Harmon Killebrew offers touching lesson on dying with grace

• Reprints

Harmon Killebrew (hugging the Twins’ Michael Cuddyer) has given up his fight against cancer. | Ann Heisenfelt~AP

Updated: June 16, 2011 12:33AM

I always have wondered about the metaphors we use when confronting death. We ‘‘fight,’’ disease, ‘‘battle’’ injuries and go to ‘‘war’’ against impending demise.

The foe wants us, and even if he’s wearing a black hood and carrying a scythe, we’re throwing punches and firing every shot.

But when does the battle become nonsensical, even demeaning?

After all, death’s record, according to the Population Reference Bureau, is approximately 110 trillion-and-0, with 6.9 billion matches ongoing. The Washington Generals have a better chance against the Harlem Globetrotters than we do against the Grim Reaper.

So I read with interest 74-year-old Hall of Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew’s recent statement that his ‘‘continued battle with esophageal cancer is coming to an end.’’

By that, he meant he no longer was going to undergo treatment for the disease, which was diagnosed in December and soon will kill him. Killebrew, who ranks 11th on the all-time home-run list with 573, will enter hospice care, take medication for pain and let the cancer that his doctors have called incurable run its course.

‘‘I am very comfortable taking this next step and experiencing the compassionate care that hospice provides,’’ he said in his statement. ‘‘I look forward to spending my final days in comfort and peace with [wife] Nita by my side.’’

I look forward to .  .  .

So different. So wise.

This is a man who always gave his best, who hit 40 homers or more in eight seasons and once had a
520-foot blast. If he has met his match, so be it.

Maybe we all could learn from Killebrew’s exit. Maybe it’s not raising the white flag but lowering the party banner.

◆ THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS are out of the NBA playoffs, Kobe Bryant is one year older and Phil Jackson, the coach with the most championships ever, allegedly is retiring.

Dynasties, even short ones, come and go. But have you seen an uglier fade-out than the Lakers’ final minutes against the Dallas Mavericks?

With victory out of reach, Lakers forward — and Khloe Kardashian arm candy — Lamar Odom dipped his shoulder and cheap-shotted Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki out near the three-point line. Odom was thrown out of the game for the foul.

Shortly after that, Lakers center Andrew Bynum cheap-shotted tiny Mavs guard J.J. Barea with an elbow to the ribs that sent Barea flying and could have injured him seriously. Bynum instantly was ejected, then took off his jersey as he left the court. The NBA fined Bynum $25,000 and suspended him for the first five games of next season for his sad display.

So this is Peacemaker Phil’s final image as a coach? The man who talks about warriors winning with dignity and losing with civility gets a send-off that contains neither?

I feel certain Jackson will ponder coaching again. And when he does, he should remember all the sports legacies that have been tarnished at the end. This was a bad way to go out, for sure, but it could be a lot worse the next time.

◆ FOR THOSE OF YOU who like to see what is going on in big-time college sports, other than Jim Tressel and his lie detector, you might find this interesting.

The Pac-10 Conference recently agreed to a 12-year TV contract with Fox and ESPN that is worth around $8 billion. That’s four times its previous media-rights fees.

The Pac-10, including new members Colorado and Utah, will get approximately $250 million a year (about $21 million per school).

This payout makes the Pac-10 — er, Pac-12 — bigger than any other conference, including the second-place Big Ten, in TV revenue.

So if you were wondering whether men’s college football is a growing income stream, don’t.

And please don’t ask why Colorado and Utah bolted the
Big 12 and Mountain West, respectively, or why they now have natural foes in Washington State and UCLA.

Just stay with the Tressel Watch. It’s cleaner.

◆ I’LL LEAVE YOU with these words from 114-year-old Walter Breuning, the oldest man in the world, spoken last month to an interviewer from Men’s Journal:

‘‘Fear? Actually, there is no fear. So many people are afraid to die, and there’s no use being afraid. You’re born to die — everybody. Eventually, that’s what happens. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad. It depends on what you did during your life.’’