Twins' `Overachiever' Kirby Puckett Gets Call to Glory.

AT 11:30 A.M. ON JANUARY 16, Tonya Puckett got the phone call she didn't want to hear. Or so she thought.

If it was from New York, it meant her husband was in the Baseball Hall of Fame. If it was from the Twins, Kirby Puckett would have to wait another year. The caller was Twins assistant general manager Wayne Krivsky.

"I said just a minute, and I cried all the way upstairs. I handed Kirby the phone, told him who it was, and I could feel the whole day falling apart," Tonya Puckett said.

Five minutes later, Puckett was flashing his trademark smile. Krivsky had beaten Jack O'Connell, president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, to the phone and was offering congratulations.

Tears of sorrow suddenly turned. into tears of joy at the Puckett household in Edina, Minnesota.

Puckett, 40, became the third Minnesota Twin to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, joining former teammate and St. Paul native Dave Winfield in the Class of 2001 in the first year of eligibility for both players. Puckett received 423 votes out of 515 ballots cast (82.1 percent) by the BBWAA to exceed the necessary 75-percent support needed to gain entry.

Puckett, who spent his entire 12-year major league career in Minnesota, will join former Twins Harmon Killebrew (1984) and Rod Carew (1991) during induction ceremonies August 5 at Cooperstown, N.Y.