Baseball Great Harmon Killebrew Dies

Photo: Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins in 1962.

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Hall of Fame baseball slugger Harmon Killebrew has died after a long battle with esophageal cancer at age 74.

Killebrew died peacefully Tuesday at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife Nita and their family at his side.

Last week, Killebrew announced that doctors had deemed his cancer incurable and he would no longer fight it, and he entered Hospice care.

The Minnesota Twins slugger was known for his tape-measure home runs. He hit 573 homers during his 22-year career, 11th-most in major league baseball history. Killebrew's eight seasons with 40 or more home runs is tied for second in league history behind only the legendary Babe Ruth.

Killebrew began his pro career at age 18 with the Washington Senators, and in his first full season with the club in 1959 he smashed 42 home runs. When the team moved to Minnesota in 1961, Killebrew – nicknamed Killer – was its first star. He helped power the team to its first World Series appearance in 1965.

He was named the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1969 when he hit 49 home runs, batted in 140 runs and walked 149 times. Those remain Minnesota team records.

Killebrew was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984. In all, he played in 2,435 games with 1,584 runs batted in and an average of .256.

First American Baseball Star in Japan, Wally Kaname Yonamine, Dies at 85

Wally Yonamine, 1951.

First American Baseball Star in Japan, Wally Kaname Yonamine, Dies at 85
Wednesday, 2 March 2011

The first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War Two and changed Japanese baseball forever, has died.

Wally Kaname Yonamine was 85 when he died of prostate cancer earlier this week in his native Hawaii.

Yonamine played professional football for the San Francisco 49rs when an injury forced him to give up the game and turn his talents to baseball.

After several years in the U.S. Pacific Coast League, Yonamine moved to Japan in 1951 and signed with the Yomiuri Giants, the premier Japanese team.

Yonamine shocked the Japanese by introducing the aggressive American-style of play to the more genteel and sedate Japanese game. Fans reacted with boos and rocks and also resented his U.S. heritage.

Yonamine helped lead the Giants to the 1951 championship and other players adopted the American style while teams signed more and more Americans.

Yonamine later became a coach and manager and a member of the Japanese baseball hall of fame.

Baseball Dodgers’ Great Duke Snider Dies At 84

Baseball Dodgers’ Great Duke Snider Dies At 84
Sunday, 27 February 2011

Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Duke Snider of the Los Angeles Dodgers has died in California at the age of 84.

Edwin Donald Snider's 18-year career spanned the Dodgers' final seasons in Brooklyn and the first years after the team moved to Los Angeles. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced Snider's death Sunday on behalf of his family.

A lifetime .295 hitter, Snider hit 407 home runs during his career and was named to the All-Star team eight times. Seven of his All-Star appearances came with Brooklyn, where Snider was known as “The Duke of Flatbush.” He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980.

In the late 1950s, Snider was one of three renowned players patrolling the center fields of New York teams, along with Mickey Mantle of the Yankees and Willie Mays of the Giants. He also was the last surviving member of the Dodgers' so-called “Boys of Summer,” the team that won Brooklyn's only World Series title in 1955.