Wow. That was my initial reaction when I saw the headline on MLB.com announcing that Kirby Puckett had passed away Monday, one day after suffering a massive stroke. He was 45.
Rather than trying to encapsulate Puckett’s Hall of Fame career or discuss (again) the ugly details of his personal life, I figured I’d post some of the quotes I found about Puckett from various baseball people:
“If we had to lose and if one person basically was the reason…you didn’t mind it being Kirby Puckett. When he made the catch and when he hit the home run (in the 1991 World Series), you could tell the whole thing had turned. His name just seemed to be synonymous with being a superstar. It’s not supposed to happen like this.” -John Smoltz
“There was no player I enjoyed playing against more than Kirby. He brought such joy to the game. He elevated the play of everyone around him.” -Carlton Fisk
“There are a lot of great players in this game, but only one Kirby. It was his character that meant more to his teammates. He brought a great feeling to the clubhouse, the plane, everywhere.” -Rick Aguilera
“This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere. Kirby’s impact on the Twins organization, state of Minnesota and the upper midwest is significant and goes well beyond his role in helping the Twins win two World Championships.” -Twins owner Carl Pohland
“On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am terribly saddened by the sudden passing of Kirby Puckett. 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.” -Bud Selig
FoxSports.com also has a nice photo career retrospective of Kirby’s playing days.
I will say this: Despite all the dirt that was revealed about him following his premature retirement (and, sadly, there was a lot), there haven’t been many players in the history of baseball who were easier to root for than Kirby Puckett. If you liked baseball, you loved watching Puckett play. Period. He was always smiling, always hustling, always playing his ass off. His heroics in the 1991 World Series were legendary and were most likely the main reason he got elected into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot 10 years later. If only more of today’s players played the game the way Kirby did.
His career numbers: .318 / 207 HR / 1,085 RBI / 2,304 hits / 414 doubles / 134 steals. He still stands as the Twins’ franchise leader in hits, doubles, total bases (3,453), at-bats (7,244) and runs (1,071).
I’m stunned. Didn’t you just tell me 20 minutes ago that he had a stroke?
Man, bad news indeed. Though I look at those numbers and wonder: are those really HOF caliber numbers? Probably sacrelige for me to say right now, but if the voters will keep out Sammy Sosa – who, by the way, has not once tested positive for steroids – then how can they vote these numbers in? Here’s Sosa’s stat line:
.274 / 588 HR / 1,575 RBI / 2,304 H (okay, that’s creepy) / 355 doubles / 234 steals
Puckett wins average and doubles, but Sosa ties one and wins the other two by a country mile. Are they really going to keep Sosa out of the Hall?
But I digress. I’m sorry about Kirby. On the field, he always seemed like a standup guy.
It’s a sad day.
In response to Gigi, Puckett is one of the classic cases of stats not telling the whole story. First the man was a winner – he placed great on the biggest stage and won two World Series.
Also, he played defense as well. He did the little things to help his team win. Sosa, on the other hand, was a very selfish player and sometimes a disaster on defense.
Give me either player at the beginning of their careers, and I’ll take Puckett over Sosa any day.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing, G. Puckett led the Twins to two rings, nearly single-handedly winning it for them in 1991, and won six Gold Gloves. Plus, his career ended prematurely.
I agree with G — give me Puckett over Sammy any day of the week. Granted, Kirby certainly got the sentimental vote, because EVERYBODY loved him when he played, but Puckett was simply a better all-round player than Sammy ever dreamed of being. All Sammy ever wanted to do was hit homers, and that’s all he ever did (okay, he stole some bases early in his career too).
Consider this: Sammy’s driven in 1,575 runs in 17 seasons and 8,401 at-bats. Puckett drove in 1,085 runs in 12 seasons and 7,244 at-bats. At that same career rate, Puckett would’ve driven in 1,258 runs if he had logged as many career ABs as Sammy. The fact that Sosa only bested Puckett by 490 RBI despite hitting nearly three times as many homers is astounding and speaks volumes about how superior of a hitter Puckett was to Sosa.
As for the fact that Sosa’s never tested positive, that doesn’t matter much to me. Bonds has never tested positive, and neither did McGwire. Sammy looked every bit as guilty as McGwire did in front of Congress, when he conveinently forgot how to speak English, and we also know that Sammy’s used a corked bat before. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire, and since Sosa cheated the game once before, it’s not that much of a leap to assume he cheated the game again. The fact that his numbers fell off the face of the freaking planet the moment baseball started testing for steroids is the most damning evidence of all.
In my book, it’s too difficult to put someone into the Hall of Fame with so many dark clouds hanging over his head.