Kirby Puckett Dead at 45

With a day like today, it makes me think of Billy Joel's song, "Only the good die young." Some days I really believe it.

Yesterday, baseball legend Kirby Puckett died following a stroke at age 45. Puckett was a great ball player, infectious in his enthusiasm. But he had a dark side too. Ian O'Connor muses on both sides of the man:

If the superstar athlete betrayed the adoring masses, he wouldn't be the first or last. The media is always too quick to canonize a ballplayer for being available at his locker, for returning a phone call, for extending the simple courtesy of recalling a chronicler's first name.

Truth is, we don't know the people we cover. We only know what they allow us to know, at least until a police report or deposition opens a window they can't keep locked. [emphasis added -ed.]

Puckett turned out to be a far more complicated figure than the teddy bear he encouraged us to embrace. And Monday night, after the Twins asked fans everywhere to keep him in their thoughts and prayers, Puckett was pronounced dead at 45. He lost the fight for his life after suffering a stroke in his Arizona home.

Let's hope for Kirby Puckett's sake that he resolved some of the conflict--that he and his family came to peace before he died.