Afternoon Baseball

I really got to know what Kirby Puckett was like as a player during the 1991 World Series. I was actually in Cooperstown for a few of those games, visiting the Hall of Fame. I was also 8, so the memory is not perfect.
But he was the best player on the field that entire series, and that was the second time he had led a team all the way in five years.

He's a Hall of Famer. Forget the arguments of how Mattingly's numbers are just as good, or Puckett only did this or that. He played at a high-caliber level for 12 years and won two championships, six Gold Gloves, and hit .318.
Did his election get a boost from his injury? Of course. But if he had simply retired, he wouldn't be in the Hall because he cut his career short. Instead, though, his career was forcibly cut short, and so we judge him on what he did do. Besides, as I've mentioned, the tradeoff for Puckett was tremendous.
For a Hall of Fame induction, he traded six to eight years of his career, his sight, his physical fitness, much of his reputation as a good guy and ultimately, 30 years of his life.

Also, we forget how far he came. Yes, he was the third overall pick in 1982, but he hit 4 HR in his first 289 games. Yet he averaged 20.3 HR over his last ten years in the majors, hitting over 400 doubles in his career and stealing 134 bases -- not back for a guy the Associated Press eulogized as "barrel-shaped."
To be sure, there's room to criticize. But Puckett, absent of anything but being on the field, was a joy to watch. And that's what we'll remember, and those after who never saw him play will remember long after all the background noise fades away.