1991 World Series

After finishing last in the 1990 season, the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves both rebounded to the top of their respective leagues for a trip to the Fall Classic. Both clubs were filled with soon-to-be familiar names and were evenly matched on both sides of the ball. As with the '87 contest, the Twins still had a definite advantage over visiting teams thanks to the "baseball purist's nightmare" known as the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome. The trendy, but unpopular indoor stadium was notorious for deafening crowd noise as well as the inability to carry a long ball and most teams dreaded playing there.

Charlie Leibrandt was given the start for the Braves in Game 1, but fell 5-2 thanks to a strong seventh inning effort by Jack Morris. A three run blast by Greg Gagne and a bases-empty bomb by Kent Hrbek (that landed in the upper decks) backed up the thirty-six year old workhorse. Minnesota rookie Scott Leius was the hero in Game 2 after a clutch, tie-breaking homer in the eighth, but the most memorable play of the outing came on a controversial call by umpire Drew Coble. As Atlanta's Ron Gant attempted to retreat back to first (after knocking a third inning single) Hrbek caught the throw from pitcher Kevin Tapani and proceeded to "muscle" Gant off the bag while applying the tag. Despite a heated debate by Braves manager Bobby Cox, the call stood as the official believed it was the runner's own momentum that had carried him off of the base. The result was a 3-2 win that put the Twins up two games to none and left Atlanta praying for an advantage of their own back at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

As the Series moved outdoors to the park of the National League champions, Twins manager Tom Kelly was quoted as saying that "managing without the designated-hitter rule was right up there with rocket science". The over confident skipper would regret his off-hand remark as he demonstrated his lack of both scientific and mathematical skills in Game 3. By the bottom of the ...

The 1991 World Series was played between the Minnesota Twins (95–67) of the American League and the Atlanta Braves (94–68) of the National League between October 19 and October 27, 1991. The Series was, in some respects, similar to the 1987 World Series also played by the Minnesota Twins (against the St. Louis Cardinals), most notably in that the home team won all seven games. The 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played[1], with five of its games being decided by a single run, four games decided in the final at-bat and three games going into extra innings. With 69 innings in total, the 1991 World Series holds the current record for longest seven-game World Series ever (some of the early years had nine-game Series, extending longer).
Seven players appeared in both the 1987 and 1991 Series for the Twins: Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Greg Gagne, Dan Gladden, Gene Larkin, Randy Bush and Al Newman. Terry Pendleton of the Braves also played in the 1987 Series, then as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

For the first time in history, both league champions had finished the previous season in last place. Before 1991, no league champion had ever finished the previous season in last place. The Twins also won the AL West Division in 1991 with every team in the division having a .500 or better record.