Mike Celizic

Think about baseball in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and front and center in your mental highlight reel is a jovial bundle of energy who makes you smile just thinking about him. And the only thing wrong with the picture was that Kirby Puckett didn’t play nearly as long as he should have.

He moved faster than he should have, given his abbreviated stature and unabridged girth. That was part of his charm; he was an extraordinary athlete in the kind of everyman body that made you wonder just how he could possibly do the things he did.

And now we know exactly how incredible that body was. It wasn’t built for the long haul, but for a short and blazing eruption of talent and accomplishment. And when it was done, it didn’t slowly deteriorate, but instead consumed itself and the man who had gotten so much out of it in so little time.

We know now just how flawed that body was. It cut short his career after 12 seasons when he sustained retinal damage from glaucoma. Monday, it cut short his life after just 45 years when the massive stroke he suffered Sunday finished its cruel work.

I’ll leave it to others to sound the usual cautionary tales about high blood pressure and obesity and not staying in condition. At times like this, I prefer to think about how well he lived during the time he had rather than about what he might have done — if only . . .

KIRBY PUCKETT, 1960-2006      Hall of Famer Puckett, 45, dies of stroke Twins, fans pay final tribute to Puckett Celizic: Passion for game set Puckett apart Commentary: We owe Kirby for all he gave Commentary: A one-of-a-kind star JT the Brick: Puckett worthy of all the praise Readers share their thoughts Puckett's career statistics   Slide show: A look back at Puckett Vote: Greatest Minnesota Twin?

And I prefer to let Kirby Puckett serve as yet another example of the one certain truth about life, which is that all you do is live every day as well as you can, because none of us know how many more days we have.

In 45 years, Puckett did more than most of us can ever hope to accomplish.

He left a footprint across Minnesota, baseball and America that will never erode. In that, he will live forever.

Slide show   Remembering a legend A look back at the Hall of Fame career of Minnesota Twins star Kirby Puckett.

For a decade, he was the most recognizable — and the best liked — athlete in Minnesota, not just a favorite son, but the very face of the state. At first, people cheered him because he was so very, very good at playing a game. Ultimately, they loved him because he was so very, very good at being a man. He wasn’t just a great player, he was also a great person.

He wasn’t perfect. None of us are. His marriage ended in divorce. A few years ago, he went to trial on charges of groping a woman in a restaurant.

He won acquittal, but such accusations always make you wonder what the truth was.

Death of Kirby Puckett MSNBC TV Puckett dies at 45 Hall of Famer, ‘the hero of all heroes of the Minnesota Twins,’ dies after suffering a stroke, MSNBC-TV's Keith Olbermann reports. Twins G.M. Ryan: 'It's tough to take'

Most likely, it was that he wasn’t a god, but a human being whose life could get just as muddy outside the field of play as anyone else’s. I don’t think it made anyone like him less. With people like Puckett who brought so much joy and treated his public with such decency and humility, there’s an enormous reservoir of good will that one unpleasant episode can’t drain.