R.I.P. Kirby Puckett

The family is not releasing additional information or conducting interviews at this time. They thank the media for respecting their wishes.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060306&content_id=1337456&vkey=spt2006news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

The sixth game of the '91 series was one of the greatest things I've ever seen, and Puckett's winning home run was a lot of why. I will never forget the look on his face--the "Come on, throw it, I'm gonna hit the sucker over the wall" look, the kind that means something from a guy that even-tempered on the field, and then him DOING IT. Just . . . wow. Being a Minneapolis teenager that was a hell of a great moment. As was watching Tommy Lasorda look like his head was going to explode during the post-game. Lasorda had always said Puckett would be his number-one man if he had to start a team from scratch; he was rocking in his chair, blithering about how it was the greatest thing he'd ever seen in his baseball life.

R.I.P.

RIP.

"KIIIIIIIRBY PUCKETT!"

It ain't a bad sign of a legacy, not at all.

Oh man, don't even joke.

that was every game, dude. and the crowd's response--that enormous, all-engulfing ROAR--was always the same. I don't think there was a more beloved ballplayer anywhere when he was active.

Doubtless. And your tale makes me glad to hear it was always like that. :-)

Kirby was the only ball player I ever really liked.

Hmmm...I'm thinking youtube could be really handy right about now.

Found no videos matching kirby puckett. Do you have one? Upload it!

Anyone?

I'm not joking

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp?c_id=min

(BTW, I was at that game, Matos.)

Such a joy to watch.

when i heard about this, i tried to find a pic of that grab he made off the plexiglass outfield wall during the same game. i didn't have any luck. if anyone can find one, please post. i remember being 9 or 10 and getting to stay up late to watch that game. it was amazing.

RIP. what a ballplayer.

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My greatest Pucket memory came before the first World Series year. Back then My wife and I could walk up, buy a couple of lower deck GA's and sit right behind Kirby. We saw a lot of great catches up close, but my best memory was the time Pucket just finished playing catch and was waiting for the next inning to start. He was in position waiting for batter up. A little girl probably about 4 or 5 with a too-big Twins cap covering half of her head came down the steps and was close to the first row. She broke the dead silence, typical of Twins games of that year, with a meek "Kirby". Puckett popped up out of stance, turned his head, gave her a big grin and a wave and tip of his cap and turned back just in time for the first pitch. The little girl smiled, turned and ran as fast as she could back up the steps to her parents.

Puck loved every minute on that field and that's why I loved watching every minute of him out there.

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Whose favorite Kirby memory isn't Game 6 or 7 of the 1991 World Series or his celebration in the parade with his flying cap. I have a memory of Kirby Puckett away from his fame that is most notable to me. I delivered a large waterfront toy to his Wisconsin residence in 1999. This product required some installation and that day was very windy on the lake. Kirby insisted that I come back another day to do the installation but was very grateful that I delivered the product to his home. Rather than just dropping off the product driving back to the Twin Cities, Kirby graciously invited me inside his home for something to drink, and to 'see his trophies'. I was so excited to go in and witness some of his baseball accolades, but instead was witness to trophies related to his passion for fishing. Fish all over the walls was what he wanted to share with this stranger. Kirby was comfortable enough to tell me stories about several of the fish. Kirby offered me a soda for the road, and I was soon on my way after having a personal moment with one of the greatest off all time. I asked him to sign my Game 6&7 World Series tickets, complimented him for his performance in those two games. He responded the way I have seen him respond publicly so many times, "Just doing my job, man".

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As a kid, I loved how, when Bob Casey would announce "Kirbaaaaaaaaaaaay Puckett!" you could barely hear "Puckett" because the noise from the crowd was so loud. I'm proud that we in Minnesota can claim him as ours, and ours alone.

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I have so many memories of Kirby. But the one that sticks with me the most, is wanting to be Kirby when I grew up. It didn't matter to me that I was a girl and girls didn't play pro baseball. I thought he had the coolest, most exciting job in the world. And that's what I wanted to do. I can even remember softball practices in high school and playing around at batting practice. Just generally making fun of the rituals the players had. "Do the cross thing, the experimental swing. Shake your booty and get down like Kirby." I even tried to have the same kick into my hitting that he had. To this day, a part of me still wishes I could be Kirby when I grow up.

"You couldn't hear yourself think in the ballpark," former Twins hitting coach Terry Crowley said Monday from Baltimore Orioles camp. "Kirby was on deck. The manager went to the mound, and Kirby said to me, 'If they leave this guy in the game, the game is over.'

:(

If that quote is talking about the Metrodome, then that's just about normal.

Like Geoff, I'm a total unjock but my entire family are going to be in bits over this. People not from MN might not appreciate the whole always-coming-second thing with our teams in (insert sport here) but for those few weeks - the last I spent living in America - a team from MN was actually going to win something important. This TRANSFORMED the Twin Cities; I remember having to delicately and trans-Atlantically explain to Nick, waiting back in London, the whole 'homer hanky' concept. My mom still has them in a box somewhere. Dan, the difference with Metrodome screaming in the 1991 series was HOW MUCH LOUDER than normal it actually was once the Series became promise, then reality.

My late and much-missed Special Forces Uncle drove the lead car in the 1991 victory parade. With my sister and cousin; I'd lobbied HARD to ride in that car but we'd have missed the parade so we watched from Northern Lights corner instead and got my uncle to siren'n'horn everyone there. Downtown Minneapolis was suddenly full of people whose normal thoughts about Hennepin Avenue consisted of "oh jeez, is that a hooker?" It was so much fun. Alan Rudolph was filming in town then and was ROYALLY pissed off with all the banners, remember?

I never thought I'd miss that year so much, right now - of course that whole autumn was pure magic, right down to the Halloween blizzard.

That WAS a totally magic autumn all around. Thanks for reminding me of it, Suzy. When the hell are we going to hang out, anyway?

It worked for me. I was holding myself together fine but I could barely finish watching it. Ditto this: http://djsmitty.blogspot.com/2006/03/touch-em-all.html -- corny, to the point, and I lost it completely upon sight.

I was stuck taking stock at NL (I needed the money a week before moving back to London) and three days later Nick calls asking me to just swing out and pick him up a copy of Sexual Personae because it wasn't out there yet, whatever, so I told him that I would be surprised if I got to the airport because of the SIX FOOT SNOWDRIFTS and the GLARE ICE.

Matos, I want to get to NYC in May - a friend is opening a show, and Nick is in one, and I haven't been back for almost five years. I am running out of excuses here. We'll see what work is like. Mail me anyway: suzysurname at yahoo dot co dot you-kay otherwise we're going to warp the thread.

Joe Reis didn't want to believe it. Bad as Sunday's news was, Monday's was worse.

His longtime friend and all-time favorite Twins player, Kirby Puckett, was gone, dead at the age of 45 because of a stroke.

"It's just so sad," said a somber Reis, who met Puckett after catching the future Hall of Famer's game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. "He was quite the guy."

...

Reis said that catching Puckett's walk-off home-run ball in Game 6 was "the thrill of a lifetime." Afterward, he went to the Twins clubhouse to give the ball to Puckett. From there, the two became friends.

Over the years, Reis said, he played golf with Puckett at several charity events and even hooked up with him in Cooperstown, N.Y., when Puckett was inducted into the Hall of Fame. While there, Puckett introduced Reis to everyone in sight as the "guy who caught my home-run ball."

"It's just how he was," Reis said. "My brother and friends were just amazed. They thought I was making up the story about knowing Kirby Puckett.

"But he knew me, and knew it would be important to me to make that connection. That's the kind of guy he was."

Pretty great blog post and comments here.

but thanks for the obligatory bullshit speak-ill-of-the-dead e-z contrarianism

haha xpost, ned with the diplomacy...

Only yr kinda bullshit is obligatory, geoff. I never liked Puckett's jolly persona, how's that?

Really, mourning an athlete is a bit teenage. Tom Seaver is my all-time favorite player, but I know he's kind of an asshole. (tho because he's a lazy, cliche-spouting broadcaster and celebrity vintner rather than owner of any woman-beating history.)

I know where Morbs is coming from -- "character" is overrated and when it comes down to it, nobody gives a crap whether someone's a nice guy as long as he performs on the field. But there's also something to be said for the devotion shown to an athlete who plays in one city for his entire career (or almost his entire career) -- particularly if it's not a Chi-town/LA/NY megametropolis. Call it the "big fish in a small pond" factor. Cal Ripken is a good example of this. Barry Larkin to a lesser extent. Ernie Whitt is more popular in Canada than Robbie Alomar ever was, etc.

Game 6, 1991.

My brother and I were at the Hawk & Dove in DC with some friends -- along with mostly Atlanta Braves fans and one girl in a Braves shirt telling us about how many "points" were scored in the game.

Kirby comes to the plate and we are standing near a pay phone and my brother calls God to ask for a home run.

Kirby and God delivered.

RIP Kirby.

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I got to meet Kirby twice. My father knew him vaguely from the years he was a sportscaster. The first time was the '87 Twins Fest. I barely remember it; I was 5. The man had the biggest hands I had ever seen. My dad introduced me to him, he signed a baseball (which still sits by my computer; it's not for sale).

The second time was the next year, after the Twins had won it all. Twins Fest again. The second time I remember. I don't know where he was coming from, or going to, but he was walking through and saw me (how is beyond me; I was 6, I couldn't have come up to the crowd's waist).

He stopped what he was doing, came through the crowd, got down to one knee and said "Hi, Peter. It's good to see you again. How's your dad?"

I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Kirby Puckett remembered my name, and sought me out in a mob of people at Twins Fest, just to say hi to a 6 year old.

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When my mom called me from Minnesota and told me last night that Kirby was gone, it didn't hit me. It didn't hit me until 4 in the morning, when I was woken up by my 12-year old self, who was crying in the corner of the room on the floor because his hero was dead.

?!

So, teams deserve titles based on the stadiums they call home?

(sorry Matos, will mail you myself)

(Shea is widely regarded as a toilet, but c'mon -- the Beatles played.)

My one time in Minneapolis was the '94 strike, so a blessing, really.

My tape of Herb Score outtakes is even better. Ol' Herb was a goldmine on the air.