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| Harmon Killebrew |
This past Tuesday the world lost a baseball legend when former Twins Hall of Famer, Harmon Killebrew died of esophagal cancer at 74 years of age. 21 of his 22 MLB seasons were played in Minnesota and his name is basically synonomous with the Twins organization. That is something that, in the past, was common because players weren't traded or moving around in free agency as much. Nowadays that hardly the case. No small market team is lucky enough to keep a Hall of Fame-caliber player these days because they almost always leave for a bigger market and more money in free agency. In the past there are a handful of small-market teams who have had a player that spent his entire Hall of Fame career with them but that is a dying thing.
The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the great franchises of all time and Stan Musial is the player that everybody thinks of when they think of the Cardinals. Musial spent all 22 of his MLB seasons in St. Louis and put up phenomenal numbers. For those older Cardinal fans he is the face of a proud franchise. For the younger generation of Redbird Nation the name that goes with the team is Albert Pujols. Pujols is in his 11th season and all have been in St. Louis. He has won the Rookie of the Year award, three MVPs, a World Series title and has compiled 415 home runs already. He is the perfect man to join Musial in the fan's mind but there have been talks of him departing St. Louis for more money. To make that talk even worse, many have speculated that he could join the rival Chicago Cubs and, during the Cardinals-Cubs series in Chicago, he was seen hugging Cubs' GM Jim Hendry. Not exactly what the Cardinals fans want to see.
Al Kaline has to be mentioned right along with Killebrew and Musial after he played 22 seasons, all in Detroit. He had 3,007 hits and 399 home runs in his Hall of Fame career and his number 6 is retired forever in Detroit. Kaline played at the same time as Killebrew and both men could hit the ball with the best of them. In Detroit, Kaline is a hero but there may never be another player like him for the Tigers. Those type of players are just hard to come by.
There are several other players like the three mentioned above. Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., George Brett are three others who spent their entire careers in smaller markets. Today there is Pujols in St. Louis, Justin Verlander in Detroit, Todd Helton in Colorado and perhaps Joe Mauer in Minnesota. Derek Jeter and Chipper Jones have spent their entire careers in New York and Atlanta respectively but those are bigger markets who have had several great players. In the Yankees organization Jeter will go down as just another great player along with Dimaggio, Mantle and Ruth. Chipper will not so much be remembered for his individual achievements, but more for the team success he enjoyed in the 90's.
It is sad that money drives players so much these days that they don't show the same loyalty that they used to. A player playing in the same city for his whole career is the rarest thing in sports almost, especially if that city is in a smaller market such as Kansas City or Cleveland. Harmon Killebrew is a legend in Minneapolis and will forever be remembered as arguably the greatest Twins player of all-time.
