When I was a young boy, my mom used to get me the fantasy baseball magazines that came out from Athlon Sports and publications of that kind, and I’d devour them cover to cover. For a 10- or 11-year-old, I was pretty baseball obsessed.

That actually started around the time I was seven and at my grandma’s house, and we bonded over nightly Twins games as I grew to love the sport more and more over time.

In the magazines I previously referenced, they would publish a chart that showed how many games players saw action in and at what positions.

In fact, I happened to find a 2003 copy of Athlon Sports annual, and it was just as I remembered. This is how the 2002 Twins divvied up playing time across the diamond:

Those charts fascinated me for a long time, as I’d scan them to see if any player had seen action at a position I just couldn’t imagine.

Now as an adult, I have access to Baseball Reference, and with a few easy clicks I can find players who’ve seen action at positions some of us either A. don’t remember or B. couldn’t have envisioned in our wildest dreams.

Such as:

Kent Hrbek – Third Base

When? Aug. 1, 1990 against the California Angels at the Metrodome

This one was really strange. Manager Tom Kelly had an otherwise mostly healthy Gary Gaetti on the bench — trainer Dick Martin said he was perhaps a bit stiff, but otherwise good to go — yet opted to move Hrbek to third base in the ninth inning of what was then an 8-5 game.

The Twins ultimately lost 11-5.

Angels leadoff hitter Luis Polonia led off the inning with an ugly bunt single to third — testing Hrbek right away on the first pitch — and came around to score when Al Newman, who had been playing third base to start the game, couldn’t handle a grounder off the bat of Devon White at short. All told, Hrbek fielded two chances — a grounder off the bat of Bill Schroeder where he got the short out at second base — and then what appears to have been a deflection to short. Baseball Reference has the play scored 3B-SS-1B (SS-3B hole) groundout, which seems to suggest Hrbek deflected it to Newman, who then threw it to Randy Bush at first to retire Kent Anderson.

Kelly said after the game that he probably should have pinch hit Gaetti for Newman in the eighth. Instead, Newman grounded into a double play to end a rally — in what was then a three-run game, remember — as Angels closer Bryan Harvey came in to neutralize the threat.

“But that’s a Catch-22 situation,” Kelly said of bringing in Gaetti in the eighth. “It’s easy to say that now.” That feels like a wholly unsatisfying reason not to bring in Gaetti, and it was openly questioned by a few players in the clubhouse after the game, according to Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Jeff Lenihan.

One player who joked about being bitter that Hrbek getting to play third was star teammate Kirby Puckett. “I’ve always wanted to play there too,” Puckett told Lenihan after the game. “I guess this means (Kelly) likes Herbie more than me. I’m hurt…That bunt (by Polonia) was terrible, but I would have been playing in if he would have put me there. I want my turn.”

He’d get his turn, in due time.

Interestingly enough, 1990 was Gaetti’s final season with the Twins, and after the season, he signed with who else? The California Angels.

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