How many different Kirby Puckett rookie cards do you think there are?
Three, four? Couldn’t be more than five … right?
What if I told you there were no less than 107 distinct baseball cards (and related) that could be classified as Puckett RCs?
Well, I’d be lying, for one thing.
So I won’t do that.
Instead, I’ll just say that there are a lot of different Kirby Puckett rookie cards running around out there, which seems right for a guy who spread smiles and fun everywhere he went in the game.
Here, then is a rundown of the first cards of the Minnesota Twins legend and Hall of Famer … all the Kirby Puckett rookie cards!
1984 Fleer Update Kirby Puckett (#U-93)
Nobody knew who Kirby Puckett was when he appeared in Fleer’s first ever Update set in the late fall of 1984.
I mean, sure … his family and friends knew, and maybe a few folks in Minnesota, but …
At that point, Puckett was heading toward 25 years of age and had played a grand total of 128 games in the Majors. Sure, he hit .296 in those games, but with very little power.
And his three minor league seasons looked pretty much the same — good average and speed, little power.
So, Puck got lost in the shuffle of Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens and a few others in the 1984 Fleer Update set until roughly the midway point of the 1986 season.
That’s when he pushed his average well over .300 and made his first All-Star team. Also finished the season with 31 dingers.
From there it was more gaudy hit totals, good power, World Series titles, and legend-making.
And, predictably, collectors flocked to this first Puckett card and turned it into a hobby icon.
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1984 7-11 Twins Kirby Puckett (#1)
This is one of those great (very) regional team sets from the 1980s that just screams … well, it just screams 1980s.
And “fire prevention.”
And Minnesota Twins.
And Kirby Puckett.
This thing was issued before the Fleer Update, so by all rights, it’s the very first Puckett card featuring the spark plug in a Major League uniform.
And just what did Puckett do to land card #1 in this 13-card issue (12 players and a checklist)?
Hard to say, but …
Maybe they started with the shortest guy on the team and worked their way up?
Or started with the rookie(s) and went from there?
Or maybe it was Puckett’s winning smile?
Personally, I think it’s because he was built like a fullback and wore #34 … there just might have been some Walter Payton fans hiding out in those Minnesota summers back then.
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1985 All-Star Game Program Inserts Kirby Puckett
So, you might have noticed that I mentioned up there (^) that Puckett made his first All-Star cut in 1986.
What the heck was he doing in the All-Star Game program in 1985, then?
Well, those foldout paper-not-really-card things included the All-Star nominees, not just the dudes who actually made the team.
And Puckett was starting to look pretty good out there in center field for the Twins, as well as playing every day, racking up the at-bats and hits, banging out triples, and stealing a few bases.
Good enough to get on the ballot, and on this poster-like doohickey. The Pucketts you find as singles were hand-cut, so your quality will vary depending on the suredness of the hand you were dealt.
Cool card, though, especially when you consider the game was played at Puckett’s hometown Metrodome.
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1985 Donruss Kirby Puckett (#438)
Now we’re getting to the goods.
I mean, nobody had that 7-11 card, and only a few kids had the Fleer Update Puckett … and there was no way in the Metrodome they were busting up their set to trade Kirby to you.
But in 1985, you could finally (right) pull a Kirby Puckett rookie card from wax packs. And this black-bordered beauty from Donruss quickly became the cream of the crop … in 1986.
Riding high on the scarce-and-revamped image of the beloved 1984 Donruss set, the ’85 issue was popular right from the get-go, and tougher to find than Fleer or Topps.
So, when Puckett broke out in 1986, it felt like you hit the lottery if you were able to go back to your commons stack (you didn’t have enough for a “bin”) of 1985 Donruss and pull a Puck rook.
All these years later, it’s still a great card, displaying awesome colors and a young Puckett with his best seasons ahead of him.
Even if he does look slightly suspicious of your intentions.
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1985 Fleer Kirby Puckett (#286)
Puckett doesn’t look all that happy on his 1985 Fleer RC, either. Certainly not the jovial dude we’d all come to know and love a few years later.
He’s not really dubious, like on the Donruss card … more a deer-in-headlights expression. Maybe he was having visions of facing Randy Johnson somewhere down the line.
Anyway, this one generally slotted between the more common Topps and the less common Donruss back in the day (as the kids say), but those value differences have attenuated to a large degree here in this modern, sophisticated world of ours.
Whatever, you still have to have 1985 Fleer if you want to get *all* the Kirby rookies.
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1985 Fleer Star Stickers Kirby Puckett (#122)
In 1981, Fleer treated collectors to a set of Star Stickers that were card sized, had card backs complete with statistics, looked better than the base Fleer set … and yet were stickers.
In 1986, they offered up the same sort of eye candy.
In between?
Paper stamp-sticker things in 1982 and 1983, followed by tiny Star Stickers on card stock in 1984 … and 1985.
That’s where Puckett comes in, with a sticker as diminutive as the superstar himself and a patriotic color scheme that Fleer would revive with their base set in 1988.
No great shakes, but another Puckett card (thing).
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