May 4, 1975: Twins retire Harmon Killebrew’s number before beating Royals

Harmon Killebrew spent 21 seasons starting with the Washington Senators and then the Minnesota Twins after they moved to the Twin Cities. The Twins released him at the end of the 1974 season, and Killebrew signed with the Kansas City Royals. The early May series between the two teams marked the first time that Killebrew appeared at Metropolitan Stadium as a visiting player.

The Twins announced that May 4 would be Harmon Killebrew Day. Yet only 14,805 spectators showed up on a cool, windy afternoon to see Killebrew take the field against his former team. The Twins retired his number 3 during a pregame ceremony, and Twins owner Calvin Griffith presented Killebrew with his old uniform.

Killebrew told the crowd that among his baseball accomplishments “this was one that I was not looking forward to. But I’m grateful to Mr. Griffith, Mr. Ossie Bluege [the scout who signed him to a Washington contract in 1954] and the fans of this area who have been so good to me over the previous 14 years.”1

Twins manager Frank Quilici sent Vic Albury to the mound. Albury had lost his last outing, failing to go past the fourth inning in a 7-2 loss to Texas. The Twins hoped he would rebound from that start and help the team beat the Royals in the final game of the series. A victory would give the Twins a sweep of the series, making up for the three-game sweep they suffered in Kansas City in April.

After Amos Otis hit a one-out double in the first, Albury struck out John Mayberry. Hal McRae hit a groundball to third baseman Eric Soderholm, who threw the ball away. Otis scored and McRae ended up on second.

Killebrew stepped to the plate amid scattered applause from the fans. Then he hit Albury’s first pitch into the left-field bleachers. The ball was measured at 380 feet, which meant that Killebrew didn’t need the shorter fence in order to treat his fans to another powerful home run.2 His homer put the Royals ahead 3-0. Albury continued to struggle, allowing the next two batters to reach base before he got Frank White to pop out for the third out.

Chan Keith, writing in Minneapolis Star, wrote: “When it was suggested at that point to club president Griffith he might also like to retire Albury’s uniform … with Victor still in it, generally jovial Calvin did not laugh.”3

The Royals started Al Fitzmorris. He entered the game with a 3-1 record that included a complete-game victory against the Twins on April 11. After the Twins had beaten the Royals’ other top starters in the first two games of the series, Kansas City manager Jack McKeon was hoping that Fitzmorris would shut down the Twins again to prevent the team from being swept.

But the Twins wasted no time jumping on Fitzmorris in their half of the first. With one out, Sergio Ferrer doubled to right field and Steve Brye singled him home. Fitzmorris walked Bobby Darwin to put Brye in scoring position, and Brye came home when Steve Braun singled. Darwin also scored when left fielder Al Cowens tried to throw him out at third but his throw couldn’t be handled by third baseman George Brett. (The error was charged to Cowens.) When the dust settled and Fitzmorris finally got the third out, the Twins had tied the score.

Albury continued to struggle in the second, walking two of the five batters he faced, but kept the Royals from scoring. But when he walked Killebrew, the first batter he faced in the third, Quilici lifted him and summoned rookie Jim Hughes from the bullpen.

Hughes had lost his first start of the season, on April 20. He had pitched two innings a week earlier in a 7-2 loss to the Texas Rangers. Although Hughes walked two of the five batters he faced in the third to load the bases, the Twins batters couldn’t get the ball out of the infield and Hughes kept them from putting any runs on the scoreboard.

Meanwhile, Fitzmorris continued to struggle. Dan Ford led off the bottom of the second with a single. Rod Carew followed with a double to center field that brought Ford home and gave the Twins a 4-3 lead. Carew moved to third on Ferrer’s second hit of the game. McKeon reached into his bullpen and brought in Dennis Leonard to relieve Fitzmorris. McKeon later said, “Certainly the pitching isn’t very good right now. But that’s the way this game goes. You win some and you lose some. It’ll straighten itself out over a number of games.”4

When Brye flied out to right field against Leonard, Carew tagged up but was thrown out at home by Cowens. At the time, “the hot line into all major league parks spread the news that the next run would make history.”5 Moments later, Carew tested one of the best throwing arms in baseball and failed. If he had been safe, he would have scored baseball’s one millionth run.

“I knew it was the millionth run if I made it,” Carew said later. “But I couldn’t get past the catcher’s shin guards. I didn’t run for that reason, but they hollered from the dugout and I knew I had a chance to be the millionth.”6 Shortly afterward, Major League Baseball announced that Houston Astro Bob Watson had scored the milestone run on Milt May’s three-run homer in San Francisco.

Hughes pitched solid baseball after he took over from Albury. Over the next six innings, he allowed just four Royals hits, two each in the eighth and ninth. All told, nine Royals reached base against Hughes, but the only one who made it past second was Killebrew. The slugger was hit by a pitch in the fifth. Hughes said later that “[the] pitch got away from me. I meant to throw it down and away but I got it up and in.”7 Killebrew advanced to third on two groundouts but was stranded there when White hit a pop fly for the third out.

Hughes faced Killebrew twice more in the game and struck him out both times. Killebrew looked at three curveballs in the seventh and never even swung his bat. Hughes repeated his strategy in the ninth, throwing two curveballs before tossing a slider that Killebrew finally swung at and missed.

Hughes said after the game, “In the late innings I was just trying to remember what I’d done with each hitter earlier in the game. I had some luck with the breaking pitch against Harmon so I decided to stay with it.”8

The Twins added two more runs in the fifth inning. With Leonard still on the mound, Eric Soderholm walked. Craig Kusick then hit a 413-foot home run into the left-center-field seats to put the Twins up 6-3.

Those insurance runs would not be needed: Hughes shut down the Royals the rest of the way. Quilici was delighted with his performance, telling reporters after the game, “He was great. He was in trouble a couple of times late in the game, but I’m not going to be too smart and take the guy out of the game when he hasn’t allowed a run.”9 Killebrew also complimented the rookie after the game, saying, “We didn’t exactly wear him out. I thought he had really good stuff.”10

Killebrew left his mark on Metropolitan Stadium when he was with the Twins. His return as a Royal allowed him to do that one more time. His home run made his homecoming memorable for the fans who showed up to see the slugger from Payette, Idaho. Always a winner, Killebrew said, “It will go down as one of my more memorable home runs but like so many that have gone before – it doesn’t mean much when you lose.”11

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I used the Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other material pertinent to this game account.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN196706030.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1967/B06030MIN1967.htm

Notes

1 Tom Briere, “Twins Blast Royals 6-3,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 5, 1975: C1.

2 Briere. In 1975 the Twins installed a fence in front of the regular fence in left field to enhance the frequency of home runs. Many, including Killebrew’s this day, made it into the permanent bleachers.

3 Chan Keith, “No. 3 Retired,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 5, 1975: 26.

4 Brent Kallestad, “Twins Sweep Royals Series Despite Killebrew Homer,” Bemidji (Minnesota) Pioneer, May 5, 1975: 7.

5 Briere.

6 Keith.

7 Keith.

8 Keith.

9 Keith.

10 Keith.

11 Briere.