Tuesday, March 7, 2006

KIRBY PUCKETT

THE GREATEST TWIN

March 14, 1960 - March 6, 2006

Hello everyone! Today is just a bit of a running blog entry. I honestly don't have it in me to type a full article today. Instead, I will just be directing you to article on Puckett from around the web, as I find them. In general, as you will read below, I am pretty numb. I really was much of Monday and even Monday evening after hearing the news. I am sure that I, like all of us, will be fine. I think something we all need to do is figure out what Kirby Puckett meant to us. What did he stand for during his career? And then, how do we deal with the loss.
 

That is strangely something that I am trying to figure out. Again, I never met Kirby, so how am I supposed to deal with this. Why is it affecting me? How long should it affect me? I know, this is all psycho-babble, but there are so many fair questions. But maybe in some way, we can help each other figure these things out. Please feel free to use the Comments below. Feel free to share stories, or feelings or anything. 

But again, today is not about me. It is not about us. It is about Kirby Puckett, the Greatest Twin.  

KIRBY UPDATE - As of 7:05 p.m. - The hospital just put out a press releases confirming that Kirby Puckett did pass away this afternoon. Details are not being immediately released, but I will try to post what I can as I hear it. I admit, I am numb, have been most of the day.

I will not be posting any new update on Tuesday. To me, this is a Minnesota Twins blog, and Kirby Puckett equals Minnesota Twins. I will only be posting articles, blogs or links related to Kirby Puckett. I want to encourage people to leave some comments here if you so choose. Maybe you have a personal memory or story about Kirby. Maybe you just want to say something. I don't know. The Comments are yours, so feel free to write whatever is on your mind.

Honestly, I really don't know what to say. Some of my thoughts are below (or mentioned yesterday), but again, how does a 30 year old boy from Minnesota explain in words how much Kirby Puckett meant to him. I should be more mature, but this is hard to take. I never met Kirby, yet he was always my hero. Regardless of anything, I will never forget Kirby Puckett. When I'm 50, 60, 90 years old, I am sure that I will be telling my grandchildren about Kirby Puckett.

But again, I will just add to this blog throughout the evening and into tomorrow, so check back from time to time. If you would rather share something with only me, please feel free to e-mail me. Thanks for the memories, and rest in peace, Kirby!

• Here is a video of Puckett's career.

• Statement from the Kirby Puckett family.

• There is lots of Kirby talk on the Twins section of KFAN's Rube Chat.

• Here is a new site, Unrestricted View, where Matt discusses My Favorite Player.

• In listening to XM's Home Plate network, one of their hosts, Holden Kushner says that he grew up in Minnesota and was at Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. Listening to him and the people who are calling in is really quite touching.

• Our neighbors had puppies early in 1985 (I mean, their dog did). We took the runt. We were deciding between Kirby and Claudell for the dog's name. We went with Kirby! That dog stayed in our family until 1997. By the way, it was a female dog, but we didn't care.

• From the Comments below, here are the thoughts on Puckett's passing, from Paul Webb.

• Here is a nice tribute from a Red Sox fan over at Sawx Blog.

• Dan Lewis's very first blog entry at Armchair GM was Remembering Kirby.

• It was an unfair Sports Illustrated article that exposed much of Puckett's dark side. Here is a very nice SI article on Puckett from 1987.

• Pat Neshek's site is great every day. However, tonight, it is really special. Neshek grew up in the city that Puckett lived in. He actually got to go into Puckett's house when he was just ten years old. He made me think of another thing. Notice how many Minnesota kids are in the majors and in the minors these days? Most of them would probably name Puckett as their favorite baseball player. Please check out his site today.

• "Man!" One of my memories about Kirby Puckett was that in interviews, I don't think that there was ever a man who used the word "Man" more than Puckett did.

• There is a nice Kirby Puckett Tribute page over at City Pages.

• MAN! If anyone needed yet another reason to dislike columnist Phil Rogers, check out this article. What a jerk!

• The AP's Ronald Blum wrote a nice article at MSNBC that includes very nice quotes from Andy McPhail.

• This is the article I was looking for. At mlb.com, they have an article with quotes from many poeple around baseball about Kirby. People quoted include Wayne Krivsky, a touching quote from Mike Cameron and even Chris Coste is quoted prominently in the article.

• Here is a reprint of a Sporting News article from 1986, right after Kirby Puckett announced his retirement.

• This is hard to read. The Pioneer Press has posted the 911 transcript.

• Here is some information on The Puckett Scholarships, a program that Kirby and his wife started with the University of Minnesota in 1995.

• ESPN.com's Jim Caple, who was the Twins beat writer for the Pioneer Press from 1989-1993 wrote an article called As a player, Puckett made everyone happy. Caple will be holding a live chat at 1:00 central time today regarding Puckett.

• Nick & Nick both expressed their thoughts on Puckett in their entry titled A Legend Lost.

• David Dorsey called Kirby "Immortal" in his great blog entry today.

• Mike Kramer of Twins Killings discusses all of this. He says that Al Newman told him about Puckett's stroke while down in Ft. Myers so he feels very close to the whole situation.

• Will Young is just Coming to Terms.

• KFAN has set up a very nice tribute to Kirby Puckett at their site including many audio files.

• Jim Souhan wrote a nice article on the career of Puckett, and more. He ended it with "Our baseball hero had his Hall of Fame career, then his altered life, cut short."

• Joe Christenson wrote a very thorough article on Puckett today. The quotes from Terry Crowley are so great!

• There is a memorial at the Metrodome for those down there who may want to stop by and pay your respects.

• Sid Hartman agrees that Puckett is the great Twin of all-time.

• "Larger-than-life characters aren't supposed to grow old before our eyes. Or become frail. Or make mistakes. Or have an aura that dims. More than anything, they're not supposed to die at a young age... Kirby Puckett is dead. Those are the four most depressing words I have ever strung together." Bob Sansavere wrote that today in an article called We Want to Believe that Superheroes Never Die.

• Tom Powers wrote a really nice article. It discusses his love of cheeseburgers, comparing himself to Willie Stargell and some personal stories as well.

• Here is Kirby's Hall of Fame Induction speech. Hearing this in person, in Cooperstown was really quite an experience for me.

• Charley Walters tells the old story of Puckett coming to the big leagues, flying into the Los Angeles airport and getting a taxi ride to the stadium and needing someone to pay his cab fare for him. There are stories from Tim Laudner, Roy Smalley and Ron Coomer.

• In the late-80s and early 90s, the Twins biggest rival was the Oakland A's. Head over to Athletics Nation where they have some great comments on Puckett.

• Some very nice thoughts on Kirby from Marc at Mariners Morsels.

• A nice article in the Fargo Forum with quotes from FM Redhawks player personnel consultant and former Twins teammate Jeff Bittiger and Fargo native Rick Helling.

• David Dorsey and Glenn Miller collaborated on this article with many more quotes from Twins on Puckett.

• The Baseball Savant tells us that he was a big fan of Kirby Puckett too.

• FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal writes Puckett's Hall of Fame Spirit was Immortal.

• FoxSports.com's Dayn Perry rightly tells us that Puckett was a Pure Joy to Watch Play.

• Here are the thoughts on Kirby from several people including Robin Yount, John Smoltz, Carlton Fisk and Devean George.

• This Patrick Reusse article Puck, We'll Miss You Dearly is probably the best article I have read yet. The part in there about Puckett and Brian Harper is hilarious. Also, he even mentions Warroad in the end.

• The Strib is also posting a link with links to Twins bloggers who wrote something about Puckett. There is at least one Twins blog that appears to be missing... but I'm not bitter! Ha!

• By the way, GREAT NEWS! The Twins Geek is back with a nice article on Puckett.

• The is a really nice tribute at Boof's Berg Blog.

• So does the Ball-Wonk.

• ESPN.com's Jayson Stark is one of the best! He has a free article on Puckett available today.   

• David Pinto of the great baseball site Baseball Musings posts links to a number of great Puckett articles from bloggers of other markets, as well as some Twins blogs.                    

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