Team: Minnesota Twins
Position: First Base / Designated Hitter
Card Year: 1993
Card Maker: Topps
Card Number: 9
I've returned after some time out of town, by picking career Minnesota Twins slugger, Kent Hrbek. It was a lucky pull as I've recently been feeling that the players selected have had far too many vowels in their names. But I digress! This card is from 1993 - almost the very end of Hrbek's career with the Minnesota Twins (He retired after 14 seasons, all with the Twins, in 1994), and while the 1992 season was a bit less productive than the recent previous seasons, he still hit 15 home runs in 112 games. I appreciate the notes on the card that Hrbek 'enjoyed' both 17 and 23 game hitting streaks at points in his career. It's really not enough just to achieve something - you're hoping guys are having a nice time as well.
Hrbek was born and grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota and was drafted by the Twins in the 17th round of the 1978 draft out of Kennedy High School. After a few years in the Twins farm system, Kennedy made 24 game appearances in 1981. In 1982, his true rookie season, Hrbek batted .301 with 23 home runs and 92 RBIs earning his only All Star game appearance and finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting, losing to Cal Ripken Jr. but finishing one place ahead of Wade Boggs.
Hrbek was productive throughout the 80s despite only playing more than 150 games in a season once in his career. In 1984 he was runner up in the American League MVP voting behind World Series Champion Pitcher Willie Hernandez of the Detroit Tigers. While he never again made an All Star game, nor finished high in MVP voting, Hrbek was on both the 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams, with 1987 being his best home run hitting year with 34 in the regular season as well as the year he hit his iconic World Series game six grand slam. Whereas he is known for this play during the 1991 World Series against Atlanta, which if you read the comments is infuriating Braves fans to this day.
Hrbek was often injured throughout his career and retired in the 1994 lockout season at the fairly young age of 34. His number was retired by the Twins in 1995, only the 3rd number retired by the team at the time. As of 2021 he was still employed by the Twins organization in a mostly representative role, and still has his namesake restaurant at Target Field. In April 2025 he suffered a stroke just days after another Twins hero, Tony Oliva also had a stroke. Both Hrbek and Oliva have recovered.
Despite that frightening setback, Kent Hrbek continues to enjoy his retirement from baseball while still being very much a part of the Twins organization. Having learned this much about him, I believe he did really enjoy those 17 and 23 game hitting streaks, among so much else he accomplished in his time with the Twins.
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