Strubes said:Goodbye Kirby.
well... you might be too young to know... he was a prettygood baseball player. A pretty good guy as well. I think he was a hall of famer..... world series champs 1987 and 1991.KirbyRockz said:Uhmmm...? XD Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Sorry if I sound like a complete idiot that lives under a rock, but who might Kirby Puckett be? *Googles it*
Strubes said:I think you're right BV...Centerfield. He won a (or several..i dont' remember) gold glove awards.
What makes him even more special is how hard it is to get into the Hall of Fame nowadays.
Strubes said:It's definitely hard. They were just doing a show on ESPN about it. Some players that have had consistent numbers, and even shaped baseball to what it is today haven't been named. There's alot of controversy about how hard it is to get in, cause most of the people voting have never played baseball and alot don't even keep up with the sport or look back in history to check certain stats. It was pointed out and even validated that some voters pick people based on names that they know or even favors for friends. If it was just on consistency, it would be easy to name big-name players into the Hall of Fame. That's why only one guy got in this year.
Ryne Sandberg was a notable exception.
Sandberg's refusal to call attention to himself may have hurt his chances of becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer, despite nine straight Gold Gloves, 10 consecutive All-Star appearances and a flair for the dramatic in the national spotlight.
But Sandberg's wait ended last January when the soft-spoken Cubs star was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his third year on the ballot.
Strubes said:Ok, in your opinion apparently it isn't hard, even though barely anyone voting knows about the stats or anything. Many players that deserved to be in have been shunned and players that just made it into the voting came up big. Why? They were known by the voters. It's completely bogus to say it's easy as long as you have numbers and are consistent cause most of the players that are persistent are looked over for more common names. It took Ryne Sandberg 3 years before he was voted into the Hall of Fame even when he had very good and consistent.
despite nine straight Gold Gloves, 10 consecutive All-Star appearances
Strubes said:Although his numbers weren't staggering for his position...
Those were the reasons he was considered first ballot status. I'm gonna have to go with baseball experts on this.
I do think we've strayed a little away from Kirby Puckett's death though. Does anyone know how many family members he left behind?