Baseball Hall of Fame's Ambassador Kirby Puckett
LORENZ: And welcome back to PAGE ONE. This next story is for the little guy. And I know what you're saying. What are you doing, patronizing little guys out there? Hardly. Immortalizing one, though, definitely, because new Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett is a self-admitted little guy who became larger than life.</s>PUCKETT: I just wanted to a good ball player, make a couple of All-Star teams, win a couple of world championships. That was pretty much the extent of it. And to be able to put into this category when over 16,000 ballplayers have actually played in the Major Leagues, and to be the 180-something player to be in the Hall of Fame, that's pretty special. That's the one percent. That's very, very special.</s>LORENZ (voice-over): Kirby Puckett, the name itself has a certain bounce and boundless joy to it. And that's exactly how he played the game of baseball. The roly-poly kid from the projects of Chicago who got to live his dream of becoming a Major League baseball player.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kirby Puckett.</s>PUCKETT: As a kid, I was told my whole life I wasn't going to make it. I was too short. I was too this. I had a lot of people doubting me throughout my whole life. And for me, I just kept the faith. I was always the most positive person. I'd probably be the most positive person you've ever met.</s>LORENZ: That attitude led to excellence. Puckett was a 10-time All-Star, won six Gold Gloves, had a .318 career batting average, and got more hits in his first 10 seasons than any other player in the 20th century, all the while smiling and enjoying every minute on the field.</s>PUCKETT: The most important thing of all is I had the respect of my peers. That was really, really important to me. Whenever we play the Yankees or whoever it is, when Joe Torre says, "You know, we're not going to led Pug (ph) beat us." To me, that's worth his weight in gold. That's something that no matter how many millions of dollars you have, you can't buy that.</s>LORENZ: Puckett also had a flair for performing in crunch time, leading the Twins to two World Series titles. And in the biggest performance of his career, game six of the 1991 World Series, with the Twins down three games to two, Puckett first robbed the Braves' Ron Ganz (ph) of an extra base hit.</s>PUCKETT: My thought was this. If it's in the ballpark and I can get it, I'm going to get it.</s>LORENZ: He homered in the 11th inning to force game seven.</s>PUCKETT: We knew that that was the most victory (ph). And when I got to the park that day, I told the guys, I said, "Jump on my back today. I'm going to carry us." And I meant what I said. And I knew that I was going to do something special that game. I was never afraid to fail. I've never been afraid to fail my whole life.</s>LORENZ: That unshakable faith helped Puckett in what for most people would be their darkest hour. In 1996, he was diagnosed with glaucoma, which led to irreversible retina damage that caused him to lose all sight in his right eye. The baseball career he loved and dreamed about was over at age 36.</s>PUCKETT: People said do I have any regrets. No. Who am I mad at because I couldn't play anymore? I'm not mad at anybody. Things just happen to people. I went blind for a reason in one eye. And there's a reason for everything. But it hasn't changed my attitude. I've always been positive. I'm still going to be positive. I've never one day looked in the mirror and said, "Why me?" I've looked in the mirror and said, "I know why it's me," because people know that if something happens to me, I'm not going to let that one bad thing turn everything positive that's happened in my life turn everything around.</s>LORENZ: Puckett remains with the Twins organization he spent his entire career with, now as an executive vice president and informal coach. He remains one of baseball's greatest ambassadors, and something else, a Hall of Famer.</s>PUCKETT: I've had a dream ever since I was 5 years old. I got to live my dream. I mean, how many people can actually say they had a dream as a kid and they got to do exactly what they wanted to do when they grew up? There's not many of us that can say that. I got to do it. So what the hell could I be mad about? Life has been good to me. I've got two wonderful kids, a beautiful wife. I'm fine. My life is perfect, couldn't be any better.</s>LORENZ: Wheaties cereal has honored both Puckett and Dave Winfield with a special edition package. The cereal box features Winfield on one side and Puckett on the other, marking the first time in Wheaties' 75-plus years that two different cover designs have been on the same box. Well, what is bad basketball, good basketball? When PAGE ONE returns, you'll find out as Jason Terry of the Atlanta Hawks and some of his best NBA buds hit the hardwood.