When Harmon Killebrew's bulging forearms snapped his bat through the strike zone and made full contact, there was nothing else like it in baseball. His home runs were towering blasts that provided Minnesotans with their introduction to major league baseball.

The iconic Twin, known as much for his humble demeanor as his prodigious home runs, died Tuesday morning at his Scottsdale, Ariz., home at the age of 74 after a nearly five-month battle with esophageal cancer.

Killebrew was the face of the Twins for 14 seasons after the franchise moved to Minnesota from Washington, D.C., before the 1961 season. He is 11th on the all-time major league home run list with 573, of which 475 were hit wearing a Twins uniform. He has the eight-highest single-season total in Twins history, was a 13-time All Star and the American League MVP in 1969. And he was the Twins' first Hall of Fame inductee in 1984.

"No individual has ever meant more to the Minnesota Twins organization ... than Harmon Killebrew," said Twins President Dave St. Peter, who credited the Hall of Famer with helping "lay the foundation for the long-term success of the Twins franchise."

Former Twins star Kent Hrbek, born and raised within blocks of the Twins' first home at Metropolitan Stadium, called Killebrew "Paul Bunyan with a uniform on.''

Killebrew became so popular that the street in front of Metropolitan Stadium was named after him, and today is still one of the major roads into the Mall of America. His home runs were such a draw that then-owner Calvin Griffith made the slugger the team's first $100,000 player in 1971.

The flag at Seattle's Safeco Field, site of Tuesday's game against the visiting Twins, flew at half-staff. A moment of silence was observed before the game, and the Twins wore a No. 3 patch on their uniforms, a tribute that will continue throughout this season.

At Target Field, team officials buried a black-and-white photo of Killebrew beneath home plate, and team officials announced preliminary plans for a public memorial service next week, likely on May 26, when the club has an off day.

Killebrew retained strong ties with Minnesota right up to his death, making several appearances in the Twin Cities each year, and since 2006 making an annual trip to the Twins spring training camp.

Killebrew's cancer was diagnosed in the last week of December, and he vowed to do all he could to fight the disease. He made enough progress with chemotherapy and radiation treatments that he was allowed to visit camp in mid-March.

Although noticeably a few pounds lighter, Killebrew moved well and seemed to be his old self. He spoke of attending the home opener on April 8 and returning for his annual charity golf tournament June 29-30, which coincided with his 75th birthday.

Alas, he made neither.

His wife, Nita, and other family members were with him at their home as he died, just four days after he had announced that he was ending his battle with the disease and entering hospice care. Former teammates, including Tony Oliva and Julio Bequer, visited him in Scottsdale over the weekend.

"When you go through something like this, you're not really sure of what to expect," Killebrew said in March. "The thing that's really been an effect on me is how many people have reached out to me. That's one thing I want to say is to thank all of the people who sent cards and letters and e-mails and all of the well-wishes. It's really been overwhelming and special."

Powerful build

Killebrew played in one of the game's golden eras, with the likes of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Mickey Mantle and Frank Robinson. Killebrew's monstrous home runs set him apart even among his future Hall of Fame peers.

He was only about 5-11 but was 220 pounds -- a burly man with strong arms and stronger hands. He shook hands with such force that it would leave the recipient's hand tingling. It was those arms, wrists and hands that gave Killebrew a terrific power stroke. His blasts would sail high into the air and carry and carry until they landed beyond the fence.

"Growing up in Southern California, for some reason my favorite players were Willie Mays, Carl Yazstrzemski and Harmon," Hall of Famer George Brett, a teammate of Killebrew on the 1975 Kansas City Royals, once said. "If Harmon had hit lefthanded, he would have been Babe Ruth. It wasn't just the number of home runs he hit, but how far they went and how high they went. He hit the highest home runs I had ever seen."

Killebrew was born June 29, 1936, in Payette, Idaho. He claimed to have gotten his strength from hustling 10-gallon cans of milk during the summers as a youth.