Tuesday, May 8, 1984: Kirby Puckett arrives
Posted on October 28th, 2006 – 1:53 PMBy Ben Welter
The Minneapolis Star and Tribune was full of interesting nuggets during the week Kirby Puckett, then 23, found his way to the major leagues. Gymnast Nadia Comaneci retired at age 22. The Soviet Union announced it would boycott the Olympics in Los Angeles that summer. A fellow named R.T. Rybak was covering business news. Gloria Steinem, appearing in the Twin Cities for a lecture on women’s issues, predicted that 1984 would not be the year that a presidential candidate would choose a woman as his running mate. And a movie called “The Natural” opened in local theaters.
Puckett made his major league debut on May 8, 1984, going 4-for-5 in a 5-0 Twins victory over the Angels. His debut would have come a day earlier but for some unexpected delays. Reporter Jay Weiner explained:
New Twin ends up
playing for time
By Jay Weiner
Staff Writer
Anaheim, Calif.
For a fresh-cheeked rookie, Kirby Puckett, just 23, has seen
the world.
Unfortunately, the newest Twin saw it all Monday, the day he
was supposed to make his major league debut.
“Where’s Punkett?” Twins Manager Billy Gardner said with
characteristic mispronunciation soon after the 5 p.m. team bus
arrived at Anaheim Stadium. “He didn’t go to Dodger Stadium, did
he?”
The uniform, No. 34, was there. Even the neatly stitched
“P-U-C-K-E-T-T” on the back of the Twins’ blue road jerseys. That name, with just two seasons plus 19 games of minor league
experience, was to have been in center field, batting first against
the Angels last night.
 |
| Puckett got his uniform dirty soon enough, sliding into third base in one of his first games in the majors. (Star Tribune photo by Bruce Bisping) |
“When they draft you into the Army they put you at the front
lines, right, pal?” Gardner said.
Right. But it was already 6 o’clock, the Twins were due for
batting practice and, still, no Puckett, the 5-foot-8, 185-pound
fire hydrant who has been compared with former Houston Astro star Jim (Toy Cannon) Wynn.
Twins Traveling Secretary Mike Robertson was getting worried.
Puckett’s plane from Portland, Maine, where the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens played Sunday, was due at Los Angeles International Airport soon after 1 p.m. With the hour drive south to Orange County, the righthanded hitter was long overdue.
At 6:10, Puckett, carrying his equipment bag, raced through the
door.
“I got to get some money, man,” he said to Robertson. “I got to
pay the cab.”
“I had to take one,” he said later, apologetically. “It was
eighty-three dollars . . . I was stunned.”
 |
| The box score from Puckett’s first game in the majors. |
He first got the bad financial news as he was driving along the
freeway. He first heard $74. But when he realized it was so late he couldn’t stop at the hotel, he told the cabbie to proceed straight to Anaheim Stadium.
“He said, `Since you’re not going right to the Hyatt, I’ll have
to charge you more,’ ” Puckett reported.
It was a ridiculously fitting end to a ridiculously tiring day.
The no-necked native Chicagoan, who was hitting .270 with eight
stolen bases in the International League, began his day at 5:30
a.m., Eastern time, or 2:30 a.m. California time. He made it to
Atlanta from Maine just fine, but when he switched planes, the new aircraft, bound for Los Angeles, had to have its windshield
changed.
“Twice,” Puckett said. He was delayed four hours. “They said it
was cracked . . . and the defroster didn’t work . . . I couldn’t
believe it.
“Nice start, huh?”
Not really. There was no start at all. Gardner decided Puckett
was too tired to play. Darrell Brown started instead.
“I think,” said Gardner, “the kid needs a rest.”
11 Responses to "Tuesday, May 8, 1984: Kirby Puckett arrives"
I just wanted to know when was the two world series and when did Kirby Puckett pass away.
God Bless Kirby and family.
I had the same thing happen to me (without the Major League drama of course) in the early 80s, taking a cab from LAX to where I lived then in Orange County (Cypress.) Counting the miles it was 30 and thus $30, BUT when you crossed the county line (Cypress is just inside Orange County) they DOUBLED the fare!! I paid an extra $30 to go a mile. Well, almost, I only had $55 in my pocket.
The cab driver had stopped for gas on Aviation Blvd and a patrol car had run either the plates on the cab or something, but had discovered that the driver had about 50 parking or traffic tickets that had not been handled… and they only let him go because I was in the back seat.
So, anyway, when I was given the shocking news about the cab fare, and realized I didn’t have it all - this must have before they took plastic - the driver said (and this was midnight) “Why don’t you go to one of those apartments and borrow some money?” Sure, at midnight, I’m going to knock on someone’s door and ask for $5? So, I said, “Look. The only reason you’re not in jail right now is me. I had to wait an extra half hour at the gas station because of your tickets. Here’s the $55… take it or leave it.”
He took it.
Ahhh, man, Puckett was a joy to watch. He arrived seven years after I had left Minnesota for SoCal, but when I returned to Minnesota in 1991 (from a software development position in Chicago) it was the day that the Twins won their last World Series (and right before a tremendously rude re-introduction to Minnesota winter: The Halloween Blizzard.
As the saying goes: “It’s a long road that has no turns.”
RIP Kirby…
Kirby made fans out of people you would least expect to be fans. He gave us fans a face. He made a fan feel special. The Twins players and organization have carried on this attitude as well. It is nice to be a fan that feels like part of the Twins family. God Bless Kirby and his family. May he rest in peace at that big baseball game in the sky. He is missed.
Thanks for your post, Louise. Kirby died on March 6, 2006. He led the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991. See:
Wow! Where doe the time really go??? 22 years ago when the Puck made his debut. I was only 10 years old, and I remember Kirby’s rookie year like it was last week. It’s amazing how seeing a post like this story takes you back 20 years and makes you think about your childhood and growing up. I have a son of my own now and I pray that there will be another player just like Kirby for him to idolize. I mean come on, admit it, if you were a kid during Kirby’s playing days and if you played ball yourself, don’t deny that you tried the high leg kick during whiffle ball in the back yard, or you went crashing up agaist the fence to rob a homerun? Most of all do NOT tell me you never enjoyed watching the Puck play and giving it his all!
God bless you Kirby-we will never forget!
Kirby is still Minnesota Twins baseball. The off field troubles are not the heart and soul of Kirby Puckett. His infectious smile, his all-out play and his love of the game will always be remembered by those of us who loved to watch him play. The name of the new ballpark? Hands down..Kirby Puckett Park. RIP Kirby.
You touched us all.
I was there!
Afer moving to Los Angeles in Feburary, 1984, most of my friends were also Minnesota expatriates. One of them called me that afternoon to tell me that they had managed to score his bank’s Angel tickets, and the Twins were in town.
We had terrific seats, just behind the Twins’ dugout. The story of the long cab ride was already making the rounds, and ouur group had a bit of fun heckling the funny-looking little Mud Hen.
The frist at-bat didn’t go so well, but by the middle of the game, it was obvious that Kirby was something special.
At about the seventh inning, I recall saying to my friend, “This is like watching Lou Gehrig’s first game. Where’s Wally Pipp?”
I’ve often thought about how prophetic that comment was-one of the greatest of all time, who would be felled in his prime by a disease.
The night that it was officially announced that Kirby did not make it through his emergency surgery I sat on my couch and cried. I only met Kirby once when I was in High School at a Twins game where my high school choir sang the National anthem, but I felt like I knew him and he was my friend through all the hundreds of Twins games I watched through his career. I truly felt like I lost a close dear friend that day. My now departed grandmother used to have a full sheet color picture of him hanging on her refrigerator from when he resigned with the Twins on his 6 year contract extension. He was liked by little kids not old enough to fully understand the game of baseball and he was a hero to all of us, baseball fans or ordinary citizens of this community. I would like to see his later problems post baseball to be forgotten as his name does not deserve to be tarnished anymore than it already has suffered from the media. He was human like the rest of us and was not a God, but he was the local hero of a baseball team that would not be here today had he not graced the acres in center field during the 80’s and 90’s. My brother and I went to his memorial service at the metrodome in March and there was not a dry eye in the place. Thank you Kirby for the memories, we’ll never forget you!
I briefly met Kirby on Labor Day 1984 in Kansas City as the Twins opened a series against the Royals. The Twins were coming off a terrible weekend in Toronto, but were in the thick of the American League West race.
Kirby was walking across the parking lot by himself from the Adam’s Mark Hotel to Royals Stadium. He was kind of down and didn’t have much to say, but he was good about signing a picture and talking a little bit about the season and being in the race.
I probably saw Kirby play more in KC than in Minnesota. A thing I will always remember is the Kansas City fans loved Kirby. As players jogged to centerfield from the foul lines before the game, Royals players, particularly young guys, would time their run so they could have a chance to meet Kirby as he ran to centerfield in his pre-game. Guys like Frank White, Willie Wilson and George Brett were always joking with Kirby…fans loved the way he played the game and he put on a show during batting practice and stretching exercises…the joking was constant and the smile was from ear to ear. Kirby, Gladden, Hrbek and Newman kept fans around the Twins dugout entertained during the pre-game warmups.
Kirby defined Twins baseball and still does. You could sense a culture and feeling around the Twins in the late 80s and early 90s that other American League teams didn’t have because I saw them all in Kansas City and only one team had Puckett - his approach to the game was embraced by the entire 25 man roster…he was the best.
I was in basic training at Fort Sill Oklahoma during the summer of 84. I remember on Sundays when we would go to church we would stop by the px. We were not allowed to buy anything, but we would take a peek at the sports section of the usa today. That and the clippings and letters from my family kept me up to date on the Twins and Pucket. Still hard to believe he is gone. Miss ya Puck.
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