Anthony Kirby Puckett was a professional Major League Baseball center fielder who spent his entire 12-year career playing for the Minnesota Twins. He 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. Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and was the second to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. 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. [More at Wikipedia]

March 14th, 1960 in Chicago  /  Died:   Mar 6th, 2006 - at the age of 45, complications from a stroke