Pastor Rich Zawadzki suggested this Chicago native. This is Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett’s APBA card from the Twins’ championship year of 1987. I remember that year well. Tom Kelly’s Twins went from worst to first and won the World Series over the St Louis Cardinals. That may have been the first time I rooted for an AL team in the World Series.
Puckett had a lot to do with the Twins’ success that year. He led the AL in hits with 207. He showed some power too with 28 homers and 99 rbis. He won his second Gold Glove and his second Silver Slugger award that year.
He came in third in MVP voting in 1987. Who had more votes? George Bell and Alan Trammell. In hindsight, I won’t ever debate a great fielding shortstop who hit .343 on a winning team. The fans did love their homers and George Bell had them (47).
| G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 157 | 668 | 624 | 96 | 207 | 32 | 5 | 28 | 99 | 12 | 32 | 91 | .332 | .367 | .534 |
Pastor Rich put it simply. Puckett has a “25-7, a 64-9, OF-3 and a J-0. All indicators of a Monster Card”. His power numbers 0-0-0-0 don’t hurt either.
Puckett only walked 32 times in 1987 so as a reslut, he gets just two 14s.
Fun numbers: 25-7, 64-9, J-0 (Rich did the work for me!)
Puckett exceeded 200 hits five times in his career and finished with a lifetime .318 batting average.
This really is a great modern hitting card.
“He came in third in MVP voting in 1987. Who had more votes? George Bell and Alan Trammell. In hindsight, I won’t ever debate a great fielding shortstop who hit .343 on a winning team”
Yep, Trammell hit higher than Puckett, with the same amount of homeruns, more RBIs and more steals. He was robbed of the MVP award!