Gilbert Gutknecht: “shock waves reverberated through the sports world on Friday. Kirby Puckett told us what we did not want to hear, that…”

“shock waves reverberated through the sports world on Friday. Kirby Puckett told us what we did not want to hear, that this was the last day that he would wear Twins uniform No. 34. Baseball is a game for optimists. "We will get them tomorrow" and "wait until next year" are examples created by baseball fans. We all wanted to believe that the doctors would perform magic and that Kirby would once again be patrolling the outfield and bedeviling American League pitchers. It was not to be. If baseball is a game for optimists, Kirby Puckett was its best salesman. Maybe it was all that energy and enthusiasm trapped inside that teddy bear body that allowed him to defy the laws of gravity, the laws of physics. With leaps that would make Michael Jordan proud, Kirby robbed countless hitters of home runs. In a sports world dominated today by megabuck contracts and even bigger egos, he was a throwback to an earlier day, to earlier day heroes. He did not believe in trash talk. He let his play speak for itself, and speak it did. His record of excellence shouts at you. In his roughly 12 years in the major leagues, he appeared in 12 All Star games. He won six Golden Gloves. He hit 207 home runs, had a lifetime batting average of .318, and he has two World Series rings to show for it. Not bad for a kid who almost spent his life at the Ford assembly plant on Terrance Avenue. He got laid off and returned to baseball, and we all are richer for it.”