Kirby Puckett, Dead at Age 44

[hussker]

http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10103000/10103720.jpg


R.I.P.

Just passed away from the stroke he sufferred. What a good amn.

It was a pleasure to watch a true man whio loved the sport and brought class to it.

We will all miss you...

[Low End Specialist]

RIP awesome baseball player.

[Peter]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BBO_OBIT_PUCKETT?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-03-06-20-17-46

Mar 6, 8:17 PM EST

Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies

By DAVE CAMPBELL
AP Sports Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Kirby Puckett died Monday, a day after the Hall of Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 44.


© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[SoCalSpursFan]

True Hall of Famer....

[Jimcs50]

Twins legend Puckett dead at 44
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Associated Press
Posted: 3 minutes ago



MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Kirby Puckett died Monday, a day after the Hall of Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 44.

Puckett died at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Kimberly Lodge said. He had been in intensive care since having surgery at another hospital following his stroke Sunday morning.

Kirby Puckett was six-time Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. (Henny Ray Abrams / Getty Images)

Puckett carried the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma. His family, friends and former teammates gathered at the hospital throughout Monday.

The hospital said Puckett was given last rites and died in the afternoon.

"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am terribly saddened by the sudden passing of Kirby Puckett," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "He was a Hall of Famer in every sense of the term.

"He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in Minnesota. But he was revered throughout the country and will be remembered wherever the game is played. Kirby was taken from us much too soon - and too quickly," he said.

The buoyant, barrel-shaped Puckett broke into the majors in 1984 and had a career batting average of .318. Glaucoma forced the six-time Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire when he went blind in his right eye.

"This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere," Twins owner Carl Pohlad said.

[Jimcs50]

:depressed


This is horrible.

Only 44 yrs old...tragic.

[Horry For 3!]

That is sad :depressed

[Spurminator]

Man, first his career and now his life cut too short... God Speed Kirby.

[FromWayDowntown]

I still remember Kirby and Hrbie (Kent Hrbek) leading the charge for the surprising 1987 Twins who were just unbeatable at home during those playoffs (and pretty much thereafter in the playoffs). I also recall Bob Costas welching (in part) on a bet he made to name his son Kirby if Puckett won a particular batting title in the mid-80's, before Kirby became a household name.

Kirby had his share of problems off the field, but he brought such joy to so many baseball fans with his exploits on the field. That Game 6 of the 1991 World Series, in which Kirby played such a huge role, might be one of the best games ever if it hadn't been eclipsed immediately by Game 7 of that series.

Terribly sad news; may he rest in peace.

[samikeyp]

That 87 series was one of the most enjoyable. How could you not root for a guy like Puckett?

RIP Brother. :depressed

[timvp]

:depressed

A six-year-old timvp watched every inning of the 1987 world series. Great series and Kirby Puckett was no doubt the guy to root for. Great player. 1991 might be the best world series ever.

The thing I'll always remember about Kirby is how he never blamed Dennis Martinez for ending his career. Martinez hit him in the face in the end of the 1995 season. Kirby never played again ... but he never blamed Martinez and never became a drama queen about his situation. He thanked the game he loved and left with his head held high.

[KEDA]

RIP to one of the best guys out there :(

Godspeed Mr. Puckett

[j-6]

We'll miss you Kirby. Totally agree with the timvp assessment.

[T-Pain]

wow, im shocked. it was so unexpected. we'll miss you kirby.

[Extra Stout]

Kirby had a rough time in retirement. His health went downhill quickly, and his personal life became a wreck. Too sad.

I suppose we'll never know if the damage done by Martinez, which caused Kirby to go blind in one eye, also had something to do with the stroke that killed him.

[tlongII]

Great baseball player, bad person.

[Horry For 3!]

Great baseball player, bad person.
:wtf

[hussker]

Great baseball player, bad person.


Good people do bad things, it does not inherently make them BAD, but thanks for chiming in...

[timvp]

I think it's disgusting how slanted the reporting on Kirby Puckett's death is. You can't read two paragraphs before reading about his "fall from glory".

I'm sure he wasn't the perfect human, but look at the accusers. His ex-wife came out with stories in the divorce trial in which she received a record setting settlement. The other person who came out with stories bashing Puckett was his "mistress". Why they even talk to this ho is beyond me.

Puckett was also found not guilty at his criminal trial. The way it's being reported, you would never know that.

Kirby wasn't a saint but the hatchet job that the media is on is sad.

[timvp]

Puckett made a point of speaking directly to Dennis Martinez. Martinez had brutally (and unintentionally) beaned Puckett with a fastball to the face in his final at bat and as a result had been subject to the scorn of many fans. "I just want to say I love you," Puckett told him. "He didn't do it on purpose. I was hanging out over the plate cheating."

Yeah, horrible guy.

[FromWayDowntown]

I think it's disgusting how slanted the reporting on Kirby Puckett's death is. You can't read two paragraphs before reading about his "fall from glory".

I'm sure he wasn't the perfect human, but look at the accusers. His ex-wife came out with stories in the divorce trial in which she received a record setting settlement. The other person who came out with stories bashing Puckett was his "mistress". Why they even talk to this ho is beyond me.

Puckett was also found not guilty at his criminal trial. The way it's being reported, you would never know that.

Kirby wasn't a saint but the hatchet job that the media is on is sad.

I think most of the reporting has focused on his baseball exploits, but when the extolling of Kirby Puckett has extended to "he was the greatest guy ever," and "he was a great man," there is a tendency to rein that in and explain that maybe he wasn't all of those things; that he was a human being like the rest of us and that he made some mistakes (some mistakes that others would consider to be pretty serious).

Ultimately, what we know is this: Kirby Puckett was a great baseball player with a great story. He provided baseball fans with a lifetime's worth of entertainment while he played the game.

In his death, those are the things that we (as complete strangers to Puckett except in that professional setting) should spend today talking about. We know little or nothing of what he was or what he did off the field. It is erroneous to call him a bad guy, but it's equally erroneous to call him a wonderful human being. He was a damned fine ball player who was also a human being who died too young. End of story.

[timvp]

I think most of the reporting has focused on his baseball exploits, but when the extolling of Kirby Puckett has extended to "he was the greatest guy ever," and "he was a great man," there is a tendency to rein that in

I don't think that's what happened. When he had his stroke, half of the AP article talked about his fall from glory. There was nothing in there about how wonderful of a guy he was. It's been a straight up hatchet job since the beginnig.

[timvp]

It is erroneous to call him a bad guy, but it's equally erroneous to call him a wonderful human being. He was a damned fine ball player who was also a human being who died too young. End of story.

There aren't too many wonderful human beings out there, especially when they spend their life in the limelight. But rarely does the media highlight all the bad parts of a person's life when the person is in emergency surgery fighting for his life.

[FromWayDowntown]

I don't think that's what happened. When he had his stroke, half of the AP article talked about his fall from glory. There was nothing in there about how wonderful of a guy he was. It's been a straight up hatchet job since the beginnig.

That's the reporting I've seen since his death, at least. The fall from glory would seem to be the contrary of statements that he was a wonderful guy.

I'm not advocating that Kirby Puckett be castigated for his bad acts, but the story would not be complete without the reporting concerning the revelations about his private life that have come to light since his retirement. A story that just talked about how wonderful Kirby Puckett was as a ball player would ignore a lot of factual reporting concerning the other aspects of his life.

If the reports concerning his stroke, surgery, and later his death were going to present as fact the stories concerning his being a great guy, they had to equally present the stories concerning his being a bad guy, too. If editorial writers choose to ignore one or the other, so be it. But factual reporting, it seems to me, doesn't allow ignorance of either.

[timvp]

I'm not saying writers should ignore anything. I just think that it's wrong that the main theme is "Kirby Puckett's fall from grace leads to his death" instead of "Baseball great Kirby Puckett dies too soon".

[sa_butta]

Very sad, an icon in baseball will be sorely missed.

[tlongII]

Puckett has been in trouble regarding violence against women multiple times. We are not talking about one isolated incident. He was not a good guy.

[timvp]

Puckett has been in trouble regarding violence against women multiple times. We are not talking about one isolated incident. He was not a good guy.

You have the ex-wife who came out with the "info" when she was trying to cash in on the divorce. You have a slut who came forward with "info" after Kirby and her no longer were seeing each other. You have criminal charges against Puckett where he was found not guilty.

Again, no saint but I fail to see how he's made out to be the anti-christ.

[FromWayDowntown]

A story timvp would approve of, I suppose:


The world was a better place with Kirby
By Jayson Stark

In the 12 seasons Kirby Puckett brightened the big leagues with his magical presence, 96 different men made it to home plate wearing the uniform of the Minnesota Twins.

But 95 of those men merely played for the Twins.

Kirby Puckett was the Twins.

From the opening text on Kirby Puckett's Hall of Fame plaque: "A proven team leader with an ever-present smile and infectious exuberance."As we think back now on The Puck Years, we kind of remember Jack Morris as a Twin. And Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Frank Viola -- they were all in there somewhere, too.

But they were just best-supporting actor nominees to that 5-foot-8 leading pudgeball who made those Twins go. And made them laugh. And, most of all, made them win.

It was Kirby Puckett's world. Everyone else in town was just grateful he handed out plenty of tickets for the ride.

When you thought of the Twins of the late 1980s and early '90s, the same image seemed to be stuck in your head.

You thought of that little chubmeister center fielder of theirs, making all those plays he had no business making, cranking out 200-hit seasons as though he was Ty Cobb.

Let's just try to name all of the Twins in history who could have knocked on the door of any household in America and been recognized instantly. Maybe Harmon Killebrew. Possibly Rod Carew. Kirby Puckett? Absolutely. Heck, everybody knew Puck -- from South Dakota to the South Bronx.

How could you not? How many Hall of Famers were ever shaped like him? How many players, period, were ever shaped like him?

He was built like a mini-nose guard, flying around the Metrodome on those chunky little legs, with shockingly thick biceps popping out of arms that didn't look much longer than a whisk broom.

But this was a man who transcended his height, his weight and his shape unlike just about any baseball player ever has. From the day he showed up in the big leagues (May 8, 1984) -- and went 4-for-5 off Jim Slaton and Luis Sanchez in a game in Anaheim -- it was obvious there was something special about him.

Because he was so good so fast, and because his career ended before anyone was ready for it to end, Kirby Puckett was one of the few professional athletes in the history of any sport who never had a bad year.

Which made perfect sense for a man who never had a bad day -- not when he could put that uniform on.

His numbers don't tell us nearly enough about the qualities that defined Puckett's greatness. But those numbers still led him straight to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

• There were the four straight 200-hit seasons. Just three men since the 1930s have managed that trick -- Wade Boggs (7), Ichiro Suzuki (5) and Puckett.

• There were those 2,040 hits in his first 10 years in the big leagues. How many other players since 1900 have cranked out that many? That would be none, of course.

• There was that .318 career batting average. Among men who went to the plate as many times as Puckett, that's the highest lifetime average by any right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio.

• There were those 2,304 career hits, more than any other player (in a pretty fair hitter's era) in the 12 seasons Puckett was around. Only Boggs and some guy named Tony Gwynn were within even 200 of him.

• And there were the 1,028 hits in his first five seasons. The only two players in history with more were Ichiro (1,130) and Paul Waner (1,057).

There's no telling, of course, where those numbers were headed if this man had just been able to see out of both eyes for the rest of his life. But Puckett would never want us to reflect on that, just as he never let us feel sorry that a disease as merciless as glaucoma had ever descended on him.

Then there were the awards, the honors, the accolades.

• This guy made 10 All-Star teams in a row.

• He was an LCS MVP, an All-Star Game MVP and easily could have been a World Series MVP.

• And think about this: He finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting seven times in 12 seasons. In other words, he made the top 10 in more years than he didn't make it.

There was no greater treat in the life of any player than to get to spend a moment, however brief, chatting it up with Puck. Because you always walked away with a grin the size of Lake Minnetonka.

Yet Kirby Puckett's presence, impact and aura were larger than any number on any stat sheet, more imposing than any trophy on any shelf. The best thing you can say about him is that his sport was always a lot more fun when he was playing it.

How could you not laugh when you saw his fellow Twins kissing the top of Puckett's bowling ball of a head for good luck?

How could you not smile when you thought of the din inside the Metrodome, every time legendary announcer Bob Casey said the name of "Kiiiiiiir-beeee Puckett?"

What does it tell us about the powerful tug of Puck on every Minnesotan's heart that when the late, great Warren Zevon appeared in Minneapolis during the 1987 season, he rewrote the lyrics of a song called "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" to include the line, "Looks like Kirby Puckett?"

What does it tell us about Puckett's inimitable charisma that when he arrived for a luncheon appearance in Grand Forks, N.D., the winter after the '87 World Series, he discovered there was a minor riot breaking out -- because there were 1,000 more Puck Lovers waiting to see him than there were seats in the hall.

And then there was the time, in 1992, when Puckett won a game for the Twins just by being his usual gregarious Puckian self.

In the top of the 11th inning of a tie game with Toronto, he singled off Blue Jays closer Duane Ward. A moment later, Ward wheeled and fired a quick pickoff attempt that sailed right by startled first baseman John Olerud, kicking off a game-winning four-run inning.

So why, you ask, did Olerud not notice that pickoff throw flying in his direction? He was too busy talking to his good buddy, Kirby Puckett. Why else?

Then again, of course he was. There was no greater treat in the life of any player than to get to spend a moment, however brief, chatting it up with Puck. Because you always walked away with a grin the size of Lake Minnetonka.

So it's hard to compute that we now find ourselves reflecting on the end of Kirby Puckett's life.

His career ended way too abruptly. His final years were far too sad. But his death just feels wrong, and cruel -- no matter how many pounds he'd added, or how much his friends worried about him.

In baseball, there are never enough reasons to smile. And no player of his time ever made us smile more than Kirby Puckett. It's too late to engrave that on his Hall of Fame plaque. But it's never too late to be grateful he passed through our world.

[tlongII]

You have the ex-wife who came out with the "info" when she was trying to cash in on the divorce. You have a slut who came forward with "info" after Kirby and her no longer were seeing each other. You have criminal charges against Puckett where he was found not guilty.

Again, no saint but I fail to see how he's made out to be the anti-christ.


My viewpoint is different than yours. The vast majority of media reports paint him more of a saint. This is ridiculous. The guy was a great ballplayer, but he had serious issues off the field. Most celebrities end up being found "not guilty" of criminal charges as well, although there is usually a large financial settlement involved. In my opinion there is no question that Kirby committed acts of violence against women. It is just my opinion though. Fortunately I'm entitled to it.

[timvp]

A story timvp would approve of, I suppose:


:rolleyes

Are you even reading what I'm writing? I'm saying yes, talk about how fat he got and his alleged troubles, but don't let it overshadow everything else in his life and death.

Is that asking too much?

[timvp]

My viewpoint is different than yours. The vast majority of media reports paint him more of a saint. This is ridiculous. The guy was a great ballplayer, but he had serious issues off the field. Most celebrities end up being found "not guilty" of criminal charges as well, although there is usually a large financial settlement involved. In my opinion there is no question that Kirby committed acts of violence against women. It is just my opinion though. Fortunately I'm entitled to it.

Fair enough.

But for the record, there was no financial settlement concerning his criminal case. If being found not guilty is not enough, then you surely have the right to see him in whatever light you wish.

[FromWayDowntown]

:rolleyes

Are you even reading what I'm writing? I'm saying yes, talk about how fat he got and his alleged troubles, but don't let it overshadow everything else in his life and death.

Is that asking too much?

I am reading what you're writing. I thought Stark did a wonderful job of focusing (in light of Kirby's death) on the positive aspects of his life while mentioning the bad stuff as well. I guess my point in posting it is that not everyone is lambasting Kirby based on the end of his life. Stark barely mentions it, but does at least acknowledge it, making his column, I think, a fair treatment of the immediate aftermath of Kirby's life.

I maintain that there is a difference between stories and columns and that stories concerning the deaths of celebrities who have encountered problems have addressed those issues with a vigor equal to the attention paid to Kirby's off-the-field problems. Perhaps there is a need, in that context, to re-examine editorial policies to address the focus on the bad rather than the good.

And, for the record, I was and remain a huge Kirby Puckett fan -- proud to be such since 1984.

[Peter]

The media is what it is.

The best things to be in life are rich and anonymous.

[tlongII]

Fair enough.

But for the record, there was no financial settlement concerning his criminal case. If being found not guilty is not enough, then you surely have the right to see him in whatever light you wish.

Are you sure about that?

[tlongII]

I encourage anyone to read the following article...

http://www.citypages.com/databank/23/1142/article10822.asp

[timvp]

I encourage anyone to read the following article...

http://www.citypages.com/databank/23/1142/article10822.asp

An ex-wife and an ex-mistress would never lie, especially with money on the line.

Nice find.

[tlongII]

An ex-wife and an ex-mistress would never lie, especially with money on the line.

Nice find.


I thought you read the article. My bad.