Sports Illustrated magazine cover (1982-07-05) - “BEST OF THE WORST” (Kent Hrbek)
Posted by Rhubarb_Runner on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 5:30 am
[contributed by: Rhubarb_Runner]
Sports Illustrated magazine cover - July 5, 1982
"BEST OF THE WORST"
"Rookie Sensation Kent Hrbek of the Terrible Twins"
photographed by Ronald C. Modra
article by Steve Wulf
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This 1982 SI's cover story is titled "Local Boy Makes Good; Local Team, Bad" and is found on pages 24-27: Kent Hrbek is the best rookie hitter in years, but his team, the Minnesota Twins, has run up the worst record in the major leagues. Articles/photos feature Ron Washington finally in the majors at age 30, Brunansky's power, the "new" Metrodome, and Ron Davis ('nuf said there).
Additional articles of note include:
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Spain, England, and Brazil shine in round 1 of the World Cup
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Steve Scott, Mary Decker Tabb, and Alberto Salazar establish American records in Oslo
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JoAnne Carner, LPGA's top golfer
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the Henley regatta
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Tony Conigliaro fights back from a heart attack and lapsing into a coma
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Personal notes:
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What a treat to long suffering Twins fans, getting this SI as the lead-up to the All-Star Game. Hrbek got a lot of write-in votes.
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No mention of that other 1982 rookie slacker, Cal Ripken. I wonder how their stats stacked up during the remainder of the season, particularly when following when this issue was published? I was upset with the ROY winner going to Cal, but history has dulled that feeling that bit.
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Calvin Griffith in article: "I don't mind being called a dinosaur. The dinosaurs were very strong people, er, things."
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I can't complain with Ripken getting the award. Hrbek didn't hit that much better in 1982, and Ripken played a more demanding position (third and short, and playing them well) for twenty more games.
Wow, only one-all star game for Hrbek? Bo-hunk.
Dig those retro baby blue unis.
same here. I wish the Twins would bust those out a couple times a year.
Every home Friday game for Toronto, they bust out thier baby blues
Unless it's a radical redesign, I vote no. The stripes on those things are hideous.
Said it before and I'll say it again, this is the best use of baby blue.
One thing that bugs me about the new use of retro baby blue: Teams use it for home games when it was always a road uniform.
KC has a nice baby blue jersey that they pair with white pants at home. (Although I saw they used their Royal "Royals" alt in Yankee Stadium, so they could wear it on the road, too).
Toronto wears retro-style road baby blues at home, but I think they have their standard helmets and coaches' jackets, which makes it even worse.
I know they do it because it's the home fans that want to see it, but it just seems silly. So, if the Twins want to do it, I say do it on the road, or at least get red helmets. But I'm just not that enamored with it.
"No mention of that other 1982 rookie slacker, Cal Ripken. I wonder how their stats stacked up during the remainder of the season, particularly when following when this issue was published? I was upset with the ROY winner going to Cal, but history has dulled that feeling that bit."
Hrbek 1st half .332 .389 .575 17 HR
Ripken 1st half .269 .313 .471 11 HR
Hrbek 2nd half .263 .331 .375 6 HR
Ripken 2nd half .259 .321 .478 17 HR
Hrbek total .301 .363 .485 23 HR
Ripken total .264 .317 .475 28 HR
Look at that dropoff for Hrbie. If he had kept up his first half pace he would have won the ROY pretty easily.
That's kind of how I remembered it. Hrbek had a lock on it at AS break. Even so, the vote could have gone either way, but you tend to favor the player finishing hot, and there's nothing wrong with losing to Cal.
East Coast Media Bias. He wuz robbed.
actually, I think there is something to that. But I agree with bodly. what really killed Hrby was the power outage in the second half. If he'd hit 30 HRs...
I find in it interesting and instructive to compare Hrby with Don Mattingly, he of the 6 consecutive AS game appearances in the mid-1980s.
282/367/481 128 (OPS+) Hrbek career
307/358/471 127 (OPS+) Mattingly career
They each played 14 seasons. Hrby had 7137 PA, Mattingly 7721. Hrby had 293 HR, Mattingly 222. Hrby 312 doubles, Mattingly 442.
Mattingly had a run of 4 straight seasons where he was a superior hitter (OPS+ of 156, 156, 161, 146 during 1984-87), whereas Hrby had more sustained excellence, but not as high a peak. Mattingly's rep lived off that peak production for a long time.
And Donny was winning all the fielding Grammies, too. Perhaps, Hrbek's greatest injustice. (Other than his diet...)
yep. My shady memory sez Hrby was a darned good defensive first baseman. Baseball Prospectus sez he was 44 FRAA for his career, compared to Mattingly's 40.