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By Tim Ruzek

Down 12-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Bloomington’s tall first baseman stepped to the plate at Austin’s Marcusen Park.

Kent Hrbek, already drafted by the Minnesota Twins but hitless to that point of the American Legion’s state title game in 1978, then “unleashed a towering drive over the centerfield fence,” the Austin Daily Herald wrote Aug. 15, 1978.

Traveling about 400 feet, “it was one of the longest homers ever hit out of Marcusen,” which opened in 1948.

A 6-4, 205-pound first baseman/pitcher hitting .434, Hrbek hit three homers in the state tourney but lost the MVP award to another future pro baseball player, Terry Steinbach, who went 5-6 with 3 RBI for New Ulm in beating Bloomington for the title.

Both went on to have successful MLB careers – Hrbek with the Minnesota Twins and Steinbach with the Oakland A’s before ending his career with the Twins. Combined, they played in five World Series (winning three) and four All-Star games. Each has been inducted into his original team’s Hall of Fame.

This legendary game at Marcusen, however, almost didn’t happen.

Three weeks earlier, floodwater rose above Marcusen’s outfield fence, including a foot up on the new right-field scoreboard, and several rows into the grandstand.

Austin’s worst-known flood at the time (July 17, 1978) submerged the dugouts, concession stand and restrooms.

It was Austin’s second major flood in 10 days.

A week before Austin was to host the 53rd annual Minnesota State American Legion baseball tournament – last time was in 1959 – Marcusen’s outfield grass had several inches of silt and wet spots. But locals believed Marcusen would be in “ideal shape” barring further rain.

“Marcusen Park had better dry up” or Austin might have to find another site, Herald columnist Don Jones wrote July 29. After a year of planning, making “a change now would be a problem they don’t need.”

On Aug. 2, Marcusen was declared ready but another 10 days would be needed to get it in good shape.

Weather cooperated, and Austin welcomed 10 other teams for the four-day, double-elimination tourney split between Marcusen and an Albert Lea ballpark.

Austin Post 91 Legion’s 10-14 team automatically qualified for state as the host.

An opening banquet at Riverside Arena featured Bill “Moose” Skowron, who talked about his career playing for the New York Yankees in eight World Series and five All-Star games.

Skowron was a legend in Austin, where he played one season in 1950 for the amateur Austin Packers before signing that fall with the Yankees.

Skowron was remembered for also hitting a monster homer at Marcusen. While not clear, it appears this might have happened in an Aug. 24, 1950, game against Albert Lea at Marcusen, when Skowron hit a “400-foot homer over the centerfield fence.”

In 1956, Skowron – also similar to Hrbek – hit a World Series grand slam against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

As a warmup game days before the state tourney, New Ulm – led by the Steinbach brothers Terry and Tom – lost 5-1 to Austin but this powerful team went on to play in the Legion’s national World Series.

Against Bloomington, New Ulm got 17 hits and 12 runs off four pitchers, including Hrbek, who struck out three over nearly three innings but gave up two hits, two walks and four runs.

A high school sophomore, Steinbach was batting .392 and playing second base and shortstop although he was a catcher in the majors.

As for Hrbek’s homer, he referenced it in his “Tales from the Minnesota Twins Dugout” book.

A 1996 Herald article noted his homer grew to “mythical proportions,” with memories of the ball sailing “well past the centerfield fence. The ball apparently hit the front steps of a house, bounced to the street and was later retrieved near the Cedar River.”

That article interviewed Hrbek during an appearance at Marcusen for a Southern Minny Stars game but he didn’t remember much about the homer.

“We were getting our butts kicked when I hit it in the last game of the Legion playoffs,” Hrbek said. “The memories of hitting the home run are kind of overshadowed by us getting beat (12-4) that day.”

During a 1984 visit to speak at Austin’s Elks Youth Sports Banquet, Hrbek, whose fiancée had relatives in Austin, noted the championship game at Marcusen was the last he played without getting paid as that fall he helped the Twins’ team in the Florida Instructional League win a division title.

In 1982, Hrbek was runner-up for MLB’s Rookie of the Year behind future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. He won World Series titles with the Twins in 1987 and 1991, and the team retired Hrbek’s number 14 in 1995.

Despite Hrbek retiring before Steinbach joined the Twins in 1997, the two have been friends. Both lost their father to ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

For three decades, the two have led fundraising for an ALS nonprofit through an annual fishing tournament, winter snowmobile race and bicycle ride.

In 2024, Hrbek signed autographs at a New Ulm ballpark and spoke to The Journal about playing against “the Steinbach boys” in 1978 at Austin.

“I remember that I hit that home run pretty good — they still talk about it,” Hrbek said. “But I hit a home run in Albert Lea the night before that went over the light towers. They never knew where it came down. I just ran around the bases — no one knew where the ball went.”