Everything changed the morning Kirby Puckett became blind 25 years ago.
The endearing Twins legend was still at the height of his game on March 28 when everything changed. In July 1996, around 100 days after Kirby Puckett woke up with blurred vision, the 10-time All-Star for the Twins announced his retirement. Tonya, his wife, was by his side.

Fort Myers, Florida: Kirby Puckett has a habit of arriving early at the Twins’ spring training clubhouse. On March 28, 1996, he drove his rented Cadillac to pick up two teenage pitchers, Pat Mahomes and Eddie Guardado, before the sun rose.

Guardado stated earlier this month, “Every morning he’d pick me up pretty early, and we’d drive right to McDonald’s and eat about 150 Egg McMuffins.

“He would feed all of the clubhouse patrons. When I ask him, “What’s up?” that morning, he replies, “Bro, I can’t see out of my eye.” It’s hazy. I believe I slept on it incorrectly.”

That day, the Twins would head from Fort Myers to Colorado for a pair of preseason games. Puckett refused to accompany them.

In the clubhouse, he would claim that he woke up that morning beside his wife, Tonya, and that he was unable to see her.

Puckett would be rushed by the Twins to Johns Hopkins to see a specialist. A glaucoma diagnosis would be made for him. He was never going to play ball again.

After announcing his retirement three and a half months later, Puckett is well-known for remarking, “Don’t take life for granted, since tomorrow isn’t promised to any one of us.”

Puckett would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame five years after making the remark. Puckett, who was only 45 at the time, would have a fatal major stroke five years after being inducted.

His upbeat speech during his induction on a steamy Cooperstown day would contrast with his final ten years of life, which began unpredictably on a steamy, overcast morning in southwest Florida.

Former Twins manager Tom Kelly said, “I’ll never forget that morning.” “He yells, ‘I can’t see, I can’t see!’ as soon as he enters. He was just being Kirby, having fun, and making noise, but as it turned out, that wasn’t the case.

“It was quite damaging. It’s still quite painful.

“Are you a driver?”

The Twins camp that spring had been bursting with hope until March 28.

That spring, the organization was as hopeful as it had been since 1992, the last season the Twins had competed, with the signing of free agent Paul Molitor and the return of Rick Aguilera as a potential ace.

Puckett was feeling upbeat as well. He had worked out all winter for the first time in his career, and he had looked like the player who had guided the Twins to two World Series championships all spring, even taking two hits off the legendary Greg Maddux and yelling at Maddux from second base that he was “Picasso.”

With his combination of Hall of Fame talent and unwavering happiness, Puckett became possibly the most well-liked athlete in Minnesota history.

Puckett, who turned 36 on March 14, had reached 2,000 hits faster than any player since Wee Willie Keeler, setting him up to spend the second part of the decade chasing 3,000 hits and restoring the Twins to glory.

Then one day he woke up and realized he didn’t see the guy who was lying beside him.

“Can you drive?” he asked me when he picked me up. stated Mahomes. “‘It’s like a cloud over my eye,’ he added. I recall him walking into the training room and telling them the same thing when we got to the ballpark. They declared, “We have an issue here,” right away.