A Passing Star

[[S P O R T S]] * I have to admit that I’m not a big sports fan. But my best friend from college, Byron Rice, certainly is one. So I wasn’t surprised that he was the first to e-mail me with the news that American Hall of Fame center-fielder Kirby Puckett, once a star of the Minnesota Twins baseball team, died last night in Arizona, just over a week shy of his 46th birthday. The cause of death is listed as a massive hemorrhagic stroke.

Byron’s note to me, short and simple but filled with raw emotion, is worth posting here:

Kirby Puckett died tonight. Unbelievable.

Ten years ago he was tearing up Spring Training pitching, until he woke up one morning with double vision.

The man who was so fun to watch as a baseball player had 10 miserable years away from the sport, and now he is gone. Sigh.

He had the highest lifetime average for a right-handed batter--.318--since “Joltin’ Joe” DiMaggio.

Rest in peace, Puck.

There are plenty of fond obituaries being published today (see here, here, and here). But none of them hit quite the same appreciative note that Byron’s missive does.