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A while back, a few of us (Twins Daily writers and some other unsavories) were talking on Twitter about Kent Hrbek, and how odd it was that in a career that spanned 12 full seasons, during almost all of which he was one of the four or five best first basemen in the American League, he'd made only one All-Star Game, and that in his rookie season of 1982. Seth quickly found the reason why, in this 1987 article (and it's been written up locally more recently, too). The gist: through July 9, 1987, after years of futility, the Twins were leading the West Division by two games. Yet, when the rosters were announced for the All-Star game to be held in Oakland early the following week, only Kirby Puckett was selected to be among the American League reserves. Hrbek, who was hitting .275 with an eye-popping 23 home runs, didn't make it, and neither did anyone else on the team. "I'm peeved, not just (for) myself, but because it shows nothing for the whole team," Hrbek was quoted as saying. "I accepted not making it when we weren`t doing well. This I don`t accept. If those guys ask me to go again, they can kiss my butt. I played in my first All-Star Game in 1982, and when I played in 1982 it was my last one." Fair enough, I suppose! It's kind of a nice gesture, standing up for one's teammates (and one's pride). What I wondered was: did he have a point? Should he, or any other Twin, have made the team?Might as well deal with first basemen first. Red Sox manager John McNamara ultimately named four players who were primarily first basemen that year to the roster, behind elected starter Don Mattingly--Mark McGwire, Pat Tabler, George Brett and his own man, Dwight Evans--though Brett and Evans were both better known for playing, and spent time in 1987 at, other positions (in the game itself, Dewey played right field, and Brett did not play). At any rate, although I can't confirm this, the article only mentions McGwire and Tabler, so it appears that to the extent they were considered first basemen, McNamara added Evans as an outfielder and Brett sometime after Hrbek had already made clear that he wasn't interested. Hrbek was having a great season: through the end of the first half, he hit .272/.367/.537, with 23 home runs (only six doubles, weirdly), 49 runs and 55 RBI. But McGwire was a no-brainer: on his way to a unanimous Rookie of the Year Award (and playing for the A's, who were 44-40 and only 3 games behind Minnesota, since this seems important to Hrbek), Big Mac ended the first half hitting .294/.383/.692, with an incredible 33 home runs, 59 runs scored and 68 knocked in. There was no way McGwire wasn't going to make the roster. Tabler, though? That's a bit trickier. A 29-year-old career mostly-part-timer for Cleveland you've only heard of if you were really into baseball before the 1990s rolled around, Tabler was having a nice-enough season, batting .308/.368/.451 with 24 doubles. Hrbek was pretty clearly better--even in an age when batting average was valued much more highly than it is now, all else being close enough, managers would generally have preferred a first baseman with 23 homers to one with just seven. The problem, though? Baseball's All-Star Game had, and retains today, the unfortunate rule that every team had to be represented by at least one player, and Cleveland was awful in 1987. They were 31-53 after July 9--21 games behind the East-leading Yankees--and ultimately lost 101. Tabler was their only representative. Yet, he wasn't their only worthy representative--the lineup also featured Joe Carter, who had 20 homers and 19 steals in 20 tries at the break (though he always struggled with getting on base, and his 803 OPS was just okay for a corner outfielder), and then-shortstop Julio Franco, who was hitting .315/.392/.435 with 22 steals and 59 runs (but was a terrible defensive shortstop). But Puckett and Evans, both much better than Carter, were the only outfield reserves McNamara named (it was assuredly a different time), and the reserve shortstops behind Cal Ripken were Tony Fernandez--the reigning and to-be Gold Glove winner at shortstop who was hitting .310/.380/.429 at the break--and Alan Trammell--a should-be Hall of Famer in the middle of a should-be MVP season. (Don't bother looking at Cleveland's pitchers for Tabler alternatives, either--the staff had a 5.59 ERA at the break, with no particular diamonds in the rough.) So, should Hrbek have made it? Personally, with the benefit of a lot more statistical analysis and probably more idle time than McNamara had, I think I would have tried to find a way to get Franco on the team, without supplanting either of the other two reserve shortstops, and added Hrbek instead of Tabler. But that's asking him to spend a lot of time poring over a last-place team, and it's not even clear it's right. McNamara's choices were certainly justifiable, and even if he were to ditch Tabler for another first baseman, it's not totally clear it should have been Hrbek over Eddie Murray (.278/.342/.518, 20 HR, coming off six consecutive All-Star selections) or Wally Joyner (.277/.366/.526, 20 HR, an All-Star and near-Rookie of the Year the season before). Hrbek certainly had a right to feel that he deserved to be there, but it's hard to argue he was clearly wronged--and certainly, no more so than half a dozen guys in each league are every year when these types of hard decisions have to be made. So what about the teammates Hrbek was so concerned about? The whole squad's offensive first half is here, and pitching here (huge thanks to the amazing Baseball-Reference Play Index for making this whole stupid exercise possible). And...it's hard to see much. Tom Brunansky was having a very nice first half, but so were a lot of other outfielders, and as I said, McNamara only took two--swapping out Puckett clearly wouldn't have addressed Hrbek's qualms (and wouldn't have made sense by the numbers), and Evans was third in the AL with a 1001 OPS. Gary Gaetti was having a nice season with 16 homers and was on his way to his second straight Gold Glove,, but his OPS was only around league average, while the only third base reserve selected, Kevin Seitzer, was hitting .305/.387/.419. You could argue for either of them over Brett or, say, Harold Baines -- who was hitting very well, but was almost exclusively a DH at a time when there was no DH at the Midsummer Classic -- but you could no doubt argue for a number of other guys in those spots, too, and you really can't say that either of the Twins clearly belonged. The best pitcher--and probably the Twins' best case for a second representative at all--was Frank Viola, who had thrown 140 innings with a 2.96 ERA, which was great for that high-offense year. (You can look for yourself to see if there are any other pitching candidates, but I sure don't see any. Bert Blyleven had already surrendered 30 home runs, and closer Jeff Reardon sported a 5.32 ERA.) Here, I think, Hrbek would've had a pretty valid complaint: with the exception of game starter Brett Saberhagen, Viola was a better pick than every other All-Star. He had a lower ERA than, in a comparable number of innings to, Jack Morris (who Viola also beat in innings, strikeouts, and walks and homers allowed), Mark Langston, and Mike Witt. None of those, however, can be chalked up to a lack of respect or anti-Twins bias, but to win-loss bias: Viola's record at the break was just 8-6, while each of the other three had at least 11 wins. But. But! There was one more AL All-Star starting pitcher that year: McNamara's own guy, Bruce Hurst. Hurst didn't even have a significant W-L advantage over Viola, as he was just 9-6 at the break, and in about the same number of innings, put up an ERA more than eight-tenths of a run higher than Viola's. There was just no legitimate way to justify Hurst over Viola--that's pure my-guyism. Except: another of McNamara's guys was Roger Clemens, the reigning MVP and Cy Young, who led Hurst in innings, strikeouts, and ERA, but who, like Viola, was 8-6. Maybe McNamara really just did love the win that much? Maybe he picked Hurst over two clearly superior pitchers, including one of his own, because he really thought that one extra win meant something. Which is crazy, but which still isn't a lack of respect for the Twins. So...I don't know. The '87 Twins certainly could have had more than one All-Star, and Hrbek certainly could have been it (though Viola had an even better case). But it's hard to find evidence that it was a lack of respect for the Twins that kept the number at one--some lack of common sense, certainly, in the way of evaluating pitchers and relying on the silly "win" stat, but nothing managers weren't doing every year, and didn't keep doing more or less every year until at least this decade. At any rate, McNamara's my-guyism was nothing compared to the following year, when Twins manager Tom Kelly found a way to get five of his own guys on the team (and certainly would've taken Hrbek too, if he'd been receptive to it). There's just, frankly, kind of disappointingly little here--this just isn't the kind of thing that would normally merit a "kiss my butt," even from such a...free spirit as Hrbek. Without the blowup, Hrbek certainly goes to the All-Star game in 1988 and again in '92 (since Kelly managed it again), and had strong cases in 1990 and '91 as well. For that matter, he may have been a last-minute replacement in '87--if indeed that's what Brett was--if he hadn't shot his mouth off first. So, All-Star caliber player Kent Hrbek made some questionable statements about 29 years ago, and they kept him a one-time All-Star when he could've been at least a three-time, and probably a four- or five-time All-Star. There are greater tragedies in the world. And, hell, the second weekend or so in July is probably prime fishing season somewhere in the world, which may well have been his plan all along. Click here to view the article