Literary birthday (and then some) greetings

May 21, 2011

Minnesota hometown favorite Kent Hrbek turns the big five-oh today. Surprisingly, he was an All-Star just once, finishing second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1982 and MVP voting two years later.

He lent his name to Kent Hrbek’s Tales from the Minnesota Twins Dugout in 2007.

Also born this date (in 1912), Monte Stratton. Unless you’re a cinephile and/or a Jimmy Stewart fan, you may not have heard of this pitcher for the White Sox in the 1930s. He was an All-Star in 1937 and had back to back 15-win seasons(1937-38). Unfortunately, he lost a leg in a hunting accident following the 1938 season. His story was made into one of those inspirational biopics, starring Stewart and (of course), June Allyson as his supportive wife. You can actually watch the whole film via YouTube.

Etc.

Stewart, who was much better at being a ballplayer than Gary Cooper was in The Pride of the Yankees, also portrayed a ballplayer (albeit a fictional one) in Strategic Air Command. But, no, his lead role in The Spirit of St. Louis had nothing to do with the Cardinals.

0Shares

Tagged as: Jimmy Stewart, Kent Hrbek, Minnesota Twins, Monte Stratton

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post:

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();