The Tools of Ignorance: Player Stats for Kirby Puckett

Kirby Puckett

Kirby Puckett
Born: 3/14/1960 in Chicago, IL USA      Died: 3/6/2006 in Phoenix, AZ USA     Hall Of Fame: 2001
Weight: 210 lb.      Height: 5'8"
Bats: R                 Throws: R
College: Triton (IL) CC

Batting Pitching Fielding Salaries Achievements HoF Manager

Year	Age	Team	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	DP	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1984	24	MIN	AL	128	557	63	165	12	5	0	31	14	7	16	69	1	4	4	2	11	.296	.320	.336	.655
1985	25	MIN	AL	161	691	80	199	29	13	4	74	21	12	41	87	0	4	5	3	9	.288	.330	.385	.715
1986	26	MIN	AL	161	680	119	223	37	6	31	96	20	12	34	99	4	7	2	0	14	.328	.366	.537	.903
1987	27	MIN	AL	157	624	96	207	32	5	28	99	12	7	32	91	7	6	0	6	16	.332	.367	.534	.900
1988	28	MIN	AL	158	657	109	234	42	5	24	121	6	7	23	83	4	2	0	9	17	.356	.375	.545	.920
1989	29	MIN	AL	159	635	75	215	45	4	9	85	11	4	41	59	9	3	0	5	21	.339	.379	.465	.843
1990	30	MIN	AL	146	551	82	164	40	3	12	80	5	4	57	73	11	3	1	3	15	.298	.365	.446	.811
1991	31	MIN	AL	152	611	92	195	29	6	15	89	11	5	31	78	4	4	8	7	27	.319	.352	.460	.812
1992	32	MIN	AL	160	639	104	210	38	4	19	110	17	7	44	97	13	6	1	6	17	.329	.374	.490	.864
1993	33	MIN	AL	156	622	89	184	39	3	22	89	8	6	47	93	7	7	1	5	15	.296	.349	.474	.824
1994	34	MIN	AL	108	439	79	139	32	3	20	112	6	3	28	47	7	7	1	7	11	.317	.362	.540	.902
1995	35	MIN	AL	137	538	83	169	39	0	23	99	3	2	56	89	18	3	0	5	15	.314	.379	.515	.894
12 Seasons				1783	7244	1071	2304	414	57	207	1085	134	76	450	965	85	56	23	58	188	.318	.360	.477	.837

Post Season

Year	Age	Team	Round	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	DP	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1987	27	MIN	ALCS	5	24	3	5	1	0	1	3	1	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	208	.208	.375	.583
1987	27	MIN	WS	7	28	5	10	1	1	0	3	1	1	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	357	.419	.464	.884
1991	31	MIN	ALCS	5	21	4	9	1	0	2	5	0	0	1	4	0	0	0	1	0	429	.435	.762	1.197
1991	31	MIN	WS	7	24	4	6	0	1	2	4	1	0	5	7	4	0	1	1	1	250	.367	.583	.950
2 Post Seasons				24	97	16	30	3	2	5	15	3	1	8	17	4	1	1	2	1	.309	.361	.536	.897

Year	Age	Team	Lg	W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	IBB	WP	HBP	BK	BFP	GF	R
No Pitching Records Found

Post Season

Year	Age	Team	Round	W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	IBB	WP	HBP	BK	BFP	GF	R
No Post Season Pitching Records Found

Year	Age	Team	Lg	Pos	G	GS	Inn	PO	A	E	DP	PB	FP

1984	24	MIN	AL	OF	128		0	438	16	3	4		0.993

1985	25	MIN	AL	OF	161		0	465	19	8	5		0.984

1986	26	MIN	AL	OF	160		0	429	8	6	3		0.986

1987	27	MIN	AL	DH	8		0
1987	27	MIN	AL	OF	147		0	341	8	5	2		0.986

1988	28	MIN	AL	OF	158		0	450	12	3	4		0.994

1989	29	MIN	AL	DH	2		0
1989	29	MIN	AL	OF	157		0	438	13	4	3		0.991

1990	30	MIN	AL	2B	1		0	0	0	0	0
1990	30	MIN	AL	3B	1		0	0	0	0	0
1990	30	MIN	AL	DH	4		0
1990	30	MIN	AL	OF	141		0	354	9	4	3		0.989
1990	30	MIN	AL	SS	1		0	0	0	0	0

1991	31	MIN	AL	OF	152		0	373	13	6	5		0.985

1992	32	MIN	AL	2B	2		0	0	0	0	0
1992	32	MIN	AL	3B	2		0	0	0	0	0
1992	32	MIN	AL	DH	9		0
1992	32	MIN	AL	OF	149		0	394	9	3	3		0.993
1992	32	MIN	AL	SS	1		0	0	0	0	0

1993	33	MIN	AL	DH	17		0
1993	33	MIN	AL	OF	139		0	312	13	2	2		0.994

1994	34	MIN	AL	DH	13		0
1994	34	MIN	AL	OF	95		0	204	13	3	2		0.986

1995	35	MIN	AL	2B	1		0	0	1	0	0		1.000
1995	35	MIN	AL	3B	1		0	0	0	0	0
1995	35	MIN	AL	DH	28		0
1995	35	MIN	AL	OF	109		0	194	9	4	1		0.981
1995	35	MIN	AL	SS	1		0	0	0	0	0
12 Seasons					1788		0	4392	143	51	37		0.989

Post Season

Year	Age	Team	Round	Pos	G	GS	Inn	PO	A	E	DP	PB	FP

1987	27	MIN	ALCS	CF	5		44	7	0	0	0		1.000
1987	27	MIN	WS	CF	7		60	15	1	1	0		0.941

1991	31	MIN	ALCS	CF	5		46	13	1	0	0		1.000
1991	31	MIN	WS	CF	7		66.1	16	1	0	0		1.000
2 Post Seasons					24		216.1	51	3	1	0		0.982

Year	Age	Team	League	Salary
1985	25	MIN	AL	$130,000
1986	26	MIN	AL	$255,000
1987	27	MIN	AL	$465,000
1988	28	MIN	AL	$1,090,000
1989	29	MIN	AL	$2,000,000
1990	30	MIN	AL	$2,816,667
1991	31	MIN	AL	$3,166,667
1992	32	MIN	AL	$2,966,667
1993	33	MIN	AL	$5,300,000
1994	34	MIN	AL	$5,300,000
1995	35	MIN	AL	$6,300,000
1996	36	MIN	AL	$6,200,000
1997	37	MIN	AL	$7,200,000
Total for 13 Records				$43,190,001
Average for 13 Records				$3,322,308

Year	Age	League	Award
1986	26	AL	Gold Glove - OF
1986	26	AL	Silver Slugger - OF
1987	27	AL	Gold Glove - OF
1987	27	AL	Silver Slugger - OF
1988	28	AL	Gold Glove - OF
1988	28	AL	Silver Slugger - OF
1989	29	AL	Gold Glove - OF
1989	29	AL	Silver Slugger - OF
1991	31	AL	ALCS MVP
1991	31	AL	Gold Glove - OF
1992	32	AL	Gold Glove - OF
1992	32	AL	Silver Slugger - OF
1993	33	ML	AS MVP
1993	33	ML	Branch Rickey Award
1994	34	AL	Silver Slugger - OF
1996	36	ML	Roberto Clemente Award

Year	Age	Voters	Ballots	Required	Votes	Pct.	Inducted	Category
2001	41	BBWAA	516	387	423	0.8198	Y	Player

Year	Age	Team	Lg	Div	#	G	W	L	Pct.	Div Rank	Ply/Mgr
No Managerial Records Found

Player Discussion

[Kirby Puckett Topics] Useless Trivia

tomhamilton : May 22, 2007 03:12 PM

Kirby Puckett went 4 for 5 in his first major league game. In his first season (1984) his batting average never dropped below .288.

He also got off to a good start 1985 but later slumped to a .266 through 8/16/85. At this point, his career average was at .282. This was the lowest that his career batting average ever got to. To be exact, his career batting average never went below .28203.

I need a new hobby.

upthesecularhumanists : June 13, 2007 08:47 PM

Is that a record? Who would have a shot at beating that?

Joel

Ford Fricks Asterisk : June 25, 2007 01:43 PM

Interestingly, Puckett grounded out to the shortstop in his first major league at-bat and then collected four hits in a row, so for one at-bat his average was .000.

I just checked 4 or 5 guys off the top of my head, who I knew got their careers off to a great start and never looked back. One who did even better than Puckett was another Twin -- Tony Oliva. In his first at-bat, he struck out as a pinch-hitter. He next appeared five days later in the starting lineup, and he walked-singled-walked-singled before finally making the second out of his career. After that second official at-bat of his career, I don't think his career batting average ever slipped lower than .303.

Ted Williams hit into a 4-6-3 double-play in his first major league at-bat and was 1-for-5 in that first game. With a single in his second at-bat, that means he was below Puckett's .282 for three at-bats (after his 1st, 4th and 5th at-bats). He got a hit in the first inning of his second game and went 2-for-4. After that, his career average would never drop below .300 (.333 by the middle of his third game).

Ichiro Suzuki grounded out twice and then struck out in his first three at-bats, before singling twice in his debut. So he was under Puckett's mark for his first four at-bats, and then went 0-4 in his second game. So I guess he's not really close... 8 total at-bats, but a lead-off single in game #3 put him at .300, and he's never dipped below .300 since.

I guess the key here is finding a guy who had a hit in his first career at-bat. Of course, the problem is that there are no game logs available for guys like Honus Wagner.

*

# of edits: 3
Last edited: June 25, 2007 01:53 PM

tomhamilton : June 25, 2007 01:49 PM

I can't believe I screwed this up. I swear I looked up his first game to verify that he had a hit in his first at bat. That pretty much invalidates everything in my first post. Nevermind...

Ford Fricks Asterisk : June 28, 2007 09:54 AM

I just figured out that my information on Ted Williams is incorrect (I've since looked up that he struck out vs. Red Ruffing in his first at-bat).

I was using baseball-reference.com's game log feature, and was surprised when I discovered that they go all the way back to the beginning of Williams' career. Then while trying to check the first year of Stan Musial's career (12 games), I was surprised to find an entire season's worth of game logs. It turns out that their game logs start in 1957, and any player whose career carried over to that season simply has their 1957 games listed for all previous years.

*

# of edits: 1
Last edited: June 28, 2007 09:59 AM

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