I think every Minnesotan and baseball fan died a little bit today.

I find myself sitting in front of my computer writing this; to the right of my laptop my 1985 Kirby Puckett rookie card. It’s been sitting next to my computer ever since I moved to California. The odd thing is, right now every time I glance over at it I smile. As far as sports super-stars go, Kirby Puckett was too good to be true. Great player, great guy, always smiling, always happy, great with kids, and did a lot of work for the community. Turns out he wasn’t perfect. Growing up in Kirby’s neighborhood would scar almost anyone for life. I never met the guy, but I feel like he’s been a part of my life. I remember 87 vaguely. I remember growing up a little kid in Minnesota hearing about how great of a player Kirby Puckett was. I remember game 6. To this day, I’ve never seen a position player single-handedly dominate a game like that. I knew right away I was watching something special. I think we all did. For those of you from Wisconsin, to put this in perspective: this is the Minnesota equivalent of Brett Favre dropping dead. From a Minnesota sports fan’s perspective, take Kirby Puckett away, and the last 45 years of Minnesota sports would be as bad as it could get. Carew, Killabrew, and Oliva couldn’t win. The Lakers left. The North Stars left. The Vikings are oh-my-God-painful to root for. Gopher Football hasn’t been to a rose bowl, Gopher Basketball makes a Final Four only to be convicted of academic misconduct. Short of the Gopher Hockey team, it’s a pretty bad ride. Kirby won. He made it out of the south side of Chicago. He won 2 championships. He won our hearts. I remember when he retired. I remember listening to the speech, then heading to baseball practice. We were all a little saddened that day, but somehow Kirby managed to keep us all smiling. "Kirby Puckett's going to be all right. Don't worry about me. I'll show up, and I'll have a smile on my face. The only thing I won't have is this uniform on. But you guys can have the memories of what I did when I did have it on." Now Kirby rests in our hearts, with his family,in the Hall of Fame, and with The Lord.