[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             KIRBY PUCKETT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, shock waves reverberated through the 
sports world on Friday. Kirby Puckett told us what we did not want to 
hear, that this was the last day that he would wear Twins uniform No. 
34.
  Baseball is a game for optimists. ``We will get them tomorrow'' and 
``wait until next year'' are examples created by baseball fans. We all 
wanted to believe that the doctors would perform magic and that Kirby 
would once again be patrolling the outfield and bedeviling American 
League pitchers. It was not to be.
  If baseball is a game for optimists, Kirby Puckett was its best 
salesman. Maybe it was all that energy and enthusiasm trapped inside 
that teddy bear body that allowed him to defy the laws of gravity, the 
laws of physics. With leaps that would make Michael Jordan proud, Kirby 
robbed countless hitters of home runs.
  In a sports world dominated today by megabuck contracts and even 
bigger egos, he was a throwback to an earlier day, to earlier day 
heroes. He did not believe in trash talk. He let his play speak for 
itself, and speak it did.
  His record of excellence shouts at you. In his roughly 12 years in 
the major leagues, he appeared in 12 All Star games. He won six Golden 
Gloves. He hit 207 home runs, had a lifetime batting average of .318, 
and he has two World Series rings to show for it.
  Not bad for a kid who almost spent his life at the Ford assembly 
plant on Terrance Avenue. He got laid off and returned to baseball, and 
we all are richer for it.
  Kirby was the youngest of nine children, raised by two loving parents 
in the projects of Chicago's south side. We are all proud of Kirby but 
no one should be prouder than his mother. To paraphrase one fan, Kirby 
Puckett is a wonderful human being who just happened to be one of the 
greatest ball players of all time.
  Every day he demonstrated one of the most important eternal truths, 
that the key to happiness is to be thankful. And so, Mr. Speaker, on 
behalf of Twins fans in the upper Midwest and sports fans all over the 
world, permit me to send this personal message: Thank you, thank you, 
Kirby Puckett. Good luck and may God bless you.

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