Puckett, Winfield Elected to Hall of Fame

N E W  Y O R K, Jan. 16 -- Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett were electedtoday to the Hall of Fame on their first try, becoming the fourthpair of teammates picked by baseball writers in the same year.

Winfield, who had 3,110 hits and 465 home runs, and Puckett,whose All-Star career was cut short by glaucoma, played together onthe Minnesota Twins in 1993-94.

In fact, Winfield's 3,000th hit drove in Puckett.

"We've already talked, and we congratulated each other,"Puckett said from the Metrodome. "It will be very, very specialgoing in with him."

Which Cap Will Winfield Wear?

While the personable Puckett spent his entire career with theTwins, the strapping Winfield played for six teams, mostly with theNew York Yankees and San Diego Padres.

So, which cap will Winfield wear on his Hall plaque?

"I can't tell you because I haven't thought about it yet," hesaid from his home in the Los Angeles area. "I didn't want to bepresumptuous.

"The hat I'm wearing is the Hall of Fame hat today," he said."My hat's off to all the teams that gave me the opportunity to domy thing."

Winfield was listed on 84.5 percent of the ballots and Puckettwas chosen on 82.1 percent in voting by 10-year members of theBaseball Writers' Association of America. It took 75 percent forelection.

The outfielders brought to 36 the players elected in their firstyear of eligibility. There are 251 overall members in the Hall.

Gary Carter finished third with 64.9 percent, followed by JimRice (57.9), Bruce Sutter (47.6) and Goose Gossage (44.3). DonMattingly received 28.2 percent as a first-year candidate.

Puckett Is Third-Youngest Player Elected

Winfield and Puckett joined Carlton Fisk and Tony Perez (2000),Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford (1974), and Lefty Grove and MickeyCochrane (1947) as the only sets of teammates chosen in the sameyear by the BBWAA.

Puckett was an All-Star in 10 of his 12 seasons and led theTwins to unlikely World Series titles in 1987 and 1991. A career.318 hitter, he got more hits (2,040) in his first 10 years thanany other player in the 20th century.