Will Gary Sheffield make it to the HOF?

[eisenreich8]

Eddie Murray?

[eisenreich8]

Rice?

[sportscentury]

Think more on terms of total personality change and public anger outbursts. Both signs of steroid use. And size from rookie year & pre-rookie to end of career. And no one has mentioned him yet in this post.

-1

[sportscentury]

"Think more on terms of total personality change and public anger outbursts. Both signs of steroid use. And size from rookie year & pre-rookie to end of career. And no one has mentioned him yet in this post."

how about you just save everyone the riddle and say what you meant? besides, puckett was always fat and his stats show no aberrations.

rudy.

+1

[staindsox]

I would guess Cordova might be referring to Puckett. I'm from Minnesota and it feels like a heresy to even consider the thought, but it wouldn't surprise me either. Ad far as temperment change goes, I think it more closely parallels the tragic end to his career vs. his muscular growth.

[cordovacollector]

Stained, you're right. I've been a Twins' fan since 1961 and spent more hours getting autographs and going to games than almost anyone I know. In the 1990s, I spent a lot of time out back by the players parking lot and comforted a lot of crying teenaged boys because their hero just spent 10 minutes screaming at them for no reason. There's almost nothing more painful than watching a not-still-boy/not-yet-man cry.

I was a collector of Kirby's game used stuff and started getting rid of it in 1994 for that very reason. I decided to pick a kid in the minors to collect, with only 3 cards or so, and stick with him for his career even if he never made it to the bigs ... and to collect only that player to keep the money spent down. (And the 1994 prices were ridiculously low compared to now.) That's how I picked Cordova.

Many of us got to know Twins' insiders and heard enough stories to know it wasn't just a few occassions for Kirby's behavior ... and a lot of lawsuits were covered up. This was years before him having to retire.

And "heresy" is a good description. When those of us who saw Kirby's behavior mentioned it to others, we were nearly run out of the state. So finally we just kept quiet.

I loved Kirby as a player as much as anyone. But there were people in Minnesota that knew his darkside off the field.

[kingjammy24]

so puckett juiced it based on the fact that he was fat and a jerk?

he ballooned to ungodly proportions after he retired. more 'roids? or maybe the man was like fielder, gwynn, and others who were natural fatasses and had their waistlines kept in line when they were active players? if you want a bigger shocker than puckett, check out photos of tony gwynn around 1982 and compare them to 2001. if he was juiced on anything, it was probably cheesecake. gwynn today is enormous and i don't think it's steroids. kirby didn't get more muscular ala bonds, sosa, canseco, mcgwire. he just got fatter.

as for jerks, professional sports in general is no short supply. kevin mitchell, eric davis, kirk gibson, dwight evans, ad nauseum.

take a look at puckett's stats; if he was juicing, it apparently wasn't having any effect on his actual play.

rudy.

[staindsox]

As far as Puck's weight goes, he was chiseled when he played. I always thought he was chubby until I saw that 1991 Score card when it first came out. I heard him in an interview once when he said he had thought about a career in body building if baseball didn't work out. Those who followed his post-career exploits know he went into serious depression his after the pre-mature retirement. That weight gain wasn't roids...just lots of food. He progressively got fatter and fatter.

[ironmanfan]

ok, I missed it, what "list" is Puckett going to show up on?

totally irresponsible, uninformed, thoughtless comments IMO

[sportscentury]

ok, I missed it, what "list" is Puckett going to show up on?

totally irresponsible, uninformed, thoughtless comments IMO

Agreed.

.