 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|||||||||||
|
The Puck drops Minnesota native reflects on the rise and fall of a sports idolPosted: Tuesday March 11, 2003 7:35 PMUpdated: Tuesday March 11, 2003 7:51 PM
By Steve Rushin I was a senior in high school in Minnesota when Kirby Puckett made his debut for the Twins, a senior in college when he and the Twins won their first World Series, and a junior at Sports Illustrated -- in my third year at the magazine, anyway -- when he and the Twins won their second World Series. So naturally I was a fan of his. Who wasn't? I still have a V-neck 1984 Twins home white uniform with Puckett's No. 34 on the back, and the two fat Twins shaking hands on the sleeve. I think it's fair to say that Puckett was, for a time, not only the most popular person in Minnesota, but the most popular Minnesotan ever. Prince turned himself into a symbol. But you and I turned Puckett into one. To fans and press alike, he symbolized all that was good about professional athletes, even if our faith wasn't merited. I remember interviewing Puckett in his office at the Metrodome after he retired with glaucoma, and he was sitting at a desk, grimly -- but gamely -- signing thousands of cards to be given out as a promotion at a Twins game. He was going blind in one eye, had just been robbed of his baseball career and yet kept talking about how lucky he was to live such a blessed existence. His office was stocked with bubble gum and candy bars and Puckett appeared, literally and figuratively, to be a kid in a candy store. Of course, sometimes when you go behind the scenes like this all you get is another scene: a carefully composed snapshot, not of what an athlete is like off the field, but of what he wants you to think he's like off the field. I'm sure, by now, most fans realize this and recognize the dangers of hero worship. "Idolatry is really not good for anyone," as Washington Wizards assistant coach John Bach said of Michael Jordan in Monday's New York Times. "Not even the idols."
Sports Illustrated senior writer Steve Rushin pens the weekly Air and Space column in the magazine.
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
