Kirbeeeeeeee Puckeeeeeett!!!
Kirby Puckett died yesterday and it's made me sadder than I thought I would be. Sad that anyone should die at 45, but so much sadder that he was an icon of my youth. I'm not claiming to be a huge baseball fan or even know that much about the sport, but the memories I have of attending Twins games with my family in my childhood are some of the best. And seeing Kirby in action, of course, was always the highlight.
Maybe once a year, for a couple years in a row when I was maybe 7-10 or so, on one special Saturday in the summer, my whole family would work hard to get chores done in the morning and we would pack a big lunch to take with us and make the long drive to the Metrodome. Having driven with my parents in the Cities as an adult, I can only image what it was like for them to try and navigate Minneapolis then. Once we'd found parking, we would eat our sandwiches and carrot sticks and take a drink from the jug full of lemonade and head inside for an early afternoon game. It didn't matter if we had nosebleed seats...it was just cool that we got to see our favorite players in action, including Kirby.
Another summer, my family didn't go to the dome, but my mom thought it would be a special treat to take me up with her on a local fan bus. As a kid, this was pretty cool because it would be just my mom and I, going to watch a baseball game. While there, we got a pop and it came in...gasp!...a plastic Kirby Puckett cup! That was the coolest thing. Cups like that are probably a dime a dozen, but we kept that cup around our house for a long time because it had Kirby on it.
Baseball was never the same for me after the players' strike in the mid-90s. I think my rebellious little self determined that if baseball players were too selfish to play, they weren't going to get my patronage when they got over themselves. I haven't been to a Twins game in ages...perhaps even since I was in 6th grade. But I've resolved to follow them this year and will do my very best to make it to at least one game at the Dome (hopefully more).
(On a side note, in our kitchen, there is a flip book of Kirby's 1991 game six-winning homer that I think is another coolest thing and I've taken to flipping through occassionally. One of my roommates saw it for the first time this weekend and thought it was weird. Now I want to keep it.)
Maybe once a year, for a couple years in a row when I was maybe 7-10 or so, on one special Saturday in the summer, my whole family would work hard to get chores done in the morning and we would pack a big lunch to take with us and make the long drive to the Metrodome. Having driven with my parents in the Cities as an adult, I can only image what it was like for them to try and navigate Minneapolis then. Once we'd found parking, we would eat our sandwiches and carrot sticks and take a drink from the jug full of lemonade and head inside for an early afternoon game. It didn't matter if we had nosebleed seats...it was just cool that we got to see our favorite players in action, including Kirby.
Another summer, my family didn't go to the dome, but my mom thought it would be a special treat to take me up with her on a local fan bus. As a kid, this was pretty cool because it would be just my mom and I, going to watch a baseball game. While there, we got a pop and it came in...gasp!...a plastic Kirby Puckett cup! That was the coolest thing. Cups like that are probably a dime a dozen, but we kept that cup around our house for a long time because it had Kirby on it.
Baseball was never the same for me after the players' strike in the mid-90s. I think my rebellious little self determined that if baseball players were too selfish to play, they weren't going to get my patronage when they got over themselves. I haven't been to a Twins game in ages...perhaps even since I was in 6th grade. But I've resolved to follow them this year and will do my very best to make it to at least one game at the Dome (hopefully more).
(On a side note, in our kitchen, there is a flip book of Kirby's 1991 game six-winning homer that I think is another coolest thing and I've taken to flipping through occassionally. One of my roommates saw it for the first time this weekend and thought it was weird. Now I want to keep it.)
posted by basily22 @ 3:29 PM
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