Kirby Puckett saved baseball in Minnesota once. Now can he do it again?
For one glorious Tuesday in January, it was 1991 all over again in
Minnesota.
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Triviality
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Kirby Puckett led all major leaguers in hits over the 12 seasons he played. Which active player has gotten the most hits over the last 12 years?
(Answer at bottom.)
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If you looked closely enough, you could see the great Kirby splattering
himself off the fence to rob Ron Gant.
And you could see the great Kirby, smoking Minnesota's most magical
October home run ever.
And you could see the great Kirby, lighting up an entire state with a
smile wider than the Metrodome.
Sorry there, honorable Gov. Ventura. There is no more popular human
being in the state of Minnesota than Kirby Puckett. So the sight of Puckett
and Minnesota's own David Winfield giving Hall of Fame acceptance speeches on
the same day was almost enough to make Minnesotans forget what baseball has
become in their state since Kirby Puckett's right eye went dark.
"To have Kirby and Winfield go in Tuesday was a boost our market needed,"
said Twins GM Terry Ryan. "It really helped our organization to see two guys
with Twins ties go into the Hall of Fame."
But Winfield will be heading for Cooperstown as a Yankee or a Padre, not
as a Twin. So for Minnesota, this is really Kirby Puckett's show.
"Kirby is an unbelievable spokesman for our entire organization," Ryan
said. "He's just got that charisma. Everyone loves Kirby Puckett. You watch
him go around, and people just congregate toward him. He was on our press
caravan this week, going through all those small towns upstate. And it's
amazing. If he's on a stop, we'll get a thousand, maybe 1,500 people. If he's
not, we'll get 200 or 300."
That tells you all you need to know about Kirby Puckett. But
unfortunately, it also tells you all you need to know about the grave
condition of baseball in Minnesota.
"The fact is," Ryan admitted, "we can't continue to use Kirby Puckett as
our focal point. We need to move on. We need to realize there has to be life
after Kirby for this organization."
Ever since Puckett retired, it seemed as if hardly a season went by when
the Twins weren't scheduling some sort of Puckett extravaganza -- Kirby
Puckett Day, Kirby Puckett Night, Kirby Puckett Weekend, Kirby Puckett
Decade, Kirby Puckett Bobblehead Doll Night, Kirby Puckett Once Used STP Oil
Additive Day, whatever.
If the lovable Kirby could draw 14 extra people to the Metrodome for a
Twins-Angels game, the Twins sure weren't above using his name to do that.
And as Puckett's Hall of Fame inauguration nears, you can bet they'll be
scheduling plenty of inaugural balls for him in close proximity to the
right-field Hefty Bag in the months to come, too.
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“ |
Ever since Puckett retired, it seemed
as if hardly a season went by when the Twins
weren't scheduling some sort of Puckett
extravaganza -- Kirby Puckett Day, Kirby Puckett
Night, Kirby Puckett Weekend, Kirby Puckett
Decade, Kirby Puckett Bobblehead Doll Night,
Kirby Puckett Once Used STP Oil Additive Day,
whatever. ” |
But if baseball is going to be saved in Minnesota, the Twins can't allow
Puckett's past glories to hide their on-and-off-the-field troubles much
longer.
For baseball to survive in Minnesota, Eric Milton and Torii Hunter and
Jacque Jones and Matt Lawton are going to have to turn into the Viola and
Hrbek and Puckett and Gaetti of a previous Twins generation.
For baseball to survive in Minnesota, new COO Jerry Bell is going to have
to find a way to convince the public that a new ballpark is worth the money
that would have to be spent on it.
And for baseball to survive in Minnesota, the next labor deal is going to
have to provide meaningful help for franchises like this one -- as long as
they promise not to stuff any more revenue-sharing dollars inside Carl
Pohlad's mattress.
"To be honest, there's actually some optimism here now about this club,"
Ryan said. "We feel better about our chances than we have in a long time.
Obviously, on paper, it doesn't look like it. But in the winter, it's always
hard to sell that. What I hope is that we get to spring training and start to
turn this thing around. I really feel like we're heading in the right
direction."
It's hard to see this through all the losses, through the empty seats,
through the 13 straight seasons without a 30-homer man. But the Twins do have
talent.
If Milton, Mark Redman and Matt Kinney just fulfill their potential, they
could surround Brad Radke to give this club a very representative rotation.
If Christian Guzman and Luis Rivas do their thing up the middle, they
could be one of the most fun-to-watch double-play combinations in the league.
If Lawton stays (and Ryan swears he won't be traded), if David Ortiz
finally starts hitting some home runs, if Matt LeCroy can catch and LaTroy
Hawkins can close, they could position themselves as a team on the rise.
And of course, if none of those things happen, the Twins easily could be
swallowed up by contraction and disappear into the lake forever, too.
"We can do it with some help," Ryan said. "But I really think this market
wants this club to stay here. And we want to stay here."
Maybe the glow from Puckett's Hall of Fame enshrinement can lend them
some of that help, because there is no better reminder of what baseball in
Minnesota used to be than Kirby Puckett. But for this franchise to survive,
this is also the time for it to turn its attention to what baseball in
Minnesota can be tomorrow.
Speaking of Hall of Famers
Meanwhile on Tuesday, another living legend from those Twins juggernauts
of the early '90s also had a huge Hall of Fame election day.
Only in America could a pitcher with an 84-95 lifetime record get one
Hall of Fame vote. Of course, that's because only in America do we even have
cool but hokey inventions like the Hall of Fame. But whatever.
Jim Deshaies -- one of the best and most quotable people ever to pass
through this great game -- got a vote. One. Exactly one. And the world is a
better place because he did.
All right. So maybe not the entire world. But at least the world in and
around Deshaies' driveway, where neighbors actually showed up Tuesday with
pom-poms and a cake that had a giant "ONE" on it.
"There's still a little confetti strewn about the house," Deshaies, now a
popular broadcast-witticist for the Astros, reported the next day. "I think
there's half the cake left. And there's a big banner over the dining room
table that says: 'Cooperstown doesn't know what it's missing.' "
Or maybe it does. But regardless, unlike Puckett, who let his career
achievements speak for themselves, Deshaies couldn't take that chance. So his
old friend, Chuck Pool, and the computer geniuses at Avatar Technologies took
up the campaign for him -- setting up a web site dedicated to one basic goal:
Making sure Deshaies got one Hall of Fame vote. From somebody. Anybody.
And Tuesday, we got all the proof we need of the power of the internet.
Our hero did indeed get a vote. One. From Houston Chronicle columnist John
Lopez, a man who now claims he thought he was voting for Jim Rice.
"It was designed as a get-out-the-vote campaign," Deshaies said. "And it
was. That's what we got out -- one vote."
Afterward, Deshaies released a statement on his web site, thanking his
supporters. (OK, make that supporter.)
"Today," he said, "we acknowledge the will of the voters and accept
their mandate. I have called the winners and left a message of
congratulations ...
"But they have yet to call back."
Had Deshaies not gotten any votes, he said, he was "prepared to have my
legal team on the grounds of Cooperstown, espousing every candidate's right
to review the ballots." But now, following the model of other great
statesmen, he is moving on to push for national healing.
Now you never know. Maybe if he'd stepped up his efforts -- gone to
selective TV spots or possibly a whistle-stop tour of voters' homes (assuming
they were near any whistle stops) -- he could have swelled his vote total to
two, possibly even three.
Or perhaps he could have chosen a charismatic running mate to trick voters
into supporting him.
"Yeah, well, actually I did," Deshaies said. "I ran on the '93 Twins
ticket with President Winfield and Vice President Puckett. Now that we're in,
maybe I can be the Department of Sanitation chairman or something."
In fact, though, visitors to Deshaies' web site (www.putjdinthehall.com)
did in fact give him more votes than Winfield. So in the absence of actual
election, he's claiming "virtual election."
"A virtual induction is better than none at all," he said. "I have
always believed that if you don't care for the world in which you live, you
should create one of your own."
And who can argue with that? So stay tuned, in the months ahead, as we
follow the great Jim Deshaies all the way to his virtual induction, to be
held Aug. 5 in virtual obscurity.
The all-still Unemployed Team
1B: Wally Joyner
2B: Luis Alicea
SS: Kevin Stocker
3B: Sean Berry
LF: Rickey Henderson
CF: Roberto Kelly
RF: Butch Huskey
C: Benito Santiago
DH: Mike Stanley
Starting rotation: Bobby Jones, Paul Byrd, Ken Hill, Mike Oquist,
Steve Avery
Bullpen: Scott Kamieniecki, Rich DeLucia, Greg McMichael, Heathcliff
Slocumb, Jim Corsi, Darren Holmes, Jesse Orosco
Bats off bench: Jim Leyritz, Matt Franco, Hal Morris, Luis Polonia
Utility men: Jeff Reboulet, Manny Alexander, Mark Lewis
Utility humorist: Casey Candaele
Aimless rumblings
Most votes at owners' meetings during the Bud Selig administration have
been "unanimous." But sources say there was far from uninimity in the vote
Wednesday on the proposed competitive-balance draft.
Several teams have complained vociferously about this proposal. And
teams like Oakland, which has brilliantly plowed what resources it has into
player development, have every right to complain about losing players in an
age in which its payroll is $70 million lower than the Yankees'.
But the critics need to remember a couple of things: 1) there will be
many opportunities to tweak this proposal before it goes into effect (if it
ever does), and 2) it is nothing more than a collective-bargaining chip at
the moment, because the union needs to sign off on virtually all of the
measures discussed and/or voted on at this meeting.
"I don't think we can go to the union with anything at the bargaining
table until we've presented it to our own side and know how our side feels
about it," says one high-ranking baseball official. "We haven't always done
that in the past, and it's hurt us."
One reason this draft could make an impact -- and is so controversial -- is
that tentatively, teams would be able to protect just 25 players from their
entire systems. The only players exempt would be players chosen in the most
recent June draft.
That would be a big change from the last two expansion drafts, in which
only players eligible for the Rule 5 draft had to be on the 15-man protected
lists. This draft would expose even second- and third-year pros.
"If that's the case, then there has to be some kind of compensation for
clubs that lose a player," says one prominent baseball man who, while
supporting the concept of this draft, is troubled by the details. "You can't
allow clubs to lose a first-round pick from two years ago, a guy they might
have paid $3 million to sign, without reimbursing them in some way. You can't
just have, essentially, confiscation of property."
One early solution advanced to solve that problem is to have teams
losing players compensated with money from baseball's central fund, or to
give them extra picks in the June draft. Or both.
Despite all the grumbling, though, this draft, if structured properly
could be a significant step in helping competitive balance. And the GM of one
club that heartily supports this idea, the Phillies' Ed Wade, says it's time
for the detractors to look at the big picture.
"My feeling," Wade says, "is that at some point in time, we've got to
put self-interest aside for the good of the game. ... So many things we do
in this game are clouded by self-interest. We don't see past our noses
sometimes.
"The people complaining need to recognize that sometimes, circumstances
change. Look at a club like Baltimore. Four or five years ago, they were in a
very different situation than they're in now. Obviously, we all have to have
our own self-interests to some extent. But I really think that's what the
people in (management) are trying to accomplish right now -- to start getting
away from self-interest and moving toward what's good for the whole industry."
The biggest name left on the free-agent market belongs to Rickey Henderson.
The irrepressible Rickey has barely gotten a nibble, even though he is only
86 hits from 3,000 and 68 runs away from breaking Ty Cobb's record for career
runs scored. But despite the lack of suitors, Henderson continues to post
those situation-wanted ads.
"Rickey just told me again the other day: 'I'm not retiring. I'm
playing,' " says one of his agents, Dan Horwitz.
So stay tuned as Mr. Rickey knocks on doors until someone opens.
Unless something changes, it appears that Mariano Rivera will be heading
for another arbitration hearing with the Yankees. Rivera filed at $10.25
million (with the Yankees offering $9 million) after turning down a
three-year, $27-million offer this fall. The closer he compares most closely
with, Robb Nen, recently signed for three years, $24.9 million and will make
$6.3 million this year. So the Yankees appear to have no interest in crashing
the $10-million plateau for Rivera.
The Phillies and Scott Rolen's agents, Seth and Sam Levinson, are supposed
to sit down during spring training to discuss a possible extension for Rolen,
who can be a free agent after 2002. But one baseball official says Rolen's
market value as a 27-year-old free agent could be so monstrous, the Phillies
would have to start that conversation with a deal in nine figures.
"If it's not," the official said, "they've got problems."
Some recent free-agent signings that somehow flew below the
transaction-column's radar screen: Miguel Cairo to Oakland, Rich Becker to
Florida, Lyle Mouton to Florida, Thomas Howard to Pittsburgh, Yamil Benitez
to Boston, Todd Dunwoody to the Cubs, Dennis Springer to Oakland, Marc
Valdes to Atlanta.
Useless information dept.
One of our major gripes about Hall of Fame voting is the absurdity of
players gaining and losing huge chunks of votes every year. Our jobs as
voters ought to be as simple as this: Do we think this player is a Hall of
Famer, or not? Period. If we think so, we should vote for him every year. How
complicated is that?
Yet check out the vote fluctuations of players on this year's ballot:
Up: Gary Carter (plus 86), Goose Gossage (plus 62), Bruce Sutter (plus 53),
Jim Rice (plus 41) and Bert Blyleven (plus 34).
Down: Luis Tiant (minus 23), Dale Murphy (minus 23), Dave Parker (minus 20),
Ron Guidry (minus 17), Jack Morris (minus 10) and Keith Hernandez (minus
eight).
Or how about the highest two-year fluctuations:
Up: Carter (plus 166), Rice (plus 152), Sutter (plus 122), Tommy John (plus 53),
Blyleven (plus 39) and Jim Kaat (plus 39).
Down: Guidry (minus 4), Murphy (minus 3), Pete Rose's write-ins (minus 1).
Obviously, voters have the right to change their mind. But you would think
they would change it once, not annually. If anyone wants to explain this
phenomenon, we're all ears.
Carter's 86-vote pole vault is the fourth-largest jump in the last
quarter-century. And because he also surged by 80 votes last year, he becomes
only the second player since 1960 to accumulate increases of 80 or more in
two different elections.
The other to do it: Luis Aparicio -- who made a 126-vote leap between
1981 and then jumped by another 119 votes between 1983 and '84.
Here's some encouraging news for Carter and Rice (who made a 111-vote leap
last year): Since the Hall voting became an annual rite of winter in 1966,
every player who made a jump of 80 or more votes from one election to the
next has eventually been inducted into the Hall.
That group: Aparicio, Yogi Berra, Orlando Cepeda, Nellie Fox, Hal
Newhouser, Tony Perez and Early Wynn. (Cepeda, Fox and Newhouser all made it
in via the Veterans Committee.)
Pete Rose's year-by-year write-in totals: 41, 15, 19, 20, 19, 20, 12, 16,17
and 15 this year.
Assuming Murphy never makes it to the Hall (and that's an excellent
assumption, considering his drop below 100 votes), he would be only the
second eligible back-to-back MVP not to wind up in Cooperstown. The other:
Some guy named Maris ('60-61 Yankees).
We know that Puckett's 2,304 hits in the 12 seasons he played (1984-95)
were more than any other hitter active in those years. But in fact, only two
other players in the last half-century have gotten that many hits over any
12-season span.
The others, according to the Elias Sports Bureau's Ken Hirdt, were Pete
Rose (in numerous 12-year period, topped by his 2,473 hits from 1968-79) and
Stan Musial (in two different 12-year spans, topped by 2,373 hits from
1946-57).
By the way, Hank Aaron -- clearly not anticipating the future prospects
for this note -- had 2,303 hits from 1955-66, one short of Kirby.
Even in this frenetic day and age, it isn't often you see a team trade a
former rookie of the year (i.e., Ben Grieve) a mere two years after he won
his award.
Last time a former rookie of the year got traded this soon after his
trophy arrived: ESPN's own Rick Sutcliffe collected his trophy as a Dodger in
the winter of 1979, was traded in December of 1981 to Cleveland.
The four other rookies of the year since division play began who starred in
an episode of Let's Make A Deal within two years:
Carl Morton, 1970 NL: traded to Atlanta two winters later.
Earle Williams, 1971 NL: traded to Baltimore the following November.
Pat Zachry, 1976 NL co-winner: traded to the Mets the following June.
Butch Metzger, 1976 NL co-winner: traded to St. Louis the following May.
Speaking of Grieve, Devil Rays media-relations genius Rick Vaughn reports
that Grieve's 76 homers, 303 RBI and 108 doubles make him one of only seven
active players to have reached those plateaus before age 25. The others:
|
Player
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2B
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HR
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RBI
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Ken Griffey, Jr.
|
194
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172
|
543
|
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Alex Rodriguez
|
181
|
172
|
541
|
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Cal Ripken, Jr.
|
140
|
100
|
366
|
|
Andruw Jones
|
129
|
116
|
361
|
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Vladimir Guerrero
|
124
|
136
|
404
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Juan Gonzalez
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119
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140
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433
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Most career home runs by current players under 25: Andruw Jones (116), Troy
Glaus (77), Grieve (76).
If the Blue Jays were going to trade David Wells, they could have done
worse than a package headed by Mike Sirotka (assuming Sirotka is healthy).
Only three AL left-handers have won more games over the last three years than
the 40 Sirotka has won: Wells (55), Andy Pettitte (49) and Jamie Moyer (42).
Most wins by all left-handers over the last three years, according to Elias:
Tom Glavine 55
Randy Johnson 55
David Wells 55
Andy Pettitte 49
Mike Hampton 48
Al Leiter 46
Jamie Moyer 42
Kirk Ruerter 42
Mike Sirotka 40
Denny Neagle 40
Among the left-handers who have won fewer games than Sirotka the last three
years: Chuck Finley (39), Kenny Rogers (39), Shawn Estes (33), Brian Bohanon
(31), Brian Anderson (31) and Eric Milton (28).
Elias' Kevin Hines reports that David Cone is the fifth prominent Yankees
free agent to bolt for Boston in the last 25 years.
And if you look at the big picture (as opposed to certain home runs
involving Bucky Dent), all of the other four fared better in their first year
in Boston than they had in their final year in New York. Take a look:
Mike Torrez
'77 Yankees: 14-12, 3.86
'78 Red Sox: 16-13, 3.96
Don Baylor
'85 Yankees: .231, 23 HR, 91 RBI
'86 Red Sox: .238, 31 HR, 94 RBI
Rick Cerone
'87 Yankees: .243, 4 HR, 23 RBI
'88 Red Sox: .269, 3 HR, 27 RBI
Mike Stanley
'95 Yankees: .268, 18 HR, 83 RBI
'96 Red Sox: .270, 24 HR, 69 RBI
On the other hand, Stanley missed the Yankees' first World Series title
in '96. Cerone U-turned right back to the Yankees a year later. Baylor's
career was over within two years. And Torrez gave up a certain home run that
will remain nameless. So draw your own conclusions.
Jose Vidro just signed a four-year, $19-million deal with Montreal after a
season in which he became only the second second baseman since the '30s to
hit .300, with 200 hits, 100 runs and 50 doubles. The other: Craig Biggio in
1998. Last to do it before that: Billy Herman and Charlie Gehringer in 1936.
Since Frank Robinson joined the .300-200-100-50 Club in 1962, this is a
feat accomplished only by eight players: Vidro, Biggio, Don Mattingly (1986),
Wade Boggs (1989), John Olerud (1998), A-Rod (1996) and Todd Helton (2000).
Finally, since our new president, George W. Bush, told Entertainment Weekly
that his favorite TV show is (what else?) "Baseball Tonight," we'll return
the favor with an important presidential note.
We want the thoroughly unrelated Homer Bush to know he's the first
player to have the same last name as his current president since the last
Bush administration, when Randy Bush did the honors.
We also want Homer to know that the all-time leader in hits by players
with the same name as the current president is Deron Johnson, who got 589
hits during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.
The complete leaderboard in this vital category:
|
Hitter
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President
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Hits
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Deron Johnson
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Lyndon Johnson
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589
|
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Gary Carter
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Jimmy Carter
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572
|
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Chief Wilson
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Woodrow Wilson
|
485
|
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Art Wilson
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Woodrow Wilson
|
444
|
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Alex Johnson
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Lyndon Johnson
|
353
|
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Bob Johnson
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Lyndon Johnson
|
286
|
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Dan Ford
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Gerald Ford
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260
|
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Randy Bush
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George Bush
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236
|
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Frank Johnson
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Lyndon Johnson
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43
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Elmer Cleveland
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Grover Cleveland
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32
|
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John Kennedy
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John Kennedy
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22
|
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Fin Wilson
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Woodrow Wilson
|
12
|
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Jerry Johnson
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Lyndon Johnson
|
2
|
|
Mutt Wilson
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Woodrow Wilson
|
1
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Trivia answer
Rafael Palmeiro (2,064). Rest of the top five: Mark Grace
(2,057), Roberto Alomar (2,043), Tony Gwynn (1,967) and Craig Biggio (1,943).
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | |
ALSO SEE
Caple: Congrats, Puck
Puckett, Winfield receive Hall passes to Cooperstown
Jayson Stark 2000 archive
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Kirby Puckett credits his hard work for his induction to the Hall of Fame.
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