TTM Stats
- Sent: 9/14/2020 | Received: 10/5/2020 | 21 Days
- ’85 Topps, ’87 Donruss, ’90 Upper Deck, ’93 Upper Deck (plus fee)
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Kent Hrbek is a former first baseman in the major leagues. He played from 1981 to 1994 and spent his entire career with the Minnesota Twins.
Hrbek is a native of Minnesota as he was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Bloomington. The Twins drafted the local boy out of high school in the 17th round of the 1978 MLB Draft. He worked his way up through the minors with some great seasons and debuted on August 24, 1981. He made the team right out of Spring Training the next season and put in a great year only to finish second to Cal Ripken for Rookie of the Year honors.
He made his first and only All-Star Game that season which surprised me a bit when I looked back at his career. But that season was a great year for a bunch of Twins rookies, some of which would stick around to become the backbone of some very successful Twins teams.
As an individual, 1984 and 1988 were some of Hrbek’s best seasons. In 1984 he hit .311 with 27 homers and 107 RBI and finished second in the MVP voting to Willie Hernandez of the Tigers. In 1988 he hit .312 with 25 homers with 76 RBI a year after he earned more MVP votes. But it was also the year after something else important.
1987 was the first of two World Series Championship teams he would be a part of. The Twins only made the postseason twice during Hrbek’s time there but if they made it in, they were winning it all. In 1987 they beat the Cardinals and in 1991 they beat the Braves. Hrbek didn’t hit particularly well in the postseason, but he did have some big hits including a grand slam against the Cardinals in 1987.
Hrbek’s nagging injuries got to be a problem and he eventually retired after the player’s strike in 1994.
The Score on Kent Hrbek – 6.5
While I think Kent has a somewhat crazy style of signature, you can definitely pick it out. That “K” is very obvious and I would say it kind of defines his signature. His last name is sort of bunched up and on top of each other. But he signs with good size and it looks particularly good on that 1987 Donruss card that has a great place to show it off.
Thanks Mr. Hrbek! I’m giving this a 6.5 overall.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.