As has become customary since Target Field opened in 2010, Kent Hrbek roamed around outside the gate that bears his number (14), adjacent to the pub that bears his name, as early-arriving Twins fans gathered to gain entrance to the home opener.
Rand: Kent Hrbek's advice for struggling Twins: 'Forget everything and go out there and play the game'
April 12, 2016 at 6:00AM
On a day more suited for a Big Ten football finale than a baseball opener, Hrbek shook hands with countless fans, posed for pictures with dozens more and fake-threatened bodily harm of at least one White Sox fan.
"I haven't missed one yet. People are good. They're fun. Everyone has a Twins hat on. Everybody is excited. It's opening day," Hrbek said.
It was vintage stuff from a man whose presence on the Minnesota baseball landscape has been near-constant for about four decades going back to his prep days in Bloomington.
Because of Twins fans' affinity for the 1991 World Series and sports fans' general fascination with anniversaries, Hrbek figures to be even more present this season.
It's been 25 years since the Twins and Hrbek won the second of their two world titles, and the organization will honor that anniversary throughout the season.
The Twins didn't exactly start out 2016 looking like they were a threat to add to the organization's trophy case. I asked Hrbek what advice he would give a slumping team like this.
"Advice?" Hrbek bellowed. "Win!"
With the question rephrased a bit, Hrbek offered this: "You just try to forget everything and go out there and play the game. There's nothing you can do about it. There are guys trying too hard. You have a lot of young guys trying a little too hard maybe. That happens. You go through bad spells. They just happened to have a bad spell now."
It's laughable to draw any comparisons between the 1991 team and the 2016 team, but many Twins fans remember the '91 squad actually started the season 2-9.
"Yeah, that's what I hear," Hrbek quipped, obviously wanting to forget that little bit of trivia from an otherwise dream season.
That squad lost two of three at Oakland to start the year, came home and lost two of three to the Angels and then lost five consecutive road games. They rallied quickly with a 7-2 homestand after that, and the season grew from there.
"Paul Molitor, I was just talking to him this morning, and he just shook his head. They looked good in spring. They're just trying a little too hard," Hrbek said. "When they start hitting they're going to score 13 runs one day and everyone will be back on track. They have too good of a ballclub."
Whether he's right about that remains to be seen. At the very least, this slow-starting Twins team has a long way to go to match 1991.
"It feels like yesterday, but the body doesn't feel like you could go out there and do it again," Hrbek said. "That's the bad part."
Fay Vincent, who became an unexpected baseball commissioner in 1989 following the death of A. Bartlett Giamatti and then was forced out three years later by owners intent on a labor confrontation with players, has died. He was 86.
