Thread: Your Favorite #14 memory

To countdown the days til pitchers and catchers report, we're going to list the Twins with those numbers (thanks to this awesome list) and let you can reminisce about one of theM. So who is the poster boy for day #14....

Pedro Ramos, 1961
Sam Mele, 1961-67 (Manager)
Danny Monzon, 1972-73
Glenn Borgmann, 1974-79
Pete Mackanin, 1980-81
Kent Hrbek, 1982-94

Sam Mele was a hell of a manager and turned the Twins into contenders, but I need to go with my hometown boy Kent Hrbek. He gets credit because he is the only time I correlate "Hometown" and "Bloomington". I didn't move to Bloomington until 6th grade, and that was from Minneapolis, which is where I live now and from which I plan to never leave. Usually that's my hometown. Except when I can claim Herbie.

Has to Kent Hrbek. Most of here are probably not old enough to remember much of the other guys.

However, it's hard to argue against a guy that was part of two WS and the epic T-Rex tag.

Is it Hrbek's terrific rookie season? Was it the Game 6 grand slam? Was it pulling Ron Gant off of first base? Was it creating a divot at the old-timer's game at Target Field?

How could it not be pulling Ron Gant off 1st? It's just so Hrbek. I still laugh about that ... in front of my Braves fan friends ... they don't laugh about it; I just laugh more. Heh, and any time he stole a base, which wasn't often, but always memorable.

Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

Is it Hrbek's terrific rookie season? Was it the Game 6 grand slam? Was it pulling Ron Gant off of first base? Was it creating a divot at the old-timer's game at Target Field?

I would say all of the above.

He's definitely a Twins great eventhough not a HoF type of player. There are just guys from that era of the Twins that will always give me the "good old days" feeling. Gaetti, Gagne, and Bruno are all players like that to a lesser degree as well.

Best Hrbek moment was when we didn't have to see him play anymore.

Settle down. It's just a game. And it's not being a jerk enjoying the things that go your way. Sheesh. Find a Braves forum if this makes you upset.

Hrbek,is there really another choice? The Gant play was an all time classic for it's significance and in the way Hrbek just ran off the field as if it was just another routine play at first.

Originally Posted by biggentleben

Best Hrbek moment was when we didn't have to see him play anymore.

Sore loser....

I prefer the idiosyncrasies. Like "No Smoking In The Metrodome" hand signal or the "fingers walking" signal he's share with Gaetti when people left early.

Originally Posted by biggentleben

Yep, because that's funny right there. You remember the time Joe Mauer hit a crucial double that was called foul? That was some funny crap right there, wasn't it?

Taking delight in being an ass is just reaching a whole new level of jerk-dom.

And being an oversensitive Braves fan on a Twins forum is a whole new level of dumb-ass.

caught my first foul ball off the bat of Danny Monzon in 1972 at the Old Met Stadium when i was a sophmore in high school

The day I became a Twins fan Pedro Ramos shut out Whitey Ford and Yankees in the first game ever.

Favorite Hrbek memory - in the late 80s or early 90s the Twins were playing a game that was out of reach (they were behind, I believe). Hrbek was on first. Tom Kelly gave Hrbek the sign to steal. The pitch was fouled off for strike two. Kelley had him continue to try to steal every pitch as the batter fouled off the next several pitches. Hrbek was huffing back to first after every foul. Kelly & the whole Twins dugout were laughing so hard most could not sit on the bench. Announcers were laughing, too.
That is the kind of thing that makes baseball great.

Hrbek's WS grand slam still gives me goosebumps. One of my all time favorite Twins moments.

and I still don't think he pulled Gant off first. Gant's momentum took him past the bag.

Hrbeck and the divot get my vote. Everything else he accomplished/did/didn't do were great, but I've never laughed at a baseball game like that in my life.

I should have added, that my three-year-old son and I were watching it together, and he still refers to it as "the fat man hole."

My favorite Hrbek memory is watching him taking grounders at shortstop during BP and having a great time doing it.

Originally Posted by mcrow

He's definitely a Twins great eventhough not a HoF type of player.

I agree. But in his prime, he was the guy in the lineup, not Puckett or anyone else, that the opposing team would plan around and decide "in a tight situation we'll walk him but we won't let him beat us".

Originally Posted by ashburyjohn

I agree. But in his prime, he was the guy in the lineup, not Puckett or anyone else, that the opposing team would plan around and decide "in a tight situation we'll walk him but we won't let him beat us".

I agree. So many people don't get this. Was Puckett the better player? Yes. But it was Hrbek who was the one you really had to look out for. Too many of his hits left the park.

Originally Posted by ashburyjohn

I agree. But in his prime, he was the guy in the lineup, not Puckett or anyone else, that the opposing team would plan around and decide "in a tight situation we'll walk him but we won't let him beat us".

No doubt about that, but on career as a whole Puckett was better. Hrbek is underrated outside of MN, IMO but still not HoF level.