I first met Killebrew roughly a dozen years ago, in the earliest days of writing a book that evolved into my Tony Oliva biography. I traveled to Minnesota to interview him and other 1960s Twins at the annual autograph party, held outside the Metrodome each summer. When Killebrew came to Minnesota for an event, he and the Twins booked multiple appearances, keeping the most famous Twin busy throughout his stay.
When I arrived at the Metrodome that July afternoon, I learned that Killebrew was on his way from the airport and I was his first meeting. I was nervous, of course, awaiting someone I worshiped as a boy, but he was welcoming and gracious, and immediately made me feel comfortable. I quickly discovered that he displayed the same manner with nearly everyone.
As we headed to a conference room to talk, he stopped at every cubicle along the way, greeting the person by name, referencing a story they shared or asking how family members were doing. I was witnessing something extraordinary, a warmth that you just don’t see every day, let alone from someone who was about to begin a very hectic run of appearances and obligations.
At the time, the writing project centered on the 1965 Twins club that brought the World Series to Minnesota for the first time. Killebrew gave me a great interview about his years growing up in Idaho, his development into a major leaguer, and his thoughts on the 1965 season. The project became the Oliva bio when Jim Thielman published a great book about the 1965 team soon after, but that interview with Killebrew, among the first I conducted for the book, boosted the confidence of a writer who was uncertain about tackling the demands of writing one.
I interviewed Killebrew twice more before he fell ill with esophageal cancer in 2010. And once more he surprised me with his modest, approachable manner. At the Minnesota Twins Fantasy Camp in Florida, I asked him if he would be willing to sit down with me again during my stay, this time to talk about Oliva. To my surprise, he responded, “How about now?”
I’ve interviewed former and current major leaguers for two decades, and that’s a response I’d never heard before or since. Killebrew wasn’t the only former Twin to make time for me at the camp—a wonderful January experience operated by Stan Dickman—as Bert Blyleven, Dick Stigman, Frank Quilici, Julio Becquer, Lee Stange, Juan Berenguer, Phil Roof, Tom Brunansky, Tim Laudner and many others shared their Tony stories with me.
What all those former Twins and I also share are an understanding and appreciation of what a kind and decent man that Killebrew was. He touched thousands of lives, not only through his charity work but simply how he treated others. He also touched mine in my few moments with him, and that is worth remembering six years after he left us.