Kirby Puckett Passes Away

Though I am not much of a baseball fan, I do count myself among the Red Sox nation, despite living most of my life in the shadow of the dreaded Yankees. I was saddened to hear of Kirby Puckett passing away from the stroke he had this past weekend. He was a great player, who played with grace and skill.

Puckett was a horse of a man. Stocky and barrel-chested, he put fear in the hearts of opposing players. I have to wonder if his size and the fact that he played baseball were at least complicit in his death.

Let me say this, I have no knowledge of anything about his medical condition, everything here is speculative. It's not uncommon that heavier people have blood pressure problems, and poorly managed blood pressure is often a cause of strokes. Additionally, I've heard that extreme muscularity can also contribute to hypertension in two ways; by requiring the heart to pump harder to get blood to all that body mass, and by causing pressure on arteries, which can further raise the demand for pressure to keep blood flowing.

I had not heard whether Puckett stroke was hemorrhagic or ischemic, but I have a suspicion that it was the former. While speculating about Puckett's health, I would also think it possible that during his sports career, he may have used steroids. Again, I have no evidence of this, it is purely speculative, and I raise the issue to simply point out that use of performance enhancing drugs may have serious health impacts. Long-term use of many of these drugs haven't been studied. Some of the newer drugs are sold in supplements, but have never been tested on humans. Anyone thinking of using any type of performance or size enhancing supplements should give it very serious thought before proceeding.

I heard that, aside from Lou Gehrig, Puckett is the youngest Hall of Fame player to have died.