One of the greats is gone.

We mourn the passing of legendary Minnesota Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew, who succumbed to esophageal cancer on Tuesday. He was 74.

Killebrew graced the pages of the Albert Lea Tribune many times during his 22-year career. the 5-foot-11, 210-pound hitter from Payette, Idaho, still leads the Twins record books for home runs, runs batted in, bases on balls, games played, strikeouts, total bases, slugging percentage, extra base hits, offensive win percentage and several sabermetrics, most notably offensive WAR, a means of measuring offensive output as a whole.

Killebrew passed away at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., with his wife, Nita, and their family at his side.

The Killer truly put baseball in Minnesota on the national map, especially with that fantastic summer of 1965, giving the Twins their first World Series appearance.

The Twins have lost a family member, and, indeed, it seems as though all of Minnesota has lost one, too.