Puckett's image dealt serious blowllustrated by veteran reporter Frank DeFord has seriously damaged the repuation of Hall of Fame Minnesota Twins baseball player Kirby Puckett.

Through extensive interviews with Puckett associates, former wife Tonya (they divorced last year) and long-time mistress Laura Nygren, DeFord exposes an unfaithful husband and a man of insincere character.

Puckett, whose career ended abruptly in late March 1996 when he lost vision in his right eye due to a lack of blood circulation to the retina, has had a miserable time with retired life.

Even while Twins owner Carl Pohlad paid Puckett a reported $500,000 a year to act as the team's front-man for a new stadium proposal, Puckett's behavior became increasingly erratic.

"He would ask Nygren to have sex with him in public places -- especially in crowded parking lots -- and in his office at the Twins' headquarters, which were located on what was now called Kirby Puckett Place."

To make matters worse, on Sept. 5, Puckett reportedly accosted a woman in her thirties at the Redstone American Grill in Eden Prairie, Minn. According to police reports, Puckett grabbed the woman's forearm and dragged her into a toilet stall in the men's bathroom, where he touched one of her breasts.

Puckett's lawyers claim the woman was "intoxicated and acting in a lewd fashion," a claim Hennepin County prosecutor Amy Klobuchar dismisses as a "standard defense tactic."

Phone card use gets players suspended

Maybe the Villanova University men's basketball team should have taken Carrot Top's sage advice and dialed 1-800-CALL-ATT when they had the itch to call home.

Last week, head coach Jay Wright was forced to suspend an astonishing 12 players after they acknowledged making unauthorized long-distance phone calls with the access code of an athletic department employee.

Seniors Gary Buchanan, Ricky Wright and Andrew Sullivan sat out as the Wildcats dropped a first-round game to Georgetown University in the Big East Tournament.

No word yet on the possibility of an endorsement deal with AT&T for the guilty parties.

Yankee Wells proves he's no Steinbeck

In his misguided quest to pen the next great American novel, New York Yankees pitcher David Wells has been fined $100,000 by the team for claims made in his recently published book, "Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball."

In "Perfect I'm Not," the hefty lefty says he was half drunk when he pitched a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins in May 1998. Wells also says that up to 40% of big leaguers are juiced up on steroids.

Wells, who calls former Yankee hurler Kenny Rogers a "cuckoo-bird," also takes aim at Roger Clemens, for whom Wells was traded in February 1999.

"Derek Jeter and Scott Brosius took beanballs to the head from the guy and a huge percentage of this team hates his guts," writes Wells.

Federov reveals marriage to Anna

Sergei Federov, the 33 year-old Detroit Red Wings hockey star, recently told the Hockey News that he was married briefly to 21 year-old tennis temptress Anna Kournikova.

Kournikova, known more for her beauty than her suspect tennis skills, has been linked romantically to another Russian hockey star, the New York Rangers' Pavel Bure, and is currently dating Latin pop sensation Enrique Iglesias.

"We were married, albeit brief, and we are now divorced," said Federov, "I don't keep in touch with her and I'm not going to be dating anyone for awhile.