Friday, May 20, 2011

Box score of the week

No surprise that I've chosen to feature one of many memorable games in the Hall of Fame career of Harmon Killebrew.

---------------------------------------

Courtesy of the Star Tribune:

This is the stuff that legends are made of.

Eight-year-old Jack Guiney, hospitalized in New York for weeks with burns over half of his body, greeted his hero as he strode into the room on May 20, 1964.

It was Harmon Killebrew. The Twins slugger was in town for a two-game series with the Yankees.

Killebrew gave an autographed baseball to Jack, who pulled a ball glove from under his pillow and said, "Would you autograph my glove, too?"

After a little baseball chatter -- "I'm a shortstop," the bandaged boy said -- Killebrew made a deal with the lad: "If you hurry up and get well, the next time I'm in town, I'll take you out to the ball park and you can meet all the fellows."

With the afternoon game near, Killebrew said it was time he headed head to the stadium.

"I'll watch you on television," the blue-eyed, freckle-faced youngster said from his Manhattan hospital bed.

"Maybe I'll hit you a couple," Killebrew responded.

Sure enough, he did just that, starting with a two-run home run in the first inning. The second homer came on his last at-bat, a solo shot in the eighth inning, capping off the Twins' 7-4 victory.



---------------------------------------------

No comments:

Post a Comment