"And We'll See You... TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!"

Jack Buck, during the 1991 World Series, announcing Twins center fielder Kirby Puckett's game-winning eleventh-inning walk-off home run in Game 6 against the Atlanta Braves' Charlie Leibrandt.

That is for me, the most memorable call from a baseball game in my lifetime. I can still get goose bumps thinking about that home run. That was arguably the greatest World Series ever, and Kirby Puckett was at the center of it. And this was well before I became a die-hard Twins fans. Kirby had retired three years before I got into the Twins.

Click here for a very eloquent remembrance of Kirby. Non-baseball types might even want to take a gander. It is much more eloquent, concise, and insightful than anything you'll read here. I really really like what Bat Girl has to say about mourning the loss of Kirby for the third time now, and what she has to say about the God-like status we put on athletes, who are just as imperfect and flawed as we are.



I may not have grown up a Twins fan. But I was Kirby Puckett fan, even when I was a high school kid in Texas or a hayseed at a rural Iowa college. Emily owns one baseball card. I was shocked to know she even owned that many. Not surprisingly, it is Kirby's rookie card.

And it is also no coincidence that I have the exact card. Emily likes to say our Kirby Puckett cards are married.

What amazes me about Kirby Puckett is those who followed baseball all loved him. And we all loved him for the same reasons: the smile, the warm personality, and the fact that he looked and played like the fat guy in the softball league that can hit the ball a mile and somehow blaze around the outfield. And the 1991 World Series.

Obviously Kirby wasn't perfect. It would be disingenuous of anyone to talk about his life and gloss over the alleged domestic abuse, the infidelity, and his overall fall from grace after he had to retire from baseball. But this is where we have to be careful as fans. Judge an athlete for what he does in the game, how he treats his teammates, and what kind of effort he gives the fans. You tread in dangerous water when you judge these guys as people. If you can't take the good with the bad, you shouldn't follow sports.

That being said, one of my favorite Kirby Puckett moments did occur away from the baseball diamond. It was when he was on David Letterman in 1997 and he read the "Top Ten Ways to Mispronounce Kirby Puckett" on-air. I don't know if I laughed harder when he said "Turkey Bucket" or "Punky Brewster," but I remember both. Click here for the whole list.

Kirby meant so much to the state of Minnesota. It is sad that he couldn't control his personal demons. And it is sad he had to die so young before he could overcome them. We can only hope he found peace in his life these last two years that he faded from the public eye in the Twin Cities.