Kirby Puckett Dead at 45
This entry has nothing to do with sourcing, recruiting, or human resources. But it does have everything to do with humanity. One of the greatest baseball players ever died today. Kirby Puckett. An amazing fielder. An amazing hitter. A tortured soul. Dead at the age of 45 from a stroke. See CNN for details.
I moved to Minnesota in 1988, a year after the Twins won their first World Series championship. In 1991, I was working in Rochester, Minnesota. I shared a house with a co-worker. Night after night we would sit in the living room watching the Twins win game after game. Kirby was always a force. When the Twins needed someone to drive home a run in the ninth, it was Kirby batting. When the Twins needed someone to jump impossibly high to snatch away an opponent's sure home run, it was Kirby in center field. So we watched Kirby and his brothers just about every night all summer and all fall and we were rewarded with the second World Series championship for the Twins. In November, when we re-entered society, we realized that we were both single and had been dateless for months. Good thing that Kirby won it for us. If the Twins had lost, that would have been too hard to take.
Kirby, we'll miss you.
Real men love baseball. May Kirby Puckett rest in peace.
Actually, this does relate to sourcing, recruiting, or human resources. In fact, it has everything to do with them.
Recruiting is all about identifying and then captivating the most talented, the most qualified, in order to be on your "team" -- to work for you. Some aspects of HR relate to retaining that talent.
Puckett was one of the best, one of those who was most qualified. And in everything he did on the field, he demonstrated that fact unfailingly.
In fact, right into losing sight in the one eye, he still managed to demonstrate that he was, indeed, one of those who was significantly qualified. But the demons of illness overtook him.
It's great that we have the time to reflect on his life and his talent so that we can continue to use him as a guideline to making ourselves as close to being similarly "qualified talent."