Dave Winfield
Born: Oct. 3, 1951, in St. Paul.
Family: Wife - Tonya (Turner). Children - twins David and Arielle, 6, and daughter Lauren Shanel, 18, a student at Florida A&M.
Current employment: President of the baseball division of Professional Athlete Systems, with office in Los Angeles. Winfield heads a program called "Call of Fame," in which fans can have a phone conversation with former baseball stars for a fee.
Career
Drafted by San Diego with the third overall choice from University of Minnesota in June 1973 and went immediately to the major leagues. Played eight seasons with the Padres, then signed 10-year free-agent contract with the Yankees on Dec. 15, 1980.
Played for the Yankees until April 1990, when he was traded to the California Angels. Played two seasons with the Angels, won the World Series with Toronto in 1992, then played two seasons with the Twins (1993-94). Was traded to Cleveland during players' strike late in '94, then played 46 games for Cleveland in 1995.
Retired in February 1996.
Numbers
Career average of .283, with 3,110 hits, 465 home runs and 1,833 RBI. He's one of seven players with 3,000 hits and 400 home runs. Others are Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Carl Yastrzemski, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken.
Best season: Winfield batted .308 with 34 home runs and a National League-leading 118 RBI for San Diego in 1979, his seventh season in the majors.
Milestone
Winfield had his 3,000th hit playing for the Twins on Sept. 16, 1993. It was a bouncing RBI single off the Metrodome's turf against Oakland's Dennis Eckersley.
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Kirby Puckett
Born: March 14, 1960, in Chicago
Family: Wife - Tonya (Hudson). Children - Catherine and Kirby Jr.
Current employment: Executive vice president of baseball for the Twins since 1996.
Career
Drafted by Minnesota as the third player in the first round of the 1982 January free-agent draft. Was called up to the majors during his third minor-league season, and played all 12 of his big-league seasons with the Twins.
Played on two World Series championship teams, in 1987 and '91, was the ALCS MVP in '91, the All-Star game MVP in '93, the Silver Slugger Award winner five times, the Gold Glove six times, and was an All-Star 10 times.
Retired in July 1996 without playing a game that season because of a blurred vision in his right eye.
Numbers
Career average of .318 with 2,304 hits, 207 home runs and 1,085 RBI. Had more hits in his first 10 full seasons than anyone in the 20th century, 2,040. Only Willie Keeler, who played in the 19th century, had more -- 2,065.
Best season: In 1988, Puckett had career-bests in average (.356), hits (234) and RBI (121), in his fourth full season in the majors.
Milestone
Puckett won the AL batting title with a .339 average in 1989, becoming the first righthanded batter in a full season to win one since Alex Johnson in 1970.
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What do you most remember about Puckett, Winfield?
Hall of Fame Web site
Excerpts from Dave Winfield's Hall of Fame speech
Winfield gets the call from the Hall
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