Monday was a sad day for many people. I was shocked when I got the news, but I knew I had to deal with it one way or another. It literally almost brought me to tears and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling that way, but when I found out that Yanni was arrested my jaw dropped.

Okay, I’m kidding and in fact, I’m probably smiling, just like the guy who really got me in to baseball would want me to.

When I was freshly 10-years-old back in 1991 (how old do you feel now), I was across the street from my parents house in South Georgia at a Halloween party. There were probably 14 or 15 kids my age there and maybe a dozen more a few years younger that were off bobbing for apples or something, but all the kids my age were gathered around the television watching the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

You see, for those of us living in Georgia at that time, we were used to the Braves being terrible, and I’m talking Mark Lemke and Jeff Blauser terrible. 

For me, that’s when I realized that I really wanted be a part of professional sports, I simply fell in love with it right then and there. But it wasn’t the Braves or anyone on the Atlanta roster that season, but it was little Kirby Puckett that I really liked. He always seemed like Santa Claus in a Minnesota Twins jersey to me. Kirby always had that jolly look to him and my everlasting image of Kirby was not only his catch in centerfield when he slammed against the wall nabbing a Ron Gant fly ball, but watching him trot around the bases in Game 6 and hearing Jack Buck say, “We’ll see you tomorrow night.” Those are honest memories, my first real memories of watching baseball.

So the fact that Kirby Puckett passed away Monday at the age of 45, you may think it is insensitive to make light of it with my stupid Yanni joke.

But the way I looked at Kirby Puckett was always in a happy way so it’s really not making light of a death, it’s honoring a childhood idol of mine. His constant smile and sincere good mood that he was always in must’ve just captivated me. I want to remember one of my first baseball heroes in a happy way and I don’t want to be sad about him dying.

He never brought anything but happiness to me so what better way to talk about a man who was always smiling than to try to bring a small smirk to your face. 

Before I get off on more stories about memories I have about Kirby (and for me I’ve got a ton, honestly), I wanted to touch on one small observation I had this weekend. For the past week or so, we’ve heard the argument about whether or not fans should rush the floor after a college basketball game.

Commentator’s references that players or fans themselves could get hurt or what have you, but did you see Southern Illinois University cheerleader, Kristi Yamaoka, fall on Sunday? She broke her neck (literally) and continued to cheer while she was on the stretcher being wheeled off the court.

See, it’s not that big of a deal that college kids want to storm the court because so far, no one has broken a neck doing that. So the next time somebody asks you, tell them yes, cheerleading is a real sport. 

I made a comment last week that the Seahawks organization was made up of a bunch of idiots for not resigning running back Shaun Alexander. Apparently I made a little noise in offices of Qwest Field because low and behold, the NFL’s Most Valuable Player is back with the SeaChickens for eight more years and $63 million. That’s a lot of mocha lattes.

Narrowing down the Fab Five is usually a daunting task, keeping me up many hours each night and scrambling to find the info. This week though, there was only one choice.

1) Andrei Kirilenko. Quite possibly the luckiest man on the planet. He is a stud NBA baller, makes a ton of cash and is married to one of the hottest women I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, these Jewish eyes haven’t seen much better than Masha Lopatova. But that’s not why Kirilenko is so lucky, oh no.

Mrs. Masha has told her man that he gets a free pass once a year while he’s on the road. I hope you see what I’m saying here. So fellas, I challenge you to bring this up with your wife and see what happens.

Back to Kirby for a moment. Sometimes we’re all touched by different people in our lives, regardless of if we’ve ever met them or not. With death, dealing with it all depends on the person, but if the person you’re mourning brought you nothing but joy, I say rejoice in that person’s life.

Celebrate it. More than likely, that’s what that person would want. Respect!