Kirby Puckett To Be Taken Off Life Support

[joeychitwood]

WCCO TV in Minneapolis is reporting tonight at 5 PM that former Twins star Kirby Puckett's family and friends are gathering at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona tonight, and that he will likely be taken off life support (http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_064130331.html) later this afternoon or evening.

Puckett suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm yesterday. He had emergency surgery yesterday and has been on life support since.

Puckett played for the Twins for 12 years, was a 10 time All Star and led the Twins to two World Series championships in 1987 and 1991. He retired in 1996 when he went blind in one eye because of glaucoma.

Prayers and thought go out to his family and close friends. Puck was one of the most beloved professional athletes in Minnesota sports history.

[catdoc]

Wow...hadn't heard this yet, that's horrible. :(

[BrianD]

That is very sad.

[joeychitwood]

Twins Great Kirby Puckett Dies (http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_065104727.html)

From the Twins website:

Besides his endless on-field accomplishments, Puckett was also one of the game's greatest community leaders and was given Major League Baseball's Roberto Clemente Man of the Year Award in 1996. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2001, becoming the third-youngest living electee in baseball history (behind Sandy Koufax and Lou Gehrig). He had his number 34 formally retired by the Twins on May 25, 1997, was selected to the Twins' 40th Season Anniversary All-Time Team in 2000 and was inducted into the Twins' Hall of Fame on August 12, 2000.

Puckett is survived by his daughter Catherine, son Kirby, Jr., and his fiancée Jodi Olson and her son Cameron. Funeral arrangements are pending at this time and will be communicated once they become available

http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10103000/10103720.jpg

[Ritten]

Joey, as one Minnesota Twins fan to another, it is truly a sad, sad day.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Holy Moly! I had no idea this happened. Time to thumb through all my old baseball cards and immortalize all the Kirby Pucketts.

[joeychitwood]

I think the most exciting moment I've ever witnessed in sports was Kirby's 11th inning game-ending home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series, forcing Game 7. The Metrodome crowd went nuts and the noise was absolutely deafening. The greatest World Series of all time.

[Misfit6669]

Great baseball player, bad man.

ATLANTA (SI.com) -- Baseball fans across the country were shocked last year when Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, one of the game’s most beloved figures, was charged with sexually assaulting a woman at a suburban Minneapolis restaurant.

But that incident was merely the latest in a pattern of alleged sexual indiscretions and violent acts by the former Minnesota Twins icon, according to the cover story by Frank Deford, with special reporting by George Dohrmann, in this week’s Sports Illustrated.

Puckett has pleaded innocent in the restaurant incident, and is scheduled to go on trial March 24 for false imprisonment and criminal sexual assault.

Laura Nygren, whom SI describes as Puckett's "mistress of many years," told the magazine that Puckett resumed an affair with her just seven weeks after he was married in 1986 -- then cheated on Nygren with numerous other women.

After the onset of glaucoma in his right eye forced him to retire in 1996, Puckett began committing lewd acts in public, such as urinating in mall parking lots, Nygren told SI. Her relationship with the ex-ballplayer ended last March after he allegedly threatened her and she obtained a temporary order of protection.

Shortly before Puckett was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2001, a female employee of the Twins threatened to file a sexual harassment suit against the team because of Puckett’s and other men’s behavior. The Twins allegedly made a financial settlement with her, according to SI. The Twins declined to comment to the magazine about this allegation.

Puckett’s ex-wife, Tonya, divorced him in December, barely a year after she told police that he threatened to kill her during a telephone conversation. Over the years, she told SI, Puckett had also tried to strangle her with an electrical cord, locked her in the basement and used a power saw to cut through a door after she had locked herself in a room. Once, she said, he even put a cocked gun to her head while she was holding their young daughter.

Puckett’s upcoming trial stems from charges that he pulled a woman into the men’s room of a restaurant in Eden Prairie, Minn., on Sept. 5, 2002, and fondled her. The woman told police that Puckett released her only when her girlfriend opened the door to the men’s room and screamed.

Puckett, who retired with a .318 career average, 207 home runs, 1,085 RBIs and 134 stolen bases in 12 seasons, helped Minnesota win the World Series in 1987 and 1991. But the 5-foot-8, 230-pound center fielder was revered in the Twin Cities -- and throughout baseball -- as much for his “good guy� nature as for his play.

He and his ex-wife were involved in numerous community projects and during his career he won the Branch Rickey and the Roberto Clemente Man of the Year awards for community service. He’s also a member of the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame.

But that image also was a sham, according to Nygren. One day after he had retired, she told SI, they were together when Puckett said he had to leave to visit a sick child who was waiting to meet him.

“That’s great, you get to make that kid’s day,� Nygren told him. “That must make you feel good.� But she said Puckett just snapped back at her.

“I don’t give a s---,� he said. “It’s just another kid who’s sick.�

Puckett declined to be interviewed for the SI story.

[joeychitwood]

Puckett was acquitted on those charges. And the rest is heresay from a jilted mistress.

No one claims he was a saint. Just the most beloved professional athlete in Minnesota.

[Misfit6669]

I understand, he was acquitted of the bathroom charges but he never discounted the SI story. If it was all untrue, he could own part of SI just like Mike Price.

A lot of us really looked up to him for his Pete Rose style of play.

He truly was a great, great baseball player and somebody I really respected on the field.

BUT...Because he has died, a lot of folks seem to put his off the field issues in the trash and do make him sound like a saint.

Sorry to sound insensitive to this Mark, I know when John Elway dies, I will be crushed.

[moogoomoogoo]

Good grief! Let ye without sin cast the first stone.

[schulace123]

so sad:( i live in mn so this sucks....no need bring that up though right after he dies, thats not right....

[Misfit6669]

Sorry then, what's the time frame. How long should I wait?

Sorry moogoomoogoo, it's not about sin, it's about beating up on women. He could of bet on baseball, have multiple drug convictions and I wouldn't feel this way.

Just because you die, doesn't make it ok to beat up on women, allegedly multiple times. Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Hitting .318 and winning two series will never justify hitting a woman or strangling a woman with an electrical cord.

Again, I am sorry if this is too offensive to some of you but I am tired of hearing how great of a man he was.

Great baseball player? Oh hell yeah.

Great person? Not if you were one of the women he allegedly attacked.

What happens when Orenthal dies, do we talk about his days with the Bills, his Heisman trophy, his rushing for 2000 yards in 14 games for the first 24 hours, or is it 48.

Again, I am sorry if you are bothered by this, just want people to see both sides a little more before we praise everybody just for dying. It's just MHO, I know this will not be a polular take at all and hope I didn't violate the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.

[BrianD]

I think you miss the point.

Joey didn't start the thread to celebrate or judge the man's life. He started it to mourn his death. You are more than welcome to start as many threads as you like to discuss Puckett's character, but be charitable and allow those who wish to remember Mr. Puckett in another way to do so.

[Misfit6669]

I am sorry joeychitwood.

[KING OF THE REEF]

kirby RIP man

[joeychitwood]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6904739#post6904739 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Misfit6669
I am sorry joeychitwood. No problem.

We are remembering Kirby Puckett as Dave Winfield described him: "The only player in the history of baseball that everybody (other players) loved." He played with enthusiasm, intensity and joy, despite not being the most talented or physically gifted person on the field.

In the mid 90s, Kirby came to my daughter's school on a winter Twins promotional tour. She listened as he quietly asked her teacher which kids were shy or picked on or in need of some attention, and he sought them out and focused his attention on them. At age 12, my daughter learned a lesson in compassion.