Minnesota Twins Hall of Famers on Living Fully After 50

Meet Harmon Killebrew

• Harmon Killebrew, 69, was raised in the farming community of Payette, Idaho. A gifted athlete, he was a high-school All-American football player and had a full scholarship to play quarterback at the University of
  Oregon. He bypassed that opportunity to join the Washington Senators, which, in 1961, moved to
  Minnesota and became the Minnesota Twins.
• Harmon is one of the most prolific athletes in Minnesota history. In his 22-year Major League career, he was
  named an American League All-Star 13 times, he was
  the 1969 American League Most Valuable Player, and a six-time American League home run leader. He ended
  his playing career with 573 home runs, the most in American League history by a right-handed hitter.
• In 1984 Harmon was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the first class inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in 2000.
  In 2005, his hometown of Payette, Idaho, declared it ”Harmon Killebrew Day” the third week of April each year.
• Harmon and his wife Nita operate the Harmon Killebrew Foundation, which aids charities in fundraising, such as Vista Hospice Care Foundation. Harmon and Nita have 9 children and 21 grandchildren. They became great-grandparents in 2005.

Meet Tony Oliva

• Pedro “Tony” Oliva Jr., or “Tony O” as he’s known to generations of Twins fans was born on July 20, 1941 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. He grew up in a family of 10 on a farm in Corralito, Cuba. Tony says Corralito is a bus stop, not a town.
• Tony was signed by the Minnesota Twins in 1961 by late scout Joe Cambria upon a recommendation by Roberto Fernandez, a Cuban outfielder in the Twins minor league system at that time.
• Tony came to the United States as a 19-year-old in 1961 and, due to travel restrictions between Cuba and the United States, he wasn’t able to return to Cuba to see his family until 1970. Two of Tony’s brothers, Reinaldo and Juan Carlos, played for the Cuban National Team.
• The 1964 American League Rookie of the Year, Tony is the only player to win batting titles in his first two seasons and was the winner of three batting titles in his 15-year career. Tony played more seasons for the Minnesota Twins than any player in Twins history. He was named to the American League All-Star team eight times. He hit the first home run ever hit by a designated hitter in 1973 against the Oakland A’s off of pitcher Catfish Hunter.
• In addition to playing for the Twins, Tony has served the team as a hitting instructor, base coach and scout. He is one of the most popular ambassadors for the Minnesota Twins and attracts all generations of fans wherever he visits.
• Tony and his wife Gordette are the proud parents of three children and the proud grandparents of three grandchildren.

Meet Herb Carneal

• At age 82, Herb is broadcasting his 50th season of Major League Baseball.  Herb got his start in broadcasting as a youngster in Richmond, Va.  He and his friends invented a game that combined dice and baseball cards.  They kept their own statistics and league standings, and Herb was the broadcast voice for the dice games.
• Baseball was the connector that brought Herb and the love of his life, his wife Kathy, together.  Kathy passed away in 2000.  She first met Herb after a spring training game when he was an announcer for the Philadelphia A’s.  She became his biggest fan and he became hers.
• Herb’s first full-time radio job came in 1945 at WSYR-FM in Syracuse, N.Y.  His first full-time baseball announcing job was with the Class AAA Springfield Cubs in 1950.  After three years in Springfield, he made it to “The Show,” where he broadcast games for the Philadelphia A’s and Phillies.  In 1957, he joined Ernie Harwell in the booth as a radio announcer with the Baltimore Orioles.
• In 1961, Herb moved to Minnesota to become the CBS-TV voice of the Minnesota Vikings.  Herb joined the WCCO-AM Twins radio team in 1962 and has broadcast every Twins season but that very first.  
• Herb was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996, into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in 2001, into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and into the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in 2004.
• Herb is the proud father of one daughter, proud grandfather to four grandchildren and proud great-grandfather to 2 great-grandchildren.