[ValKehl]

I met and chatted with Harmon Killebrew at a show in VA roughly 25 years ago. I think the show was put on by Tuff Stuff founder, Ernie White, whom I think was based in Richmond. Anyway, it was during the last hour or two of the show after he had finished his autograph-signing duties and the collecting crowd had thinned when Killebrew, rather than scooting asap as most signers do, began walking up and down the aisles of the show and un-hurriedly chatting with collectors and dealers about anything and everything they wanted to talk about.

Killebrew was extremely gracious and pleasant to chat with, even after I got bold and told him that I originally thought he was a huge waste of $$ to the Wash. Senators I loved when I was a youngster growing up in the DC suburbs. Because of the large $$ amount of his signing bonus, MLB rules at that time required that the Senators keep him on their roster for 2 years (I think it was) rather than let him play in the minors to get needed seasoning and experience. You see, to my Dad, striking out was a Cardinal sin, hence, my Senators heroes were contact-hitters like Pete Runnels, whereas Killebrew struck out a very high % of the time whenever the Senators did give him a chance to play in his early years. I never suspected back then that Killebrew would become a HOFer, much less even a decent MLB player!
Val