Unabated Sports

In an unfortunate incident, former Minnesota Twins Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett died earlier tonight after suffering a stroke a few days back in his Arizona home.

Here's the deal. I know Kirby Puckett was a great baseball player. I know he was super likeable, and I know that this sobering reality of this news I'm about to drop on you might forever change what you think about me, baseball, and your idols in general.

But the fact of the matter is this, and this has been a known fact for anyone who cared to listen for quite some time. Kirby Puckett was a bad guy.

One could say that I'm pretty leftist when it comes to my ideologies about sports figures. I don't really have a problem with guys doing drugs, crashing cars, or just being jerks in general. But the one place I draw the line is when a man is abusive to either women or children. As a man, I simply do not stand for that from anyone, ballplayer or not. I just don't.

I remember when news of his personal strife came to light nearly a year before the byline of the aforelinked article. Ever since then, I couldn't stand him. It was one of the first times that a guy I truly used to like simply stuck a dagger in me, and showing me that athletes are no where near the guys a lot of people make them out to be.

In so many words, I could say that Kirby Puckett is a big reason why I never take any athlete's public repuatation, no matter who he is, very seriously. Again, I hate to talk about Kirby like this, but I will.

Kirby was an important man. He was so likeable that he blinded us with his charm, and he eventually blinded himself with glaucoma as a result of his own karma. When I use the word important, I do not mean great. He's important because his story teaches all of us as sports fans how to keep certain things in perspective, and to understand what being a solid human being is all about.

I wish him to rest in peace, and respect to his family. But that doesn't mean that I really feel all that bad for him.