November 2016 Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/19/2016
Kirby Puckett (D. 2006 at age 45) played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball career as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins (1984–1995). Puckett is the Twins' all-time leader in career hits, runs, doubles, and total bases. At the time of his retirement, his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter since Joe DiMaggio.
After being forced to retire at age 35 due to loss of vision in one eye from a central retinal vein occlusion, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility. On the morning of March 5, 2006, Kirby Puckett suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at his home and died soon after. Puckett died at the second-youngest age (behind Lou Gehrig) of any Hall of Famer inducted while living, and the youngest to die after being inducted in the modern era of the five-season waiting period.
We offer a signed Gateway Postal Cover Cachet postmarked Aug 30, 1987.