by Kent Hrbek
Tough guy from Chicago. That’s the Stelly I’ll remember.
The guy who taught me what it takes to be a pro.
THAT’S REALLY ME
I remember the day the Twins told me they were going to put a statue of me at the ballpark. I was like, Are you serious? To have a statue at the park along with guys like Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, and TK, it was humbling as hell. A tremendous honor.
Some nights when I’m at Hrbek’s Pub at the ballpark, I’ll go sit outside and see my statue and think, That’s me. I honestly have to pinch myself.
I think when people look at my statue the best thing about it is it brings back memories of 1987 and 1991. Part of my job as a special assistant with the Twins is shaking hands and visiting with fans at the ballpark. Sometimes team president Dave St. Peter will ask me to visit with fans in a suit.
I was doing that one night right in 2018 after the Twins traded Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar, and a bunch of other guys at the trade deadline, mostly for minor-league prospects. I figured when I got to the suite people were going to be angry and ask me about the trades. I was all prepared with my answers.
There were 10 to 12 couples, and one of the last people I talked to said, “I suppose you’re sick and tired of talking about the Dozier trade.” I said, “You know what, no one has asked me about it.” And that’s the honest truth. Everyone I talked to asked me about ’87 and ’91.
These were people who were in their teens, or younger, when we won it all. I left that night thinking it’s amazing what it’s meant to people, and how much they remember. They still remember every pitch. Heck, they remember more about it than I do.
And I guess that’s the great thing about my statue. I know when people look at that statue, and think about me and my teammates, it makes them happy. So I’m humbled to still be putting a smile on people’s faces all these years later.
JUST LIKE US?
The Twins had four straight seasons of 92-plus losses from 2011 to 2014. Then, in 2015, Miguel Sanó and Byron Buxton—the two guys Twins fans had been told were going to lead a return to the playoffs—broke into the majors and the club went over .500 with an 83–79 record.
The future seemed bright. Sanó and Buxton and other top prospects like Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, and Jorge Polanco appeared to comprise a strong core around which the team could build. Everybody was asking me if they reminded me of our club in the early ’80s. People felt the Twins had a core like we had in 1982 when we—Gaetti, Brunansky, Laudner, Bush, Viola, and I—all broke in together as rookies.
The only problem I saw was that people had heightened expectations regarding the 2015 Twins because they had lived through it with us. It hasn’t quite worked out though. Buxton and Sanó have struggled with injuries and inconsistency, and both of them ended up in the minor leagues in 2018.
Am I still optimistic? The thing that bugs me is that the club had a fire sale at the trade deadline in 2018, getting rid of veterans like Dozier and Escobar. And Joe Mauer, who’s been the face of the franchise for more than a decade, is getting older and announced his retirement in November 2018.
I guess the whole thing has taught us that even though you look good on paper, like the Twins did in 2015, you still have to go out and play the game. Someone tweaks an ankle or hurts his shoulder and what’s on paper changes quite a bit.
The Twins still have talent, although it’s hard to call it young talent now. Kind of like when we were entering the 1987 season. Since we had broken in together in 1982 by losing 102 games, we had been under .500 every season but one through 1986. And that one? We were 81–81 in 1984.
The Star Tribune previewed the 1987 season with a story asking whether this would be the final year for the rookie Class of ’82. Well, we answered that question.
Can the Sanó, Buxton, Rosario core still get it down? I guess we’ll find out a lot about their character. I think it comes down to what kind of person you are, what kind of people are running the show, and if you have a staff that can keep you focused on the goal. That’s one thing I’m most proud of about the teams I played on. We got our asses handed to us the first few years in the big leagues. But we bucked up and got the project done.
We’ll find out in the next few seasons if the current core can follow what we did. I think fans know now that just because we did it doesn’t mean the current Twins are automatically going to do it. The one thing I know is that if they are going to do it, they’re going to have to stick together and show a lot of character.
THE FUTURE
Hey, I’ll be honest: I’m not sure where my future will take me. Other than Target Field, Spearfish, South Dakota, and the Twins Fantasy Camp in Fort Meyers. That you can count on.
I’ve probably spent more time at Target Field the past couple years than I did before. That’s partly because I hate sitting around an empty house. People have asked me if I might go down on the field like some of the other special assistants, guys like Michael Cuddyer. The Twins have asked if I’d be interested, and my response might change now, but I doubt it.
I don’t know probably 95 percent of the guys who play in the league right now. The only guys I know are coaching first base and a few of the other coaches, like Carl Willis, who is now the Cleveland Indians pitching coach. But as far as putting the uniform on, they’ve already got guys like Rod Carew and Tony Oliva as alums. Why do they need me?
But I know I want to continue helping the Twins organization in some way. The Twins have been good to me, and I like to think I’ve been good to them. I know I’ve given them half my knee, part of my shoulders, and a few more body parts. And they gave me the house I’m sitting in today. So I think we’ve been good for each other, and hopefully that continues.
The other thing I’ve really gotten into the last seven years is the Twins Fantasy Camp the second week in January. It’s run by Stan Dickman, and Tim Laudner kept telling me I should attend, and I went seven years ago for the first time and have kept coming back ever since. It’s a chance to catch up with guys like Timmy, Rick Aguilera, Frankie Viola, Gene Larkin, Juan Berenguer, Julio Bécquer, and even Carew. I think we had 16 guys last year.
The camp attracts 110 to 115 guys, and the former players draft eight teams. It’s competitive as hell, and I love it. I think the former players have more fun than the guys attending the camp. Maybe this year I’ll be in good enough shape to play in a Fantasy Camp game. I wanted to last year, but my right knee—my good knee—was so stiff I couldn’t move it. I’d love to do it this year.
I’ve had people ask if I might be interested in another outdoors show like I had, but I don’t think so. I’ve been there, done that. Kind of like putting the uniform on again in an official capacity. Why go back and redo that again?
I’d rather use that time to visit Heidi, who will be a senior at Black Hills State in Spearfish. It helps me to know that if I’m feeling like I don’t want to be alone, I can hop in my car and spend some time with Heidi. Like I said earlier, she’s been my savior in all of this.
All I can promise you is the next chapter in my life is going to be interesting. I really have no idea what the hell I’m going to do.
But then I’ve always been a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy. So I guess nothing has really changed.
Acknowledgments
IT’S BEEN A GREAT RIDE, PLAYING in the big leagues for 14 seasons and winning two World Series championships with my hometown team. I owe a lot of people thanks, more than I can even start to name. But here, in keeping with baseball tradition, is a starting nine:
1. Ed and Tina Hrbek, my older brother Kevin, and younger sister Kerry: Without my parents, I’d have never made it to the major leagues. They were the ones who encouraged me as a youngster, who brought me to the ballparks, watched my games, and took me home afterward. They never pushed me into baseball, but they must have seen that I loved the game and had a gift for playing it. I could have had a terrible time when I learned at age 20 that my dad was goin
g to die of ALS. But my dad told me that summer to stick with baseball, that he had gotten me that far, and it was up to me to take it from there. That allowed me to go on, and I never forgot those words. After my dad died, my mom became my biggest fan and even offered advice from time to time on hitting. She passed away in 2005 after battling cancer. I used to talk to her almost daily, and to this day I miss her terribly. When I come home from a fishing trip, it just doesn’t feel right not giving her a call and telling her about it. I was lucky to have them as parents. I’m lucky to have Kevin and Kerry as my brother and sister, too. They supported me, too, and I’ve never had the feeling that they were ever jealous of the success I had. I know it can be hard to be a brother and sister of a so-called celebrity, but they never let that change our relationship, and I’ll always be thankful to them for that.
2. Jeanie and Heidi Hrbek: They gave me the family I always dreamed of, even though I never dreamed it would end like it did for Jeanie and I. Between the two of them, they gave me a reason to stay on the straight and narrow. I’m a guy who could have gone down a lot of wrong roads had I been single, living in Minneapolis and playing in the big leagues. But that would have gotten real old real quick.
3. Gene and Doris Burns: Jeanie’s mom and dad became my second parents. They became the people who took care of all the things at home when I was off playing baseball. When Heidi was born and I went off to spring training, they were the ones who stayed with Jeanie and helped her make it through those first few weeks. Grandparents are the best.
4. Buster Radebach: I don’t think I could have had a better high school coach at Bloomington Kennedy than Buster. He played minor-league ball in the Red Sox organization and knew more about the game than anybody I’d ever met. I learned that the game should be fun from him and to always remember that it’s a game. But he also taught me about the little ins and outs of the game that I didn’t even know existed—the game within the game. He brought my understanding to a new level, which allowed me to get to the next level of pro ball after leaving Kennedy.
5. Rick Stelmaszek: Yes, I didn’t care much for Stelly when I got stuck with him for a manager as a 19-year-old at Wisconsin Rapids. It’s hard to like a guy as tough and mean as Stelly was those years. Now I know why he did it: He was trying to make me grow up, to get me to the big leagues. I had Stelly as a coach my whole career with the Twins, and he grew on me. He was a constant for me, a guy who could offer tips on hitting and life. He became a friend as much as a coach. I miss him dearly since he passed away.
6. Tom Kelly: TK and I shared the same values for the game. Pretty simple values: respect the game, respect your teammates, give your best. Any player is lucky when he’s able to play for a manager who he can be on the same page with, and that’s what I had. Plus, TK was my mom at the ballpark. I told him that several times. Let’s just say he knew when I had my hand in the cookie jar, and when he gave me that look, I understood what it meant.
7. Ron Simon: I had so much confidence in Ron as my agent that I never had to worry about the business part of the game. Ron’s a native Minnesotan, and he understood how much it meant to me to play for the Twins. But he was crafty enough to make the Twins believe I’d have left if the money wasn’t close. And Ron made certain the Twins were close. He’s made it possible for me to eat McDonalds and buy minnows as often as I want, which is all I ever really wanted from the business side of baseball.
8. Twins fans: They’re simply the best. No fans have ever come alive the way the Twins fans did in 1987. Will anyone ever forget 50,000-plus fans jammed into the Dome for a welcome home after we won at Detroit in the ’87 ALCS? Or the ticker-tape parade? They let me go out and play a game I love, cheering for me, and embracing me. There was a lot of me to embrace, but they did it.
9. The Twins organization: I’m not even going to try to name a single person in the organization, because there are too many who have been so good to me over the years. The Twins gave me a chance as a 21-year-old kid to make the jump from Class A to the big leagues. I think they gave me that shot a little quicker because things weren’t going so well in 1981, and I was a kid from Minnesota who they thought they’d take a gamble on. No one ever told me that, but I’ve always thought that. I probably surprised them with that homer in my first game. I never saw the minors again, and I never played in any other big-league uniform. Some people might think it’s corny when I say it, but that means a lot to me. I can’t thank the Twins enough for all they’ve done for me. The organization remains a part of my everyday life today.
I guess all those Wiffle ball games in the backyards of Bloomington paid off.
What a ride.
Anyone for McDonald’s and a little fishing?
INDEX
50,000 Holes 173
A
Agosto, Juan 50, 182
Aguilera, Rick 21, 120, 123, 135
Albell 136
All-American Sportsman 173
amphetamines 166
Anderson, Alan 116, 120
Anderson, Rick 122
Arizona State University 32
Atherton, Keith 75, 116
Atlanta Braves 140, 141, 143, 144
Austin, Rick 33
B
Baines, Harold 44
Baltimore Orioles 63, 73, 135
Banks, Ernie 156
Baylor, Don 97
Bedrosian, Steve 127, 135, 140
Berenguer, Juan 82, 83, 84
Bloomington Athletic Association 16
Bloomington Kennedy High School 2, 10, 11, 12, 26, 108, 180, 181
Bloomington Lincoln High School 12
Bloomington Little League 9
Blyleven, Bert 79, 80, 89, 93, 94, 116, 117, 120, 156, 181
Boelter, Natalie 101
Boelter, Wade 101, 102, 107
Bonds, Barry 161, 167
Boston Red Sox 90, 121, 122, 180
Bream, Sid 141, 142
Brophy, George 12, 13
Brunansky, Tom 1, 19, 42, 43, 48, 49, 52, 56, 61, 66, 67, 81, 87, 98, 105, 107, 113, 114, 115, 116, 118, 182
Burns, Doris 180
Burns, Gene 23, 24, 180
Bush, Randy 48, 55, 66, 68, 74, 87, 98, 113, 129, 133, 182
Butcher, John 63
Butera, Sal 108
C
California Angels 19, 42, 43, 58, 75, 89, 116, 127, 162
Campanella, Roy 48
Canseco, Jose 165
Carew, Rod 9, 38, 158, 175, 176
Carlson, Brad 27
Carlton, Steve 89, 90
Carter, Joe 64
Casey, Bob 104, 105, 107
Cassidy, Don 122
Castino, Johnny 17, 19, 26, 35, 36, 86, 103
Chance, Dean 10
Chicago Cubs 11, 74, 75
Chicago White Sox 44, 64, 138, 139
Christensen, Jimmy 32
Cincinnati Reds 11, 12, 45
Cleveland Indians 64, 71, 124, 134, 135
Coble, Drew 145
Cooper, Cecil 51
Crowley, Terry 131, 133
Cuddyer, Michael 162
Cutter’s 138
Cy Young Award 65, 158
D
David Letterman Show 90
Davism Chilli 127, 129, 140, 182
Davis, Ron 8, 21, 22, 43, 50, 64, 71, 75, 76, 82, 122
Dayley, Ken 98
Detroit Tigers 31, 51, 90, 93, 94, 97, 104, 121, 150
Domeboys 136, 137
Drummond, Tim 120
Dunn, Jimmy 123, 124
E
Eisenreich, Jim 48, 49
Elizabethton 27, 28, 30, 33
Engle, Dave 19
Erickson, Scott 129, 133, 134, 135
Evans, Dwight 157
F
Faedo, Lenny 51
Felton, Terry 49
Fletchers 101
Florida Marlins 49
Forsch, Bob 98
Frazier, George 37
Frey, Jim 74
G
Gaetti, D
ebby 31, 61, 63
Gaetti, Gary 1, 15, 18, 30, 31, 40, 48, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 64, 65, 66, 67, 74, 81, 87, 93, 95, 103, 104, 113, 122, 127, 135, 157, 161, 182
Gagne, Greg 50, 57, 90, 91, 103, 118, 129, 141
Gant, Ron 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 182
Gantner, Jim 51
Gardenhire, Ron 45, 84, 85, 122, 164, 172
Gardner, Billy 4, 37, 45, 46, 47, 48, 64, 72, 73, 86, 168
Garnett, Kevin 165
Gislason, Eric 171, 172
Gladden, Danny 82, 85, 86, 87, 108, 118, 129, 142, 144, 150
Gold Glove Award 157
Gowdy, Curt 173
Grant, Bud 96
Green Luck 136
Griffin, Alfredo 19
Griffith, Calvin 13, 27, 46, 49, 65, 66, 87
Guiliani, Angelo 12, 13, 66
H
Hall of Fame 2, 38, 155, 156, 157, 167
Hallberg, Shane 31
Harper, Brian 57, 141
Hatcher, Mickey 72
Heaton, Neal 76
Henderson, Rickey 164
Hernández, Willie 65, 158
Herr, Tom 56, 57, 58, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118
Hilgenberg, Wally 172
Hodge, Eddie 64
Homer Hankies 95
Hough, Charlie 40
Houston Astros 117, 118
Howe, Steve 49
Hrbek’s Heidi 137
Hrbek’s Jeanie 137
Hrbek’s Slam 137
Hrbek, Ed 179
Hrbek, Heidi 2, 137, 145, 149, 150, 152, 174, 180
Hrbek, Jeanie 2, 23, 24, 63, 73, 101, 102, 108, 109, 121, 137, 138, 149, 170, 174, 180
Hrbek, Kerry 4, 179, 180
Hrbek, Kevin 4, 179, 180
Hrbek, Tina 179
Hunter, Torii 115, 172
I
Instructional League 14, 17, 19, 25, 26, 27, 35
J
Jackson, Reggie 36, 37
John, Tommy 36, 38
Justice, David 141
K
Kansas City Royals 49, 63, 64
Kelly, Tom 26, 27, 46, 47, 53, 57, 74, 79, 85, 86, 94, 97, 98, 115, 117, 118, 124, 128, 130, 134, 136, 137, 139, 141, 142, 151, 153, 155, 162, 163, 164, 165, 181