Twins Birthdays--May 21

Also posted in wgom.org

Kent Hrbek (1960)

First baseman Kent Allen Hrbek played his entire 14-year major league career, 1981-1994, with the Twins. He was born in Minneapolis, raised in Bloomington, and drafted by Minnesota in the 17th round in 1978. He hit only .203 in 59 at-bats in Elizabethton that year, but improved to .267 with 19 homers in Wisconsin Rapids in 1980. In 1981, he hit .379 with 27 homers at Class A Visalia, and that was as much as the Twins need to see. He came to Minnesota in late August and opened 1982 as the Twins’ regular first baseman, a position he held until he retired after the 1994 season. He made the all-star team in his rookie year of 1982, and would have made a couple of others had he been willing to go. He also finished second to Cal Ripken for Rookie of the Year in 1982, hitting .301/.363/.485 with 23 homers and 92 RBIs that season. While Hrbek was a consistently good player for the Twins, his best year appears to be 1987, when he hit .285 with 34 homers and 90 RBIs and an OPS of .934. He finished 16th in MVP voting that year, which was not his highest finish–that came in 1984, when he hit .311 with 27 home runs and 107 RBIs, finishing second in MVP balloting to Willie Hernandez. Injuries slowed Hrbek toward the end of his career, and he retired after the players’ strike in 1994. Kent Hrbek hit .282/.367/.481 in 6,192 at-bats. He hit 312 doubles, 293 home runs, and drove in 1,086 runs. He was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2000. As you probably know, Kent Hrbek is currently the host of an outdoors program, “Kent Hrbek Outdoors” and is active in raising money for ALS research.