I at the game for his last at bat--didnt know it but a brutal sign of things to come.

I was at the 6th game of the world series in 91. The hallmark we all remember.

But what i will remember the most were those vicious "f*** you" strikes he would throw from center field to cut down a runner at the plate. WOW! The crowd would buzz- ignoring the game for a couple batters more....

I have lived in this region for most of my life. Puckett is one of the few players that played a Minnesota pro sport that can truly say that they won a world championship.

Another sports hero of mine has passed away at such an early age. Kirby Puckett was Minnesota Twins baseball. We the sports fans of America will never forget you Kirby Puckett! Rest in peace with Reggie and Wilt and all the good people of this world who were able to put smiles on our faces and cheer for our favorite team. You were truly one of a kind. I've watched the Twins since the 60's and I sure seen alot of good ones but none as special as you!

Dave Luna
Mason City, Ia

Thanks for the memories Kirby! I will never forget you. You will always be my hero. RIP #34!!

Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. My mom and I were watching the game and were taping it with the VCR. We lived in pretty small log cabin of a house outside of Grand Rapids, MN.

Watching the tape again the tape stops, just briefly, when Puckett hits the ball deep in the 10th. We had jumped off the couch as soon as he hit the ball and, our house being the piece of crap that is was, we shook the entire floor when we landed and disrupted the VCR. Thankfully the recording continues and we can still see the ball go over the fence and Kirby make his way around the bases. Thanks for making us so happy, Kirby!

No one is all good or all bad. A number of women say Kirby had a very dark and sinister side. But in the world of baseball he was all that was good.

One personal memory: I met Puck once briefly at a charity signing thing, but my greatest memory was shortly before the '91 playoffs at the Metrodome. The Twins were playing the Toronto Blue Jays, whom they'd face in the playoffs soon thereafter. My dad had scored great seats behind the plate from a friend (still the closest I've ever been) and I was there early for batting practice, an eleven year-old kid hanging over the railing by the Twins dugout, watching Puckett's every move. As he ran in, he was too far away for me to be able to get an autograph, so I flagged down Twins relief pitcher, Steve Bedrosian to give Kirby a drawing I had made for him. He smiled and said he would....moments later Puckett appeared and looked up at me. There were a handful of other kids around, but he looked right at me and said, "Can you catch, kid?" Immediately, I blurted out some kind of answer and he tossed a baseball my way.
I still have the ball.
Rest in peace, Puck. Thanks for the memories.

When I grew up watching baseball he was my idol. I Watched him all the time, got a picture with a cut out kirby and went around telling everyone it was real. I loved him, the way he played the game, the smile on his face. Now as a college softball player, I play the game like him. Like every game is the last and making the most of it. I will forever look to him to remember how lucky i am to have the opportunity to play! RIP Kirby..America WIll forever remember you!

You were the last professional athlete I have ever seen to express the joy of playing a game for a living. Your quote at the end of game six, when Al Trautwig asked you if you were tired, "Tired? This is the World Series! I'll sleep when I'm dead!" Sleep well Kirby, you were my favorite.

First, thanks to Britt for providing both an eloquent and meaningful piece, as well as an opportunity for those of us who grew up with Puckett to pour one out for a guy that was as easy to cheer for as he was important to Minnesota sports.

As a life long Minnesota sports fan, I remember listening to games back in '84 when Puckett came up and immediately became my favorite player. (Someone needed to take the place of John Castino.) Like many Minnesota kids whose glorious sports career spanned the ages of 12-18, Puckett was my inspiration and role model. I made sure that I had a Puckett autographed Rawlings glove, and I wanted to rob home runs more than I wanted to hit them. My friends and I used to play a game we called "Kirby" - lobbing baseballs just barely over the chain link fence so we could leap, extend our gloves over the fence, and crash into the wall as we made the catch. Smiling and opening your glove to show the crowd that you had the ball while pumping your fist were as much a part of the ritual as the catch.

So long, Kirby. We'll see you tomorrow night.

TWENTY FOR KIRBY
1. "Bad News From Phoenix," Curtiss A
2. "The Day They Take The Twins Away," Vinnie & The Stardusters
3. "Puckett's Farewell," Peter Oshtroushko
4. "Empty Baseball Park," Whiskeytown
5. "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request," Steve Goodman
6. "First Breath After Coma," Explosions In The Sky
7. "In The Sun," Joseph Arthur
8. "Hayday," Replacements
9. "Mr. Ambulance Driver," Flaming Lips
10. "Minnesota Polka," Gear Daddies
11. "Center Field," John Fogerty
12. "Everyday Boy," Joan Armatrading
13. "The Greatest," Cat Power
14. "Fixin' To Die Blues," Bukka White
15. "My Ride's Here," Bruce Springsteen
16. "One Of These Days," Neil Young
17. "Thank You Friends," Big Star
18. "Chicago Breakdown," Louis Armstrong
19. "Harmon Killebrew," Jeff Arundel
20. "When You Walk On," Eliza Gilkyson

Posted by Jim Walsh at March 06, 2006 09:44 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

I'm from Sydney Australia and just heard the news from my friend who lives in Minneapolis. I obviously don't have as much of a connection to the Puck as all of you who lived through all his triumphs, but I did adopt the Twins as my team to follow and I was right there with you cheering from the other side of the world during the 91 World Series.
I've seen Kirby play a few games during my visits and he was always my favourite player and I have the merchandise to prove it. I still get goosebumps thinking about everytime the announcer called his name as he walked to the plate.
My heart felt thoughts go to his family and close friends and to my second home of Minneapolis who are grieving over his loss.
Darren Phillips

i'll avoid all the complicated things that made puck a flawed individual for now.

i will say that i'm taken aback by how saddened i am with the news tonight, and how surprised i am that people are talking about this like it's a major, major thing.

i think that's because, somehow, it is.

i ain't no particular softie, but i was hit pretty hard by this news tonight. real hard, in fact.

i'll say that for all the endless highlights of him catching/hitting that home run the '91, the thing i remember the most about his onfield conduct had to do with a certain intentional walk, sometime, somewhere, when puck threw his bat at the intentional ball four and drove in two runs and (i believe) got a double.

anyone wanna look that up and post about it here?

it was perhaps the most defiant thing i've seen in sports in the last 25 years.

I can't help but feel like a part of my childhood died tonight. I remember playing baseball as a kid (it doesn't seem so long ago) and cheering year in and year out for Kirby and the Twins.

I remember going to Game 2 of the World Series in 91. My dad told me we were going to Sesame Street Live but much to my surprise drove to the Metrodome instead. It turned out he had Series tickets the whole time but wanted to surprise me. Needless to say, watching Kirby and the Twins win that night with my dad is one of the fondest memories I have of my childhood.

Kirby was not a perfect human being. But the memories that I have of watching him play as a little kid I will carry with me the rest of my life. I looked up to Kirby as someone who made something of himself despite the rough circumstances which he was born into, despite his physical limitations, and despite the fact that he played for a team that was a perennial underdog.

So here's to you Kirby. You are gone, but your memories will live on as long as grown kids such as myself are around. Like many other ideas we have as children, my idea of Kirby was idealized. But what he stood for to me when I was young meant a lot - then and now - and for that I will be forever grateful.

Rest in peace.

Today, I lost a friend.

Kirby is the memories of '87 and '91 and Gold Gloves and .318 to most.

I was fortunate enough to work with the man during his post-baseball life in the Minnesota Twins front offices. We sat next to each other in the Twins' dining room watching the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearings (Commissioner Selig, Jesse, Mr. Bell, etc.) and stared at the TV in disbelief. Kirby said to anyone listening that Twins Baseball was "his only job".

I remember him for calling me "C" as we passed in the halls; talking about the new Ziggy Marley release in the HHH elevator; his presence when he came through the cube-life of the Twins' offices. Kirby filled every ballpark with humor, warmth, love, passion -- for baseball and for life.

I am very, very sad right now.

i loved watching Kirby play. it made having shitty outfield seats all the better!

he worked his ass off so hard he made the game a show for the fans. and you could tell he loved the game.

i saw the '87 and '91 series victories high up in the rafters with my Dad and brothers. they were the best childhood memories you could ever have.

i felt like i was living what until then i had only seen on TV in old films of Babe Ruth or some of the classic 70's games.

Kirby was the real deal.

i remember ditching out of school to go to the '87 victory parade downtown. my friend Adam, whose Mom drove us, and i were packed up against the cars that trailed through the line of fans and confetti madness.

when Kirby and Tonya's car pulled up near us i leaped out and patted Kirby on the head. he had some sort of Red Baron leather hat on.

i was 13 and felt like i got some good luck from him or something. he was all smiles and on top of the world!

I had a grandmother who was a BIG TWINS!! fan she loved Rod Carew, unfortanetly she passed(1983)away a year before Kirby made to the bigs no doubt ,she would've loved him too!!! RIP-KIRBY
say hello to an old lady nicknamed Grady(Margaret Klein) for me!!-Brian (her grandson)

My favorite part about growing up with Kirby as a sports hero was how much he influenced my entire generation. In the summer of 1988 I was playing on a t-ball team at Pearl Park. With memories of Puck lifting the Twins over the St Louis Cardinals shortly before, our entire team adopted him as our team's icon. We all decided that we were going to emulated everything about Kirby. Boys and girls alike were stepping up to the tee and lifting their leg as high as they could before taking an awkward swing and gently knocking the rag ball several feet forward. Thanks for the memories Puck!

Sports fans loves heroes and none was bigger than Kirby Puckett. The man was an incredible baseball player and had a way of carrying a whole team and town by the sheer strength of his personality.

I had the privilege to watch Roberto Clemente play in person in San Diego in the 70's. I also grew up watching Charlie Hustle and the Big Red Machine. To me, Kirby was a strange combination of both of these players but with his own individual personality. He hustled like Rose and hit and fielded like Clemente. He was one of the most clutch performers of all time.

I remember the quintessential Puckett moment in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. How often is it that you see a player make a great defensive play followed by a big offensive play. Puckett's extra inning heroics were the epitome of that. Nobody has done it better. At that moment, I would have given anything to have been in that locker room to be able to give him a hug.

Kirby, we will miss you dearly. May you rest in peace.

When I was a kid my uncle used to take me, my brother, and my cousin to a twins game for our birthdays. One particular year we had a chance to see the Oakland A's. Early in the game Ricky Henderson (who we all know was one of the fastest people in baseball) was on third base when a pop fly was hit to center field. Ricky went to tag up on the play only to find that Puckett had rifeled the ball with out a bounce to throw him out at home. Did Ricky learn his lesson? Nope. Later in the same game the senario played out again and again Puckett threw a strike to the plate to gun down Henderson. That day was the day I decided that Kirby Puckett was my favorite Twin of all time. We will miss you Kirby.

Kirby meant more than Game 6, but that's how I'll remember him: fist in the air, screaming for joy.

I cried when I heard the news. Cried for a ballplayer. That's the first and probably last time that will ever happen. Yeah, I'd say he meant a hell of a lot.

Kirby was the Minnesota Twins. He was a classy player, who stayed with the Twins even when everyone else was going after more money (not that he wasn't well compensated). He delivered when it mattered.

I begged my mom to name my little brother Kirby Puckett S. I had to settle for the dog, as I later found out did practically half the people in my college dorm.

My heart is heavy and I wish all the love and support for Kirby's family. He brought us so much joy, and had a heart of gold. If only his parents could have seen what he became - he made us all proud.

Thank you Kirby.

Voted by his peers during his playing days as one of the top 5 players they would pay to watch play. He is the only player I can remember watching that was able to take over and win a baseball game by himself. Hearing him end every sentance with "man" during interviews, seeing his 5 minute handshakes with Al Newman and knowing he chose Minnesota over all other options out there made him that much greater for me. I feel blessed to have been nine when his career began because he made childhood summers all the more sentimental. What a Natural.

The memories of my childhood include getting "dragged" to baseball games. Every family vacation included a trip to a ball park. My brother and dad talked baseball stats all the time and every weekend baseball was on our TV. Being someone who could care less about the game but wanting to "fit in" with my family I tried to deal with sitting through games by making up stories in my mind involving the players. Reggie Jackson was a larger than life super hero who noone could touch. Rod Carew was really fast & his power was turning into a lightning bolt, Wally Joyner had his own persona, etc. etc. Kirby Puckett -- well, he was the cuddly teddy bear with the big belly and the little legs that would run as fast and as hard as he could to save the day...in my mind as a child these were my heros...even if I didn't care about the "stats."

I wasn't lucky enough to see any of the World Series games in person, but I sure remember watching those games with my mom as a kid, and like Danny, I remember ditching school to catch the '87 victory parade and seeing that leather cap Puck was wearing that looked like something out of Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.

It was Puck and the Twins that forged my relationship with my great-aunt, Dorothy Burns, who passed on a few years ago. We spent many an afternoon visit talking baseball, much to my grandma's exasperation. :-) Puck was her favorite player by far and I smile at the thought that they're both now in a better place.

Here's to you, Puck!

Thanks for the memories Kirby. You were one of the few that stuck with a program through the good times and the bad. You gave us kids someone to look up to in the sport as we played in the backyards, schoolyards, and ballparks of our youth. You added a flair and a spark to the team that was obvious even to us while we were in elementary. You gave us thrills on t.v., at the dome, and on the radio while the fish just wouldn't bite. Our childhoods were made just a little better because you were a Twin, and because you were you. You will be missed.

In the 80s, I was a kid just over the river in Wisconsin where Puckett would eventually buy his cabin. I had very few genuine heroes and role models. For about five years the Twins were a form of cement for my family, something that we could all agree on with no strings attached, no guilt. The Twins back then were something undiluted and good that we could put at the center of our buckling world. For instance, the only family portrait I have of my childhood was taken at a twins game. We all loved Kirby. We had posters of him around the house. We kept his wheaties box on permanent display. Posters everywhere. I remember his bobble-head in my dad's truck. The old man held him up to my younger brother as a symbol of what is good in the world, hoping that maybe some of it would rub off on him. It might have worked.

Kirby Puckett was and will ever be the Babe Ruth of Minnesota baseball. Here was a guy with dirt on his uniform, slugging baseballs over the wall, we always said, because the kids out there needed them more than the players did. My friends and I loved Kirby Puckett before we knew what the word "racism" meant. There was no such thing. He was beyond that, and he brought us with him. You couldn't pick on the squat players, because they were like Kirby. We scoffed at other teams with their ultra-corporate image, because we had Puckett and no amount of money was going to lure him away. We used to sing his name to the "Davy Crockett" theme song. We'd buy Nintendo baseball games with other player's names in the title and take turns playing Kirby. I'm confident there might never be another baseball player of his talent and character in my lifetime, or at least not in Minnesota.

After Kirby bought his cabin on the other side of Deer Lake, less than 2 miles from our house, I remember my dad beaming over the dinner table at Christmas how he "saw Kirby at Wal-Mart". Multi-millionaire baseball legend. Hero to millions. Shopped at the Wal-Mart down the hill. Stood in line next to the old man.

Years have passed. The family's gone. I can't possibly express my gratitude to Kirby. I hope the Twins stay in town like he did, and I hope they do name a stadium after him. His detractors can take a walk. Kirby Puckett played with dirt on his uniform his whole life, and that's the way it should be.

Kirby was my hero.
I was a tomboy and I loved watching all kinds of sports growing up. One father's day weekend, my family all went out to the Metrodome to see the Twins play. I already knew who Kirby was from watching games on tv. It was bat day at the Dome and I was ecstatic to have my very own bat just like Kirby's. I was so excited that when Kirby got up to bat, I decided to wind up just like him and proceeded to smack my mom right in the eye with the bat.
This has been a lifelong joke between my family members. Beth wanted to be just like Kirby. I even had a huge poster on my bedroom wall of my hero.
My sister and I waved our homer hankies proudly in '91, even though we were just watching from our house, 2 hours away from Minneapolis.
My childhood would have been so much less without him. Thank you Kirby.

While waqtching the "baggy green" dismantle the South African team in cricket, I called out "Touch 'em all, Kirby Puckett!". the Aussies couldn't have known that reference, but seeing the obits 2 days later, I think the timing was uncanny.

Sports has been sullied in the last 3 decades, but occasionally a team lifts the spectator to fresh appreciation. KP was part of that team. God bless him.

March 8, 2006

Kirby Puckett!

His passing I find very sad! His legacy is a most wonderful one! He was someone special! Perhaps one in a lifetime?....

I loved watching him at bat..... The "short barrel" body that everyone seems to remember... His punchy backside, his powerful swing of the bat!....

That fast run as he made a hit... taking off like a speeding bullet, running.

I was always surprised at what appeared to be a short body run so fast!

He was great! I bought a Kirby Puckett Bobble Head the past summer, I am so glad I got it at that time.

I set it out last evening in tribute and memory to the great baseball player, Kirby Puckett was.

When I heard of his stroke before he died...I prayed, and hoped for better news....

Alas...

Godspeed Kirby.... I will remain, a Minnesota Twins fan for the rest of my life, because of you!

I send the Lord's comfort and blessing to Kirby Puckett's family and loved ones.

He meant plenty to Twins fans, but for baseball fans elsewhere (like myself until three years ago), Puckett was a pleasure to watch. At least on the field, he embodied the best of baseball -- a player who genuinely loved the game, and a one-team player who didn't complain (who isn't sick of pro athletes' whining and mercenary team-jumping?). The man was clearly no saint (famous people are usually more complex and contradictory than the rest of us), but as a player he more than delivered and gave even the opposing fans lasting memories.

The saddest thing about Kirby's death is that it is like others I've known--you could see that he was in trouble, everyone saw it, but you held out hope that he was going to rally and restore all the good will and joy he generated over the years. Maybe he has. In the paper this morning his ex-wife was quoted about efforts to donate his organs, which was profoundly touching. He turned out to be troubled at a level that matched his desire to pretend otherwise. But he was obviously also consumed with a desire to be loved by the world, which he was. And, man, he was an unmitigated blast as a ballplayer.

Kirby Puckett was one of the greatest players I have ever seen. When you watched him play, it was as if you knew the man. He played hard with lots of enthusiasm and had a great attitude. Here's to you Kirby, one of the greatest players in baseball history! We'll miss you.

It's sad of Kirby's passing and I saw on the news yesterday a cool painting of Kirby is being made, I also saw the painting, its pretty big, its like he is realy there. It was sure great to watch him play always so excited and giving 100%, thanks Kirby for the memories.
Click on my name to see info on the Life Size Painting of Kirby Puckett