Tales from the Minnesota Twins

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 going 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.