Puckett, Winfield Elected to Hall of Fame

N E W  Y O R K, Jan. 16, 2001 -- 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.

At 40 and now a Twins executive, Puckett became thethird-youngest player to be elected while living. Only Lou Gehrig(36) and Sandy Koufax (37) made it sooner.

"I was at the top of my game when I was forced to retire," hesaid. "I think you could put my numbers over 12 years up withanybody and they'd be comparable," he said.

Winfield, at 6-foot-6 about a foot taller than Puckett, joinedMinnesota late in his career.

"The best thing I can say about him — and I played with a lotof guys — was that he's the most positive person I played with on adaily basis," Winfield said. "He did something for everyteammate."

Winfield, 49, was listed on 435 of 515 ballots, with 387necessary for election, and Puckett was picked on 423.

Of the 32 candidates, 13 received under 5 percent and weredropped from further consideration. Among them: Detroit teammatesLou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson and Lance Parrish, along with Tom Henkeand Dave Righetti.

Induction ceremonies will be held Aug. 5 at Cooperstown, N.Y.The festivities will include anyone selected by the VeteransCommittee on March 6 at Tampa, Fla.

Multi-Talented Winfield

Winfield seemed destined for stardom from the day he was born —Oct. 3, 1951, the afternoon when Bobby Thomson hit one of the mostfamous home runs ever.

A multisport standout at the University of Minnesota, Winfieldwas drafted by the Padres, the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL, theAtlanta Hawks of the NBA and the Utah Stars of the ABA.

He chose baseball, and without spending a single day in theminor leagues, went on to become a 12-time All-Star. He won fiveGold Gloves in the outfield.

Overall, he batted .283 with 1,833 RBIs. He played from 1973-95,and returned from back surgery that sidelined for the entire 1989season.

Winfield became a star with the Padres, gainednational recognition with the Yankees, delivered the game-winninghit in the 1992 World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays and got his3,000th hit with his hometown Twins.

Winfield, who also played for the Angels and Indians, spent hislongest time with the Yankees. And he has patched up hislong-running feud with owner George Steinbrenner, the man wholabeled him "Mr. May."

Much of the criticism Winfield heard in New York, he said,"doesn't really reflect the kind of player I was, the kind ofperson I was."

Historic Hits for Both Off Leibrandt

Winfield is among 24 players with 3,000 hits. He reached themark in 1993 with an RBI single off Dennis Eckersley that scoredPuckett.

Every eligible player to hit that milestone has made the Hall.Once again, Pete Rose is off the ballot because of his permanentbanishment from baseball.

Still, it was a hit that does not show up in Winfield's careertotal that meant the most to him. And no, it was not the time hehit a seagull with a warmup throw in Toronto in 1983, leading tohis arrest.

Winfield's two-out, two-run double in the top of the 11th inningin Game 6 of the 1992 World Series clinched Toronto's championshipover Atlanta. It was his only extra-base hit in 44 Series at-bats.

"It was just a lousy double," he recalled years later. "Thathit, it just made everything right."

That double came off Braves reliever Charlie Leibrandt. In 1991,Leibrandt also served up Puckett's most famous hit — an 11th-inninghome run that won Game 6 of the World Series. The Twins won thetitle the next day.

Puckett won six Gold Gloves in center field and hit 207 homeruns.

Plus, he exuded boundless energy and enthusiasm, making him afan favorite at the Metrodome and everywhere else.

"I played every game like it was my last," Puckett said. "Ileft everything on the field."