Where were you on January 13th, 1982? On this day, the MLB January Amateur Draft (which no longer exists) commenced. The third selection belonged to the Minnesota Twins. Their selection was an outfielder out of Triton College.
His name? Kirby Puckett.
Puckett's selection gave the Twins a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise. Puckett introduced a generation of fans to Twins baseball and gave the team their two World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.
Kirby Puckett's selection was a game-changer for the Twins
The first pick of the draft went to the Toronto Blue Jays, who took Bacone College’s Kash Beauchamp, who played in the minors for 12 seasons. Up next was the Chicago Cubs, who selected Troy Afenir. Afenir did not sign with the Cubs and was later drafted by the Houston Astros in the 1983 January draft. and played 45 games with the Astros, Athletics, and Reds from 1987-1992.
That allowed the Twins to select Puckett with the third overall pick. After two seasons in the minor leagues, Puckett debuted with the Twins on May 8th, 1984. Despite grounding out in his first official MLB at-bat, Puckett singled four consecutive times in the Twins’ 5-0 win over the California Angels.
Puckett finished his 12-year career with 2,304 hits and 207 home runs in a Minnesota Twins uniform. In three of those seasons, Puckett led all of MLB in total hits. There’s a strong case to be made that Puckett should have won at least one AL MVP in career had analytics been more commonplace in baseball circles.
But what made Puckett special was his performance in both Twins' World Series appearances.
The Twins and the St. Louis Cardinals won each of their three home games in the 1987 World Series, so it all came down to Game 7 in the Metrodome. With the Cardinals up 2-1 in the fifth and Greg Gagne at first, Puckett laced a double to right-center field to tie the game. The Twins went on to win 4-2, bringing the Commissioner's Trophy to the Twin Cities for the first time in MLB history.
Four years later, the Twins won the 1991 World Series, where Puckett delivered the greatest postseason performance in franchise history in Game 6, making a leaping catch in center field and hitting a walk-off home run off Charlie Leibrandt in the bottom of the 11th inning.
At age 35, Puckett appeared on his way to the 3,000-hit marker, but a devastating hit-by-pitch in September 1995 derailed his career. In 1996, glaucoma caused Puckett to retire from baseball and in 2001, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Puckett died due to a stroke in 2006 but his legacy still lives on. His No. 34 jersey is retired by the franchise and he even has a gate and a statue in his honor at Target Field, which opened in 2010.
Overall, Puckett remains one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise, making Jan. 13th a special day to remember.