R.I.P. Kirby Puckett

There once was a time I was a pretty big Minnesota Twins fan. Conveniently, it was during their dynasty years of the late 80's, early 90's when Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, Dan Gladden, Greg Gagne, and Joe Morris hit, fielded, and pitched their ways to two World Series championships. The real star of the show, however, was Kirby Puckett. The squat outfielder stood at only 5'8" but swung his bat and flashed his leather with enough success to eventually earn induction into the MLB Hall of Fame. Kirby was one of my favorite players, and I was saddened to learn, in 1996, that he had to retire at age 36 due to the onset of blindness in one of his eyes, a victim of glaucoma.

Yesterday, he died of a stroke at age 45. It's even sadder when one of your childhood heroes leaves this earth.

In seventh grade, a friend of mine invited me to an Orioles game against the Twins. I had only been living in Maryland for three years, so I hadn't pledged my allegiance to the O's yet. I was more excited to see the Twins, who that fall would win the World Series. Better yet, my buddy's family knew Gary "The Rat" Gaetti, who played the hot corner for Minnesota. In inducing me to come to the game (wasn't too hard), my friend told me Gaetti promised he would have pizza with us afterwards. The chance to meet a major league baseball player was too much to resist.

As I recall, the Twins won that night. We headed to the team hotel to catch up with Gaetti. He met us in the lobby and we all sat down for a chat. I was talking to a real baseball player! I asked him about the condition of the field at Memorial Stadium, which stadiums he liked the best, how he became an MLBer. He patiently answered all my questions. For a 12 year old, this was some seriously cool stuff!

But the real highlight of the night for me, was when I heard the door open behind me and Kirby Puckett walked right past me through the lobby and hopped on an elevator. He was close enough to touch! Talking to Gary Gaetti was fun, but there was Kirby Puckett right over there!!

Eventually Gaetti informed us he was pretty wiped out from the game and would have to cancel our dinner plans. We thanked him for meeting us. I never asked for an autograph because I was just happy to have spent 20 minutes with a pro baseball player whose attention was focused on me. But just as much as I remember those twenty minutes, I remember the 20 seconds where I was in the same room as the great Kirby Puckett. RIP.