amkean pronunciation

I'm not a person who wears professional sports jerseys. In my lifetime, I've asked for one pro sports jersey for Christmas and my birthday (to no avail), and that's a Minnesota Twins Kirby Puckett #34 jersey. I had a lot of people in sports I liked a lot. I had posters of Nolan Ryan, Ryne Sandberg, and Will Clark. Puckett was different: he was one of the only pro athletes I would have called a hero. When I was in high school, I became disenchanted with professional athletes as I followed my favorites sports. Kirby Puckett was the antithesis of the spoiled, underachieving athlete, as prototyped by Derrick Coleman. I didn't know Puckett personally, and so the things I'll say about him will be said by hundreds or thousands of eulogizers today, but he was so special that you can repeat over and over again that he had the greatest attitude in professional sports and still not do it justice. He always talked about how lucky he was to be playing the game he loved, and he played it well. A career batting average of .318. Fielding? He excelled, earning 6 Gold Gloves and routinely making highlight reel catches. Fairly or not, athletes are judged not only on their statistics, but whether they win championships. Could he play in the clutch? Puckett famously told his teammates in the '91 World Series to "Jump on my back boys, I'm carrying you tonight." He was going to carry them through, and his clutch play, capped by a game-winning home run in the eleventh inning of Game 6, won the Puckett and the Twins their second World Series. The 1987 Championship team was more modest, but they meant a little bit more, because with Puckett's leadership, they got the monkey off Minnesota's back. The North Stars had been Stanley Cup runners-up. The Vikings had lost the Super Bowl four times. Hubert Humphrey? Second place. Walter Mondale? Second place by a long way. Puckett team of good natured, likable players gave Minnesota a first place finish. When Puckett's body forced him out of the game he loved, he memorably stated that he was happy for the time he had to play baseball. I traveled halfway across the country to Cooperstown to see Puckett inducted into the Hall of Fame. There's no other athlete I would make that effort for. In all the encomiums, will people mention the unfortunate misconduct and harassment allegations that tarnished his legacy? From what I saw this morning, they are celebrating his career on all the local stations, ESPN, Fox News, and CNN. I don't even remember the outcome of that business, which shows how those who think "guilty until proven innocent" applies to the court of public opinion are fools, but I think it right that you don't change your memories to reflect current reality in these cases. And so, goodbye to the greatest player in Minnesota sports history. Thanks for the memories.