Kirby Puckett (March 14, 1960 – March 6, 2006) was a center fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire major-league career with the Minnesota Twins from 1984 to 1995. Puckett led the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991, the only two world championships for the franchise since their move to Minnesota in 1961. Puckett's gregarious personality and dynamic style of play endeared him to fellow players and fans alike. He is the Twins franchise's all-time leader (1961-present) in career hits, runs, doubles and total bases, and his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter in the second half of the 20th century. Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and one of only two to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire at age 35 due to loss of vision in one eye from glaucoma, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001 in his first year of eligibility. ==Early life== Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the Robert Taylor Homes housing project. Unheralded in high school, he worked in a Ford plant and as a census taker before briefly attending Bradley University where he was named to the first team All Missouri Valley Conference as a freshman. He transferred to Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, and was subsequently drafted by the Twins in the first round of the 1982 baseball draft. (via Wikipedia)