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'''Kirby Puckett''' (] ]<sup>1<sup><!--re: birth year, see talk page and http://www.startribune.com/10017/story/289468.html--> – ] ]) was an ] ] in ] who played his entire career with the ] from ] to ]. Puckett led the Twins to ] titles in ] and ], the only two championships for the franchise since their move to Minnesota in 1961. After being forced to retire at age 35 due to loss of vision in one eye from ], he was elected to the ] in ] in his first year of eligibility. He passed away at the age of 45 following a massive ]. '''Kirby Puckett''' (] ]<!--re: birth year, see talk page and http://www.startribune.com/10017/story/289468.html--> – ] ]) was an ] ] in ] who played his entire career with the ] from ] to ]. Puckett led the Twins to ] titles in ] and ], the only two championships for the franchise since their move to Minnesota in 1961. After being forced to retire at age 35 due to loss of vision in one eye from ], he was elected to the ] in ] in his first year of eligibility. He passed away at the age of 45 following a massive ].


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Revision as of 22:42, 7 March 2006

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Kirby Puckett (March 14 1960 – March 6 2006) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career with the Minnesota Twins from 1984 to 1995. Puckett led the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991, the only two championships for the franchise since their move to Minnesota in 1961. After being forced to retire at age 35 due to loss of vision in one eye from glaucoma, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001 in his first year of eligibility. He passed away at the age of 45 following a massive stroke.


Early life

Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois. Unheralded in high school, he showed no signs of being a great player until after he had left the team at Bradley University in 1980. He decided to give baseball a second chance a year later, after catching the eye of scouts while playing recreational ball in Chicago. He moved on to Triton College (in Illinois) and was subsequently drafted by the Twins in the first round of the 1982 baseball draft.

1984-1990

At the time, Puckett was a slap hitter and outstanding defensive center fielder. Puckett produced a .382 batting average in his first minor league season, with Elizabethton (Tennessee) in 1982, and was promoted to the major leagues in less than two years, earning a spot on the Twins roster on May 8, 1984. Called up to replace center fielder Jim Eisenreich, who was suffering from a severe ailment that eventually was revealed to be Tourette's syndrome, Puckett quickly proved himself. On May 8, he became only the 9th player in history to record 4 hits in the first full game of a career, by going 4 for 5 against the California Angels .

He was one of the league's best rookies in 1984, batting .296 and leading all American League center fielders in outfield assists, with 16. He had a similar season in 1985, when he played in every game and batted .288. Coincidentally, in 1985, the song "Centerfield" by John Fogerty was released as a single. The single created an immediate association in Minnesota with the electric performance and humble personality of the team's rapidly rising center fielder.

In his third season, Puckett burst into stardom. It all began in the off-season, when he worked with hitting coach Tony Oliva on driving the ball for distance. Despite his small stature 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m), Puckett had immense strength and the quick wrists of a power hitter. In 1986, he added this to his game, blasting 31 home runs, raising his average to .328 and winning the first of his six Gold Glove Awards for outstanding defensive play.

In 1987, Puckett led the Twins to their first title in the World Series after batting .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI in the regular season. His performance was even more impressive in the seven-game Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals, batting a whopping .357.

The Twins won even more games in 1988, though they finished second in their division to the powerful Oakland Athletics. Puckett had his statistically best season, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, to finish third in the MVP balloting for a second straight season. Template:MLB HoF

He won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, making him the first right-handed batter to win the title in eight years. He continued to play well in 1990, but the Twins slipped to last place in their division.

1991-1995

In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league. Minnesota surged past Oakland in midseason and captured the division title, then upset the favored Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series. Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and six RBI in the playoffs to win MVP honors.

The World Series that followed is considered by many to be the most exciting ever. Both the Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never been done before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two and had to win to stay alive. Puckett helped to hold off a late Atlanta rally with a leaping catch off the outfield wall that stole a sure double by Ron Gant. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic walk-off home run off Charlie Leibrandt to keep his team alive. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph, are always included in video highlights of Puckett's career, often accompanied by CBS Sports commentator Jack Buck's words, "And we'll see you tomorrow night!" The next night, Puckett's Twins won 1-0 in 10 innings for their second World Series title.

The Twins contended for one more season and then began to slip, but Puckett never did. In 1994, he won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs in just 108 games, and he was having another brilliant season in 1995 before having his jaw broken by a Dennis Martínez fastball in late September.

Retirement

He recovered fully and returned to the Twins for spring training in 1996. On March 28, after tattooing the Grapefruit League for a .360 average, he woke up unable to see out of his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma, and several surgeries in the months to come were unable to save his vision in the eye. On July 12, Puckett announced his retirement from baseball at age 36. His lifetime batting average of .318 was the highest of any right-handed batter since Joe DiMaggio.

Awards and accolades

Puckett appeared in 10 straight All-Star Games and was named the MVP of the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore. The Twins retired his number 34 in 1997, and in 2001 he became the third youngest individual ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, going in at age 41 in his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he ranked Number 86 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Puckett had been well admired throughout his career and for some years after. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality, charity work, community involvement, healthy image, good rapport with the media, and nice-guy attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. In 1993 he received the Branch Rickey Award for his community service .

Controversy

Puckett became the subject of controversy in the years before his death. Puckett was arrested and charged with groping a woman in a bar restroom on September 5 2002. He was acquitted.

In the March 17, 2003 edition of Sports Illustrated, columnist Frank Deford penned a piece entitled "The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett" that documented Puckett's many indiscretions and contrasted his private image with the much-revered public image he maintained prior to his arrest. A companion of many years to Puckett commented once that when Puckett couldn't play baseball anymore, "he started to become full of himself and very abusive." He was alleged to have begun to perform lewd acts in public, such as going to a fancy shopping center, parking there, then opening his car door and stepping out and urinating in plain view of other people. Because of mounting controversy in Minnesota, Puckett moved to Arizona in the winter of 2003.

Death

On the morning of March 5 2006, Kirby Puckett suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He underwent emergency surgery that day to relieve pressure on his brain; the surgery failed, and his former teammates and coaches were notified the following morning. He died in Phoenix of complications from the stroke at approximately 5:30 PM Mountain Standard Time (6:30 Central), shortly after being disconnected from life support , just 8 days away from his 46th birthday. Puckett died at the second-youngest age (behind Lou Gehrig) of any Hall of Famer inducted while living.

Puckett is survived by a son, Kirby Jr., and a daughter, Catherine. At the time of his death he was engaged to remarry, with an expected wedding date in June.

The Puckett family has issued a statement about Kirby's death .

Quotes

  • "I was told I would never make it because I'm too short. Well, I'm still too short, but I've got 10 All-Star games, two World Series championships, and I'm a very happy and contented guy. It doesn't matter what your height is, it's what's in your heart." -- at his 1996 retirement press conference.
  • "Don't take anything for granted, because tomorrow is not promised to any of us."
  • "Kirby Puckett's going to be all right. Don't worry about me. I'll show up, and I'll have a smile on my face. The only thing I won't have is this uniform on. But you guys can have the memories of what I did when I did have it on."

Trivia

Footnote

External links

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