Baseball
893 points
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Baseball 893 points |
He made plenty of Minnesota history in leading the Twins to two World Series championships, enough to be selected Minnesota's most important sports figure of the century. It turns out he learned some history, too.
It's official. Kirby Puckett, a skinny kid from Chicago when he arrived in May 1984, is a Minnesotan through and through.
Puckett proved this when he was corralled for an interview and told: "The Star Tribune has selected the 100 most important Minnesota sports figures of the 20th century. And you were voted No. 1."
Puckett, flashing a look of genuine surprise, said: "Really? How did I beat out Bronko?"
A person has to be a true Minnesotan if he knows the legend of Bronko Nagurski, a Gophers football player during the 1920s. It was also a perceptive observation by Puckett, since Nagurski holds the No. 2 position on the Star Tribune's top 100 list.
Puckett has been in Minnesota for 15 1/2 years. He did not require a stay of that length to warm to this cold place.
"I joined the Twins on a West Coast road trip a month into the '84 season," Puckett said. "When we got to the Twin Cities, Mike Robertson, the traveling secretary, told me, 'You're going to be staying at the Leamington.'
"I got there and Bob Casey had everything lined up. I was in a suite for $25 a day, with breakfast, lunch and dinner, if I wanted it. We had stayed four to a room in minor-league training camp. And now, here I was . . . in a suite."
Casey, the Twins public address announcer, was working at the Leamington. In addition to making Puckett comfortable on arrival, Casey soon sounded a battle cry.
When the 5-8 rookie center fielder came to the plate in the Metrodome, Casey, for the first time, shouted: "Kurrrr-bee PUCK-it."
And within a few days, as Puckett made the walk from the Leamington to the Metrodome, people would say, "Hello, Kirby," and "We're glad to have you in Minnesota," and this young man knew he was home.
"From almost the first day, Minnesota felt like home," Puckett said. "I'm a Midwestern guy. Chicago people are OK, but they have more of an edge to them than Minnesotans. The Twin Cities had a Midwestern feel, like Chicago, but it's cleaner, lower key.
"I remember thinking, 'If I can make it with the Twins, I'm going to live here my whole life.' "
Puckett made it with the Twins. And he has lived here since renting an apartment in Bloomington and staying here during his first offseason.
Puckett went from a popular young player with the Twins to a star in 1986. After hitting four home runs in his first two seasons, Puckett hit 31 in 1986. He was voted to the American League All-Star team.
"I had been the leadoff guy - bunting, hitting the ball to right field, just trying to get on base," Puckett said. "Ray Miller was the manager. He called me in before the season and said, 'You're going to be my No. 3 hitter.'
"I said, 'I'm not that kind of a hitter. A No. 3 hitter is supposed to be a guy with power . . . the team's best hitter.' And Ray said, 'You are my best hitter.' "
Puckett went to work with hitting coach Tony Oliva. On Oliva's recommendation, Puckett developed a timing mechanism - lifting his left leg in sequence with the pitcher's delivery. This allowed Puckett to "stay on" more pitches, getting the bat to the ball more often with a hard swing.
Puckett also went from 175 pounds as a rookie to 220 pounds in his third season. There was a paunch, yes, but his chest and arms were rock solid, and that ample rear end turned out to be a power pack.
The Twins and Puckett took over the Twin Cities in 1987, when they went from next-to-last place in the American League West in '86 to beating St. Louis in seven games in the World Series.
"I played baseball for 25 years, and I was never on a team like the '87 Twins," Puckett said. "There was a closeness that I've never seen with any team. And we had an attitude. We would have a losing streak, five, six games, and we would say, 'Somebody's going to pay for this.' "
In 1991, the Twins were back in the World Series, playing Atlanta. They won the first two games in the Metrodome, then lost three in a row in Atlanta.
Game 6 was played on Oct. 26, a Saturday. Puckett arrived at the ballpark at midafternoon. The usually loose and loud Twins' clubhouse was quiet. The Twins took batting practice. The ball was exploding off Puckett's bat, so much so that first baseman Kent Hrbek observed his teammate might be in for a big night.
"We came up to the clubhouse after BP and there was no music playing, no joking around," Puckett said. "That wasn't the way my clubhouse - that's what I called it, 'my clubhouse' - was supposed to be.
"I waited until everybody was around their lockers and then I said, real loud, 'Boys, I have an announcement to make. You all seem quiet. Are you nervous about something? Well, don't worry. All you have to do tonight is jump on my back. The Gator's going to take care of this one.' "
"Gator" was short for instigator. It was Puckett's clubhouse nickname, as given to him by catcher Brian Harper.
And on that night, Puckett called his shot - more surely than Babe Ruth ever did - in that pregame address to the troops. He saved Game 6 with an amazing catch, then won it with an 11th-inning home run off Atlanta's Charlie Leibrandt.
The Twins won again the next night, 1-0 in 10 innings behind the pitching of Jack Morris, and Puckett had starred on two world championship teams for his adopted and embraced home state.
Five years later, Puckett worked diligently to get in prime shape in the offseason. He was smoking the baseball in spring training of 1996. And then, a few days before his 13th big-league season was to start, Puckett awoke from a night's sleep with a black dot in front of his right eye.
It turned out to be glaucoma. It cost him the vision in his right eye. Puckett's career was over at 35, with many more leg kicks and line drives taken suddenly from him and from the Twins.
Does Puckett, sitting in his executive vice president's quarters in the Twins offices, feel cheated by that twist of fate?
"Not at all," Puckett said. "I thank God that I enjoyed baseball the way I enjoyed, so I don't have to regret anything. I can say that: 'God, thank you so much for letting me be the person I was every day, so I would give baseball everything I had.' "