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Kirby Puckett ( 2006 ) was a Center Fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career with the Minnesota Twins from 1984 to 1995 . Puckett led the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991 , the only two championships for the franchise since their move to Minnesota in 1961. His gregarious personality and dynamic style of play endeared him to fellow players and fans alike. He is the Twins franchise's all-time leader (1961-present) in career Hits , Runs , Doubles and Total Bases , and his .318 career Batting Average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter in the second half of the 20th century. He was the only baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and one of only two to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire at age 35 due to loss of vision in one eye from Glaucoma , he was elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 2001 in his first year of eligibility. He died at the age of 45 following a massive Stroke . EARLY LIFE Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in the Robert Taylor Homes housing project. Unheralded in high school, he worked in a Ford plant and as a census taker before briefly attending Bradley University . In 1981, he decided to give baseball a second chance, after catching the eye of scouts while playing recreational ball in Chicago. He moved on to Triton College (in Illinois ) and was subsequently drafted by the Twins in the first round of the 1982 baseball draft. 1984-1990 At the time, Puckett was a slap hitter and outstanding defensive center fielder. Puckett produced a .382 batting average in his first Minor League season, with Elizabethton ( Tennessee ) in 1982. After his time in the minor leagues, including a stint with the Visalia Oaks , he was promoted to the major leagues earning a spot on the Twins roster on May 8 , 1984 . Called up to replace center fielder Jim Eisenreich , who was suffering from a severe ailment that eventually was revealed to be Tourette's Syndrome , Puckett quickly proved himself. On May 8 , he became only the 9th player in history to record 4 hits in the first full game of a career, by going 4 for 5 against the California Angels {Link without Title} . He was one of the league's best rookies in 1984, batting .296 and leading all American League center fielders in Outfield Assists , with 16. He had a similar season in 1985 , when he played in every game and batted .288. Coincidentally, in 1985, the song " Centerfield " by John Fogerty was released as a single. The single created an immediate association in Minnesota with the electric performance and humble personality of the team's rapidly rising center fielder. In his third season, Puckett burst into stardom. It all began in the off-season, when he worked with hitting coach Tony Oliva on driving the ball for distance. Despite his small stature — 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) — Puckett had immense strength and the quick wrists of a power hitter. In 1986 , he added this to his game, blasting 31 Home Run s, raising his average to .328 and winning the first of his six Gold Glove Award s for outstanding defensive play. In 1987 , Puckett led the Twins to their first title in the World Series after batting .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI in the regular season. His performance was even more impressive in the seven-game Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals , batting a whopping .357. The Twins won even more games in 1988 , though they finished second in their division to the powerful Oakland Athletics . Puckett had his statistically best season, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, to finish third in the MVP Balloting for a second straight season. He won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, making him the first right-handed batter to win the title in eight years. In April 1989, he made his 1,000th hit, the first (and only) player in the 20th century to do so in his first five seasons. He continued to play well in 1990 , but the Twins slipped to last place in their division. 1991-1995 In 1991 , the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league. Minnesota surged past Oakland in midseason and captured the division title, then upset the favored Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series . Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and six RBI in the playoffs to win MVP honors. 1991 World Series The World Series that followed is considered by many to be the most exciting ever. Both the Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves , had finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never been done before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two and had to win to stay alive. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by scoring Chuck Knoblauch with a triple, and helped to hold off an Atlanta rally in the third inning with a leaping catch off the outfield wall that stole a sure double by Ron Gant . The game went into Extra Innings , and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic Walk-off Home Run on 2-1 off Charlie Leibrandt to keep his team alive. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph, are always included in video highlights of Puckett's career, often accompanied by CBS Sports commentator Jack Buck 's words, "''And we'll see you tomorrow night!''" In the years to come, and especially after Puckett's death, Game 6 came to symbolize his entire career as an excellent ballplayer who always came through for the Twins when they needed it the most. The next night, Puckett's Twins won 1-0 in 10 innings for their second World Series Title . 1992-95 The Twins contended for one more season and then began to slip, but Puckett never did. In 1994 , he won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs in just 108 games, and he was having another brilliant season in 1995 before having his jaw broken by a Dennis Martínez fastball in late September. RETIREMENT He recovered fully and returned to the Twins for spring training in 1996 . On March 28 , after tattooing the Grapefruit League for a .360 average, he woke up unable to see out of his right eye. He was diagnosed with Glaucoma , and several surgeries over the next few months could not restore vision in the eye. On July 12 , Puckett announced his retirement from baseball at age 36. His lifetime batting average of .318 was the highest of any right-handed batter since Joe DiMaggio retired in 1951 . AWARDS AND ACCOLADES Puckett appeared in 10 straight All-Star Games and was named the MVP of the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore . The Twins retired his number 34 in 1997 . In 2001 he was elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame in his first year of eligibility, becoming the sixth player ever to be inducted before reaching the age of 41. In 1999 , he ranked Number 86 on '' The Sporting News ''' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Puckett had been admired throughout his career and for some years after. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality, charity work, community involvement, healthy image, good rapport with the media, and nice-guy attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. In 1993 he received the Branch Rickey Award for his community service {Link without Title} . CONTROVERSY Puckett became the subject of controversy in the years before his death. He was arrested and charged with groping a woman in a bar restroom in Eden Prairie on September 5 2002 . He was tried and acquitted. In the March 17 , 2003 edition of '' Sports Illustrated '', columnist Frank Deford penned a piece entitled "''The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett''" that documented Puckett's many indiscretions and contrasted his private image with the much-revered public image he maintained prior to his arrest. A companion of many years to Puckett commented once that when Puckett couldn't play baseball anymore, ''"he started to become full of himself and very abusive."'' He was alleged to have begun to perform lewd acts in public, such as urinating in the parking lot of an upscale local shopping center, in plain view of other people. Because of mounting controversy in Minnesota, Puckett moved to Arizona in the winter of 2003. DEATH On the morning of March 5 , 2006 , Kirby Puckett suffered a massive Hemorrhagic Stroke at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona . He underwent emergency Surgery that day to relieve pressure on his brain; the surgery failed, and his former teammates and coaches were notified the following morning. Many, including 1991 teammates Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek , flew to Phoenix to be at his bedside during his final hours. He died on ) of any Hall of Famer inductee while living. Puckett is survived by his children, son Kirby Jr. and daughter Catherine. At the time of his death he was engaged to marry Jodi Olson, with an expected wedding date of June 24 . A private memorial service was held in Twin Cities suburb Wayzata, Minnesota on the afternoon of March 12 (declared "Kirby Puckett Day" in Minneapolis ), followed by a public ceremomy held at the Metrodome attended by family, friends, ballplayers past and present and approximately 15,000 fans. Speakers at the latter service included current Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Dave Winfield , future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken , and a multitude of former teammates and coaches. The Puckett family has issued a statement about Kirby's death {Link without Title} . QUOTATIONS
TRIVIA
#A children's picture-book autobiography, Be the Best You Can Be (ISBN 0931674204), published by Waldman House Press in 1993; #An autobiography, I Love This Game: ''My Life and Baseball'' (ISBN 0060177101), published by HarperCollins in 1993; and #A book of baseball games and drills, Kirby Puckett's Baseball Games (ISBN 0761101551), published by Workman Publishing Company in 1996
FOOTNOTE 1During his career, Puckett had been listed as being born in 1961; however, research by the Baseball Hall of Fame in the 2000s discovered he was born a year earlier. Many baseball resources still list the incorrect birth year. Local media on the day of his death carried the correction, listing Puckett's lifespan as 1960-2006. EXTERNAL LINKS
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