COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — For a place that every baseball player wants to get to, Cooperstown, NY is an awfully challenging destination.
The host town for Baseball's Hall of Fame has a population of just 2,000 and only has one stoplight. Let's just say there is no international airport in Cooperstown, and making the trip usually involves a combination of flying to Albany, Syracuse, or one of the two New York City airports, then grabbing a train, bus or cab.
For Twins legend Kent Hrbek, that just didn't sound like a good option. He refused to miss seeing his hero Tony Oliva get inducted into the hall, but getting on a plane didn't sound like the ticket.
"I've seen the whole United States from an airplane while playing ball, right? All the cities and stuff that I've been to and this and that, I've never got to see any of the area around it," Hrbek explained to KARE 11's Randy Shaver. "And I thought this would be a good way to do it."
This... was climbing aboard a 42-foot RV with his girlfriend Kristin and her dog Pixie, and rolling out of the Twin Cities on a 1,329-mile journey to baseball's promised land. The map took them through Galesburg, IL to Dayton, OH, then on to Erie, PA before arriving at a campground outside of Cooperstown.
The road trip was not without stumbles, including being so sticker-shocked after filling the RV tanks with fuel that Hrbek forgot to put the gas cap back on. He describes a good Samaritan driving up alongside them and frantically waving at the back of the RV. Hrbek looked in the mirror and saw fuel spewing out all over the road.
Pictures shared with Randy, however, reflect a good old fashioned American road adventure, albeit a bit more comfortable than packing up the old family station wagon. We’re talking leather couches, a full kitchen and Kent’s trusty coffee maker. Bottom line for Hrbek, he was going to get here... any way he had to.
"I mean, Here's my idol when I was a kid, my hitting coach and a great friend, who is family and everything... to see him come out here, I said "We gotta go... I'm going.""
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