Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508150007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS LENGTH: Long
Maybe if he could have kept that big, soft body healthy, there would have been more baseball in Kent Hrbek. Maybe then No. 14 still would be playing for the Minnesota Twins.
He couldn't do it, though, couldn't maintain the bulky frame that seemed almost to defy rules of physics the way he made it move so deftly. So today, the number Hrbek wore for 13 seasons will be retired, almost one year to the day since it last was worn by the burly hometown hero who made it famous.
There never will be another No. 14 for the Twins, and there never will be another player like Hrbek, who joins Rod Carew, Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew as the only Twins to have their numbers retired.
``Cooperstown is nowhere near my expectations, but I think that if they tell you they're not going to put your number on anybody's back anymore, it's just as special,'' Hrbek said recently, sitting in the Twins' dugout before a game.
``I idolized Rod Carew and Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew. I was those guys in the backyard a zillion times when I was a kid playing whiffle ball, and now my number's going to be hanging next to theirs. That's a pretty touching deal.''
``A pretty touching deal.'' Vintage Hrbek.
Because for all his success and fame and money, Hrbek never lost the simple, straightforward style that made him such a favorite in Minnesota.
For 13 seasons, Hrbek made his beer-league body do wonderful things, helping the Twins to two World Series championships with a blend of power and grace rarely found in baseball.
His grand slam against St. Louis in Game 6 of the '87 Series and his jubilant romp around the bases provided one of the most memorable moments ever for the Twins.
In team history, only Killebrew hit more homers and drove in more runs, and no first baseman fielded the position with more savvy or consistency.
It was a remarkable career for the kid who grew up about a mile away from old Met Stadium. Talking to one of his former teachers at Bloomington Kennedy High School recently, Hrbek was asked if he ever reflects on his storybook career.
``He just asked me the other day if I ever sit back and pinch myself and think about what went on the last 17 years,'' Hrbek said. ``I think about it every day I look in the mirror. I thank everybody for helping me out, and I pat myself on the back a little bit, too.''
In their first season without Hrbek since 1981, the Twins have used 10 players at first base, the position at which Hrbek spent most of his 1,747 games.
He hit 293 home runs and 312 doubles, driving in 1,086 runs. He walked 838 times and had 6,192 official at-bats, 1,749 hits and 2,976 total bases. Each statistic ranks in the top five on Minnesota's all-time lists, and his career .282 batting average is ninth-best in team history.
Today's jersey retirement will culminate a three-day weekend of ceremonies honoring Hrbek.
``I'm excited to see a lot of the old teammates who are coming back,'' he said. ``I think it'll really mean a lot to me when I come back in five years or 10 years and my daughter's old enough to know that her dad played baseball and that's his number up on the wall out there.''
For all his accomplishments, Hrbek was no natural.
The Twins didn't draft him until the 17th round in 1978, the year he graduated from Kennedy, and he struggled for a season in rookie ball before blossoming into a Class A All-Star in his second season. Still in Class A his third season, Hrbek exploded with a .379 average, 27 homers and 111 RBI in 121 games in 1981.
The Twins were on their way to a miserable 58-win season that year when they called up the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Hrbek. In the fifth inning of his first game, he singled off the New York Yankees' Tommy John. Seven innings later, he hit the game-winning home run.
``And, boom,'' said Buster Radebach, Hrbek's high school baseball coach, ``the rest is history.''
Hrbek was an All-Star in 1982, the only time he made the team. He hit at least 20 homers and drove in more than 75 runs every year from 1984-91, and then the injuries started to pile up.
He dislocated his left shoulder in 1989 and missed 53 games. He fractured his left ankle near the end of the 1990 season, then had a disastrous year in 1992. He dislocated both shoulders, and had arthroscopic knee surgery after the season.
In 1993, he had career-lows in average (.242) and doubles (11), although he still hit 25 homers and drove in 83 runs in 123 games. Last year, he announced his retirement a week before the strike began Aug. 12.
``It got to be where one thing was outweighing the other,'' Hrbek said of the injuries that spoiled his final seasons.
Hrbek is passing his first summer out of uniform ``just bummin'.'' Mostly that means fishing, camping, golfing, cutting the grass and visiting the Metrodome.
The activity has helped keep his weight steady around 270, but he worries what might happen when winter comes.
He says he is happy with his decision to retire, but he still seems to miss the game. You can hear it in his voice and see it in the wistful way he watches his former teammates take batting practice.
How did all those years and all those good times slip away so quickly?
``You have to quit sometime, and I didn't want to be a guy who would be hanging around,'' Hrbek said. ``I wanted to be able to do stuff after I was done.''
Although Hrbek is missed in the clubhouse and the lineup, Twins third baseman Scott Leius said it wasn't tough to see Hrbek retire ``because you know he's happy with the choice he made.''
``He went out on the terms I think everybody wants to go out on.''
by CNB