Only one player of the Fantasy Era (1980-present) has been good enough to be ranked 2^nd best on multiple occasions, only to fall short of the elusive #1 ranking each and every time.  In 1986 Kirby Puckett batted .328 and was 2^nd in the league in Runs Scored, Hits, Total Bases, and in the Top-10 for RBI.  In all, his line was great for the relatively low run scoring environment: .328, 119 R, 31 HR, 96 RBI, 20 SB.  But it wasn’t enough. 

The Minnesota outfielder came out the gate strongly and in his first 112 plate appearances batted .390 / .429 / .790 with 11 HR, 22 RBI.  Nobody can keep up that pace obviously but Puckett stayed hot and over the next 100 games went .337 / .380 / .526 with 15 HR, 50 RBI, and 66 Runs.  Had he kept up this pace he surely would have been the most valuable Fantasy Player in 1986, but he faltered badly and in has last 25 games hit just .210 with a .608 OPS.

This was all Don Mattingly needed.  The first basemen got hot at the right time making September his best month of the season with 28 Runs Scored, 23 RBI, 6 HR, and a .422 Batting Average.  Mattingly finished with a Fantasy Line of .352, 117 R, 31 HR, 113 RBI and narrowly edged Puckett for the offensive player of the year, scoring 15.1 FBHOF points, just 0.2 better than the outfielder.

Puckett was even better two years later batting .356 with 109 R, 24 HR, 121 RBI but it still wasn’t enough.  This time around he closed with a flourish (.972 September/October OPS) and in fact never had a poor month all season long, but he was no match for the games first 40/40 man.

I feel old to even mention it, but it struck me that the younger baseball fans may not appreciate how good Jose Canseco was.  Today, Canseco is a joke 1^st, a liar 2^nd, and a baseball player somewhere between 75^th and 100^th.  In 1988 however, he was the talk of baseball.
 
The Oakland outfielder debuted in 1985 as a free swinging 20 year old getting his first September call up.  He didn’t disappoint, hitting 5 HR in 29 games and batting just over .300.  During the next two years showed power (64 HR) and became run producer, driving in 230 runners.  This was all very good but he broke out in ’88.  Still young at 23 years old, Canseco batted .307 and showed much improved plate discipline - drawing 78 walks to give him a .391 OBP.  The patience paid off in spades, and swinging at better pitches he smacked 42 home runs.  Additionally, he scored 120 times and drove in 124 while stealing 40 bases at a decent 71% clip.  Not an impact to Fantasy, but he also hit 34 doubles.

By today’s standard this looks like a down year for Alex Rodriguez, but in the late 80’s it was magnificent.  He easily won the AL MVP Award receiving all 28 1^st place votes.  He led the league in Slugging, Home Runs, RBI, Extra Base Hits, and OPS+.  He was also second in OPS, Runs Scored, and Total Bases.  The slugger was even in the top 10 in Batting Average and On Base Percentage. 

This was a season for the ages, and Puckett didn’t come close in FBHOF scoring, losing 18.3 to 15.8.

Fast forward 4 years, and in 1992 Puckett ran into an all time great – Barry Bonds.  In his last year with the Pittsburgh Pirates Bonds had already been an MVP winner and a runner-up.  He would win it again in 1992 and then again in 1993.  Suffice to say it wasn’t a lack of ability that held Puckett back, he just ran up against some of the best seasons of the past 30-years.

Despite missing 22 games, Bonds batted .311 with 109 R, 34 HR, 103 RBI, and 39 stolen bases.  His team won 96 games and lost the pennant in one of the great Game 7’s of all time – the one where the lifetime .254 hitter Francisco Cabrera drove in the winning runs in the bottom of 9^th with a 2-out, 2 run single, capping a rally that erased a 2-0 deficit.

Puckett, 32 at the time, finished with his last great season batting .329 with 104 R, 19 HR, 110 RBI, and 17 stolen bases and finished second in the MVP voting.  To add insult, the AL MVP in ’92 just happened to put up arguably the best closing performance in history.  Dennis Eckersley saved 51 games thanks to a 1.91 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 93 strikeouts winning the Cy Young Award as well.

To recap, Puckett missed 1^st place thanks to the best fantasy batter of the late 1980s, the games first 40/40 man, and the only player in history to win more than 3 MVP’s (he has a mind-boggling 7 no-less).  In all Puckett has 71.1 FBHOF points, and while the inductees for the outfield have not been released, he’ll likely get his second day of honor soon.