Baseball League Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett has died at 45.
I remember fondly as a young teenager when the Twins first got Kirby on the team. He made it exciting to watch, with his wall-scaling in the outfield to stop a home run from the other team. Although he was serious about the sport and “kicked ass and took questions later”, you knew he was a good guy and loved the game.
Before we won the World Series in 1987, I remember that our team was so awesome. We had that towering St. Paul native Dave Winfield (2001 Hall of Fame inductee same time as Puckett) and Bert Blylevin, plus having Kirby lead us again and again to good wins (yay!) with his quick running, awesome hitting (his lifetime batting average of .318 was the highest of any right-handed batter since Joe DiMaggio.) Those last games in the playoffs were ridiculous and when we won, most people could hardly believe it, it was sort of shocking but at the same time everyone was so proud of our team.
Suddenly Twins games were hotter than hot and everyone in school loved him, and the other players. Girls in grades older than me were watching baseball on TV too. It was kinda weird, but when I look back I think of how fun it was to see girls with posters of (mostly of Kirby but the most were of Frank Viola and Kent Hrbeck) pasted up in their lockers.
I remember when Twins Announcer Bob Casey would call out the players before the first pitch and he used to yell out Kirby’s name, real lound and he’d stretch it out, like this: “Kerrrrrrrrrrrrbeeeeeeeee Puck-IT!”. My mom and I would be watching the game while doing dishes after supper and we would snap to attention when Bob called out his name and both agreed that it gave us chills to see him come running out on to the field.
Dad had season passes, and went to many home games with his friend and his friend’s sons. My sis and I stayed at home with Mom and enjoyed it from the toob, though I do recall going to one game in the summer of 1991 when I was in trade school, a bunch of us took a bus out to the game. We were in the nosebleeds section but it was a blast anyway.
That 1991 World Series, I remember still (the Twins vs. Atlanta Braves games the most). I was riveted to the tv watching the last few games and was so exciting and everyone around got caught up in the fever. When we won it was like a happy bomb went off again in the Twin Cities. The Tickertape parade was on TV and I remember our history teacher rolling out the tv and VCR cart from the A/V room so we could watch. Everyone in school was just crazy excited and when I got home my parents were all whooping, too.
Within that short era of time, the Twins were so exciting and Minnesota as a whole, was so proud to wave our Homer Hankies–I mean everyone but everyone had one–if you didn’t you maybe were living under a rock.
I’m sure that many would agree–no, wait. It’s a fact. Kirby was the best thing that ever happened to Minnesota Baseball in a long, long time, and will be missed.