Kirby Puckett

CTL-E-6816 · Person · other · 1960–2006

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07688 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6816.

Kirby Puckett (1960–2006) was a Chicago-born center fielder who played his entire twelve-year major-league career for the Minnesota Twins and became one of the most beloved players of his generation. The National Baseball Hall of Fame, named here as a source, describes Puckett as a Chicago native, an All-American in high school, and the third overall pick by the Twins in the 1982 amateur draft out of Triton College, who recorded four singles in his major-league debut on May 8, 1984. As career statistics attributed to the Hall of Fame and accessed 2026-11-03, the two-time World Series champion and ten-time All-Star finished with a .318 batting average, 2,304 hits, 207 home runs, six Silver Slugger Awards and six Gold Glove Awards, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001, his first time on the ballot. Baseball-Reference Bullpen corroborates his birth on March 14, 1960, in Chicago, his Calumet High School schooling in Chicago, and his 2001 induction. Chicago is his origin story: a South Side childhood carried to Cooperstown.

The record

• Also known as: Anthony Kirby Puckett, Puck

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0281 (cross-ref restored at head assembly from s1-selection.json; the build lane's assignment excerpt had omitted the number). Firsts disposition: no roster 'first' is asserted. Chicago link is birth and schooling in Chicago, sourced on this record; Puckett played for no Chicago major-league club, so no played_for edge to a Chicago team is emitted. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Puckett tests the archive's definition of a Chicago player — formed by the city, starred elsewhere, and still claimed by Chicago memory. Photo: HELD at build-lane stage (the lane's Commons route timed out); CLEARED by the head at assembly via the Commons API — see media layer.

Relationships

• Chicago — from
  Kirby Puckett was born March 14, 1960 in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Calumet High School in Chicago, per Baseball-Reference Bullpen; the National Baseball Hall of Fame describes him as a Chicago native.

Sources

• National Baseball Hall of Fame. "Puckett records four singles in first big league game." Baseball Hall of Fame. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/puckett-records-four-hits-in-mlb-debut (primary source · build store)
• Baseball-Reference Bullpen. "Kirby Puckett." Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Kirby_Puckett (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6816 · Combined Graph record U-07688 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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