1962 with a 91-61 record. They won the pennant in 1965 with 102 wins. Kaat won a career-high 25 games in 1966 and pitched for the Twins until he was traded to the White Sox during the 1973 season. A winner of 283 games during his 25-year career, he joined Killebrew as a Hall of Famer in 2022.

20 Don Zminda, “Home Run Derby: A Tale of Baseball and Hollywood,” The National Pastime (Endless Seasons – Baseball in Southern California), Society for American Baseball Research (2011): 69. In addition to Killebrew, participants included future Hall of Famers Henry Aaron, Ernie Banks, Gil Hodges, Al Kaline, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, and Duke Snider. Killebrew was in four Home Run Derby episodes, beating Colavito and Mantle but losing to Aaron and Ken Boyer. The players received $2,000 for winning a match, $1,000 if they lost, and a $500 bonus if they hit three homers in a row. Killebrew earned $6,500 for his four appearances. His estimated salary for the 1960 season was $20,000. The Colavito/Killebrew episode can be viewed on YouTube at “Home Run Derby, Episode 5, Rocky Colavito vs. Harmon Killebrew,” YouTube video (Stephen’s Baseball Archives,” 32:44, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gPmoRI_X3I (last accessed on August 7, 2025).