Kirby Puckett dead at 45
 

Too soon.

Kirby was one of the good guys who didn't (seem to) need steroids to make him a great one...just some more time.

R.I.P.

I figured this would come after hearing about the stroke this morning.

Didn't he have some pre-existing condition that had been giving him trouble for a while?

Still, it's a shame to see someone like Puckett go. He wasn't the biggest, fastest or strongest player on the field. But he loved the game and never saw fit to soil its reputation with drugs or putting on an arrogant face for the media.

Did he ever get into Cooperstown? I'm inclined to say he did but can't remember for sure.

I'm pretty sure he did in 2001.

Unfortunate, but not surprising. He didn't look like he was in great health, and the stroke was a sad indication that he wasn't going to last long.

Glaucoma forced him out of the game in 1996. That in itself was a bizarre circumstance, since he was apparently rocking it in the G-fruit League.

I don't know if he had anything else, but he developed Glaucoma a little while after getting hit in the eye with a baseball. I believe it was what made him retire from the game.

Having grown up in Minnesota all my life, I grew up on Kirby Puckett and the twins. I can remember being 6 years old and seeing the Twins win in '91. This is indeed a very sad day.

RIP Puck.

It is a sad day indeed. I believe he had battled weight problems since his retirement, which probably contributed to all of this.

Wow, that really is a shame. I heard he had a stroke, but this is the first news I heard on him dying. That really is terrrible.

My father told me the news last night. I spend a lot of my childhood living in Minnesota, (Bloomington to be exact) so I also grew up watching Twins baseball. Sad to see him go, he will be missed.

Watching the Twins in the world series in 1987 and 1991 was totally awesome. Puckett and Hrbek were two of my favorites of the time.

I heard the stroke which was a shock in itself, but then about the time I heard that, he died...it was like, WHAT?!

:cry:

Puckett was an amazing player. In only 12 seasons he had over 2000 hits, and over 200 home runs. He was always smiling, and seemed to be one of the nicer players ever to play the game. Add to the fact he held a higher career batting average than Roberto Clemente, and you have one of the best players, and people ever in Major League Baseball. He will be dearly missed.

I heard and I was very surprised to hear about this. He was a great baseball player for the Minnesota Twins.

RIP.

Kirby Puckett was as talented a player as there ever was in baseball. His body of work on the diamond speaks for itself. It's very sad that not only his playing career, but also his life, was cut so short. Since he retired, he's had several off-the-field problems, but overall he was a great man.