Comments on: Remembering Kirby Puckett

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:21:22 +0000

Dave in MN:

Don’t get worked up about it, partner. I, like you, read these posts to share in the joy of others; in a joy that Kirby Puckett gave us. Inevitably, there will always be one or two people who hate life, despise the happiness of others, or are simply so miserable themselves, they’ll feel the need to take a giant crap on anything meant to be positive. I’ve learned to accept that these unfortunate few are typically far worse off then the people they attempt to bad-mouth, and this is simply one method of theirs to feel better about themselves.

Morale of the story? Kirby even brings joy to those who try to smear his name! LOL … Not too bad a spin job on the naysayers, eh?

RIP, Kirby. Gone, but never forgotten!

By: Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:03:56 +0000

Funny stuff. I remember listening to Kirby’s first MLB on the “Old Neighbor.” Why? Because is wasn’t on television.

I remember being excited that some kid from Visalia (I think) was called up to replace the enigmatic “Downtown” Darrell Brown in CF. I also remember being disappointed because this kid missed his first game because of travel “difficulties” and I would be unable to watch his MLB debut.

I guess this little tale somewhat invalidates those delicious tales of the contributors like fabled story-teller BC Beneke. Nice try though.

By: TWINSD

TWINSD — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:09:34 +0000

Who could ever forget that laugh and Kirrrrrrrrrrrrrby Puckett!

By: romer

romer — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:04:26 +0000

Yeah it’s fair to say that Puck didn’t adjust well in his post-career.

But his career was possessed with singular full-out intensity more than anyone else I know of.

So he replaced that intensity with food and boredom.

And the beanball probably directly affected his eyesight. Who’s to say it didn’t physically hurt his brain function too?

Whatever the case, it was a stunning and complete end to that intensity and “high”. Given his unique intensity level, it was an awful psychological blow…..and a complete tragedy.

And who wants to criticize a guy who suffers such out-and-out tragedy?

By: Dave in MN

Dave in MN — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:41:40 +0000

Plymouth Guy, SavegeGuy, take it somewhere else. The guy was human. He had good points and bad points, and good days and bad days, just like we all do. He had his bad points revealed to the entire world, and he had to live out his bad days in the public eye. Do you? Walk a mile in his shoes and then tell me how you feel. For every person like you guys who wants to rip him for something you saw him do or say, there must be 100 people who have good things to say about a personal interaction with him. This space is for people who want to share good memories of the things that Puckett did on the field or off of it and talk about all the joy that he gave us. If you want to crap all over that, start your own blog or whatever and talk all you want about it. Start your own “Kirby Puckett was no hero” discussion, invite all the other jerks to join in, and talk about it all you want.

By: romer

romer — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:28:16 +0000

Sorry for the diversion, I got the Joe Dimaggio reference mixed up. Kirby’s 234 hits in 1988 were and still are the most by a right handed hitter, as far as I know, since Heinie Manush in 1928. Dimaggio has nothing to do with it.

And Kirby had the highest BA (.356 in 1988) for a right handed hitter in the American League for 55 years running, 1940 through 1994, (after Dimaggio’s 1939 season) ——– until Kirby’s career was ended with that beanball in 1995.

Then, within days of that event, right handed hitter Edgar Martinez went on to win the batting title (including 2 hits the last day of the season) with a .356 average which was 1/100,000th of a percent higher than Kirby’s 1988 .356 average.

So technically Kirby’s 55-year reign did not end until after his very career had ended — four days after his last plate appearance.

Maybe it was the baseball gods’ way of taking care of royalty — our right-handed prince of baseball excellence and baseball fun.