Kirby Puckett, who led the Minnesota Twins to two World Series titles, including one over the 1987 St. Louis Cardinals before his career was cut short by glaucoma, died Monday after a stroke. He was 45.
“He was revered throughout the country and will be remembered wherever the game is played,” commissioner Bud Selig said. “Kirby was taken from us much too soon – and too quickly.”
Indeed, Puckett was the second-youngest person to die having already been enshrined at Cooperstown, Hall of Fame spokesman Jeff Idelson said. Only Lou Gehrig, at 37, was younger.
Stricken early Sunday at his Arizona home, Puckett died at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, where friends and family had gathered. Puckett, who was divorced, is survived by his children, Catherine and Kirby Jr. He was engaged to be married to Jodi Olson this summer.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
Puckett led the Twins to championships in 1987 and 1991 after breaking into the majors in 1984. With a career batting average of .318, six Gold Gloves and 10 All-Star game appearances, Puckett woke up one morning during spring training in 1996 and never played again because of blindness in his right eye.
Shortly after his induction to Cooperstown in 2001, then-wife Tonya accused him of threatening to kill her during an argument – he denied it – and described to police a history of violence and infidelity. In 2003, he was cleared of all charges from an alleged sexual assault of a woman at a suburban Twin Cities restaurant and kept a low profile after the trial, eventually moving to Arizona. He stopped coming to spring training as a special instructor in 2002.
Puckett was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try in 2001, and his plaque praised his “ever-present smile and infectious exuberance.”
He spent his entire career with Minnesota.
“I wore one uniform in my career and I’m proud to say that,” Puckett once said. “As a kid growing up in Chicago, people thought I’d never do anything. I’ve always tried to play the game the right way. I thought I did pretty good with the talent that I have.”
