September 18, 1975: Harmon Killebrew hits his 573rd career home run

Harmon Killebrew was the face of the Minnesota Twins during the team’s first 14 years in the Twin Cities. He hit 475 home runs as a member of the Twins, 244 of which came at Metropolitan Stadium.1 On this day, Killebrew was making his final appearance in Minnesota, wearing an unfamiliar Kansas City Royals uniform. Killebrew had hoped he would be an everyday player with the Royals, but he was relegated to serving as a designated hitter against left-handed pitching, leaving him unsure he would return for the 1976 season.2 “It’s been a long season,” Killebrew said. “I can’t tell you right now if I’ll be playing another year.”

Killebrew’s departure from the Twins was not what one would expect for a player with the legacy of being the franchise’s most prolific power hitter. After two injury-plagued seasons (1973 and 1974), the Twins offered Killebrew a position as a player-coach or manager of the Triple-A Tacoma Twins. Feeling he was not yet done playing, Killebrew rejected the offer and signed a free-agent contract with the Royals. That spring, longtime teammate and former Twins left-hander Jim Kaat quipped, “The Cardinals made a vice president out of [Stan] Musial and the Twins wanted to send you to Triple-A.”3

The Royals entered the September 18 game against the Royals with a record of 84-67, eight games behind the three-time defending World Series champion Oakland Athletics in the AL West. The Twins were 71-77, 19½ games off the pace and playing out the string.

Twenty-five-year-old right-hander Doug Bird started for the Royals. He was making his third consecutive start after 47 appearances out of the bullpen. He entered the game with a record of 9-6 and a 3.39 earned-run average. He was opposed by 5-foot-9-inch left-hander Eddie Bane. The Twins’ number-one pick in the 1973 amateur draft was making his second start after being recalled from Triple-A Tacoma, where he had gone 15-11 with a 4.03 ERA. He was 1-0 with a 5.87 ERA with the Twins.

A couple of late-morning showers passed through the Twin Cities, contributing to the sparse turnout of 3,201 for the Thursday matinee. The temperature was 67 degrees under mostly cloudy skies when Bane delivered the game’s first pitch to Royals center fielder Amos Otis. The temperature felt even cooler with the 20-mph wind that was blowing in from right field toward the third-base line. 

Before the seats were even warm, Otis deposited his ninth home run of the year into the left-field stands. Cookie Rojas followed with a single but was thrown out trying to steal second by Twins catcher Glenn Borgmann. Bane then retired George Brett on a fly ball to left and struck out John Mayberry.

Bird retired the first two batters in the bottom of the first before giving up a single to Rod Carew, who took second when right fielder Al Cowens mishandled the ball. Carew’s single, one of his two hits in the game, proved harmless when Tony Oliva lined out to Briggs.

The Royals increased their lead in the second inning. With one out, the 39-year-old Killebrew, who entered the game with a .200 batting average, homered to left to make the score 2-0. It was Killebrew’s 14th home run of the season and 573rd (and final) homer of his Hall of Fame career. With two out Jim Wohlford and Buck Martinez singled to put runners at the corners. Bane struck out Otis to end the inning and retired the Royals in order in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.

Bird held the Twins off the scoreboard until Carew, the new face of the franchise, who was on the way to his fourth consecutive American League batting title, led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run to right field, his 14th of the season.

The score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the sixth. Johnny Briggs reached on an error by Bird and stole second. Dave McKay walked and Danny Thompson moved the runners along with a well-placed sacrifice bunt to third. Jerry Terrell tied the game with a single to right that scored Briggs. When Terrell was caught in a rundown between first and second, McKay tried to score but was thrown out at the plate.4 Borgman walked, moving Terrell to second, and rookie Lyman Bostock singled to put the Twins ahead, 3-2.

The Twins uprising prompted Royals manager Whitey Herzog to replace pitcher Bird with left-handed veteran Ray Sadecki. The 34-year-old, acquired two weeks earlier from Atlanta, was making his fourth appearance for the Royals. After walking Steve Braun to put runners on first and second, Sadecki retired Carew on a groundout to second to end the inning.

The Royals answered in the seventh when Bane turned into “his own worst enemy.”5 Killebrew started the rally by drawing a walk. Rodney Scott ran for him. Freddie Patek reached when Bane fielded his bunt and threw wild to first. Wohlford also bunted and Bane made a wayward throw to third, leaving the bases loaded with no outs. The pair of errors spelled an end to Bane’s afternoon; Twins manager Frank Quilici called on right-hander Bill Campbell to relieve him. Campbell was 4-6 with a 3.99 ERA.

Vada Pinson, pinch-hitting for Martinez, hit a sacrifice liner to left to score Scott with the tying run. Patek scored the go-ahead run when Otis singled to right field. At the end of 6½ innings, the Royals led 4-3.

Sadecki retired the first batter in the bottom of the seventh before being replaced by rookie George Throop. The 6-foot-7-inch right-hander had been called up to the Royals when rosters expanded in September. Throop, who had gone 12-9 as a starter at Triple-A Omaha, was making his fifth relief appearance for the Royals.

The score remained 4-3 as Throop and Campbell navigated their way through varying degrees of trouble from the bottom of the seventh to the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, Throop retired Carew on a fly ball to center and Oliva on a pop fly to short, then struck out Dan Ford to end the game.

The time of the game was 2 hours and 40 minutes. The victory went to Sadecki, whose record improved to 4-3. It was his only victory for the Royals. Throop was credited with the save, his second for the Royals. The loss went to Bane, evening his record at 1-1.

Killebrew finished the season with a .199 batting average, 14 home runs, and 44 runs batted in. At the end of the season, the up-and-coming Royals released Killebrew, who at the time ranked fifth in career home runs. On March 3, 1976, the slugger formally announced his retirement.6

After Killebrew’s death in 2011, Twins President David St. Peter summarized what he meant to the Twin Cities:

“No individual has ever meant more to the Minnesota Twins organization and millions of fans across Twins Territory than Harmon Killebrew. Harmon will long be remembered as one of the most prolific home run hitters in the history of the game and the leader of a group of players who helped lay the foundation for the long-term success of the Twins franchise and Major League Baseball in the Upper Midwest. However, more importantly, Harmon’s legacy will be the class, dignity, and humility he demonstrated each and every day as a Hall of Fame-quality husband, father, friend, teammate, and man.”7

Metropolitan Stadium was demolished in January 1985.8 The site became the location of the gigantic Mall of America. Along the south side of the mall runs Killebrew Drive, and a red chair was bolted along a wall marking the approximate spot where Killebrew’s 520-foot home run in 1967 landed.

It was only appropriate that Killebrew’s final home run came at Metropolitan Stadium.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN197509180.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B09180MIN1975.htm

Notes

1 Killebrew hit two home runs at Metropolitan Stadium for the Royals. He hit the first was on May 4, 1976, the day on which the Twins retired his number 3. The second was in this game, the final game he played at Metropolitan Stadium.

2 Patrick Reusse, “Noncommittal on 1976: Killebrew Stings Twins,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, September 17, 1975: 20.

3 Joseph Wancho, “Harmon Killebrew,” SABR BioProject.

4 Del Black, “Royals Win Sloppy Game,” Kansas City (Missouri) Times, September 19, 1975: 40.

5 Black.

6 “Killebrew Retires to Do TV,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 4, 1976: 35.

7 “MLB: Quotes About the Death of Twins Great Harmon Killebrew,” Associated Press, May 17, 2011. Retrieved from legacy.com/obituaries/name/harmon-killebrew-obituary?pid=178604108.

8 “Metropolitan Stadium,” Retrieved from ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/metropolitan-stadium/.