Kent is a Minnesota native and was born in Minneapolis. He is a graduate of Bloomington, Minnesota’s Kennedy High School, and he continues to call Bloomington home. His major league debut came on August 24, 1981 at Yankee Stadium when had the game winning homerun. Certainly an omen of things to come for the hometown slugger.
In 1982, his official rookie season, he was selected to the American League All-Star team. He finished the season with a .301 batting average, 23 homers and 92 RBIs, which was good enough to place him second in the Rookie of the Year vote to American League and Baltimore Oriole legend, Cal Ripken Jr.
Among his most memorable moments as a Twin came during the 1987 World Championship season. That year he hit a career best 34 homeruns to help the Twins to the American League West championship. He also loomed large in the club’s eventual World Series Championship, when he hit a grand slam in Game 6 as the Twins faced elimination at the hands of the National League Champion Cardinals. In 1991, he again helped the Twins to their second World Championship—this time his defense would prove to be equal to his offensive prowess. Fans outside of Minnesota may remember him best for the play involving Atlanta Brave, Ron Gant in Game 2, when he applied the tag to Gant whose momentum took him off the bag as he returned to first. In Game 7, with the scored tied at 0-0, Herbie executed the very uncommon 3-2-3 bases loaded double play with catcher Brian Harper that extinguished the Braves biggest threat of the game.
Kent played 14 years in the Majors, all with the Twins, and ended is career with an impressive .282 batting average, 293 round trippers and 1,086 RBIs. Kent is an initial class member of the Minnesota Twins “Hall of Fame” when the Twins established it in 2000. His number “14” joined the numbers worn by Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew and Kirby Puckett’s in retirement as a lasting tribute of his contributions to the Twins.
Bats: Left
Throws: Right
Born: May 21, 1960—Minneapolis, MN
Major League Teams:
Minnesota Twins (1981-1994)