1991 World Series

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The 1991 World Series was played from October 19 to October 27 between the Minnesota Twins (95-67) of the American League and the Atlanta Braves (94-68) of the National League. 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).

Managers: Tom Kelly (Minnesota), Bobby Cox (Atlanta)

Umpires: Don Denkinger (AL), Harry Wendelstedt (NL), Drew Coble (AL), Terry Tata (NL), Rick Reed (AL), Ed Montague (NL)

Series MVP: Jack Morris, Twins

Television: CBS (Jack Buck and Tim McCarver announcing)

1 1991 League Championship Series
2 Summary
3 Quotes of the Series
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] 1991 League Championship Series

[edit] Summary

The 1991 World Series was notable for its series of grueling contests, five of its games being decided by two or fewer runs and three running into extra innings (the third game, a twelve-inning marathon which ended when Twins manager Tom Kelly ran out of pitchers). This World Series is thought by many to be the best World Series ever played.

[edit] Game 1

October 19, 1991 at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota Twins)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Atlanta	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	6	1
Minnesota	0	0	1	0	3	1	0	0	X	5	9	1
W: Jack Morris (1-0) L: Charlie Leibrandt (0-1) S: Rick Aguilera (1)
HR: MIN – Greg Gagne (1), Kent Hrbek (1)

The Twins struck early with two home runs, a three-run blast from Greg Gagne and a solo shot from Kent Hrbek to take a 4-0 lead en route to a 5-2 Twins win. Only some fine defense from the Braves saved a rout.

[edit] Game 2

October 20, 1991 at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota Twins)

The pitching match-up featured 1991 Cy Young winner Tom Glavine against the Twins' sixteen-game winner and number two starter, Kevin Tapani.

In the bottom of the first, Dan Gladden lifted a seemingly routine pop-up towards second base. Atlanta fielders Mark Lemke and David Justice miscommunicated and collided with one another as the ball fell from Lemke's glove and Gladden reached second on a two-base error. After a walk to Chuck Knoblauch, Glavine induced a bat-breaking double play, 5-3, for two outs. But a Chili Davis two-run blast gave the Twins an early 2-0 lead.

The Braves got a run back in the top of the second when Justice singled, Sid Bream doubled him to third, and Justice scored on a sacrifice fly by Greg Olson. Controversy occurred the next inning when Lonnie Smith reached first on an error by Scott Leius. With two outs, Ron Gant ripped a single to left. Smith tried to beat the throw to third from Gladden. An overthrow to third gave Smith the base, but Tapani, backing up third, threw to Kent Hrbek at first. Gant scrambled back to the bag and depending on one's rooting interests, was pulled off the bag either by Hrbek's strong tag or his own momentum. Umpire Drew Coble determined the latter, ending the inning. Announcers Jack Buck and Tim McCarver were adamant in their insistence that Hrbek had pulled Gant off the bag as was at least one Minnesota reporter. But the call stood and Hrbek and his family were harrassed - some good-natured and some not - for the rest of the series.

The Braves tied the game in the fifth when Olson doubled, Lemke grounded him to third, and Rafael Belliard hit a sacrifice fly. The game stayed tied until the bottom of the eighth when unheralded Scott Leius drilled a Glavine pitch into the left-field seats for what proved to be the game-winner. Rick Aguilera got the save and the series headed to Atlanta with the Twins leading two games to none.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Atlanta	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	8	1
Minnesota	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	X	3	4	1
W: Kevin Tapani (1-0) L: Tom Glavine (0-1) S: Rick Aguilera (2)
HR: MIN – Chili Davis (1), Scott Leius (1)

[edit] Game 3

October 22, 1991 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (Atlanta Braves)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	R	H	E
Minnesota	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	4	10	1
Atlanta	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	8	2
W: Jim Clancy (1-0) L: Rick Aguilera (0-1)
HR: MIN – Chili Davis (2), Kirby Puckett (1) ATL – David Justice (1), Lonnie Smith (1)

In one of the greatest games ever played, the Braves outlasted the Twins in a thrilling twelve inning battle, the first World Series game ever played South of the Mason-Dixon Line. This game matched Twins twenty-game winner Scott Erickson against Atlanta's late-season hero and NLCS MVP Steve Avery. Avery had not allowed a run to the Pirates in sixteen-plus innings. It took the Twins only two batters to end the shutout streak.

Reminiscent of game one, Dan Gladden hit another ball towards David Justice. This time, Justice and Ron Gant miscommunicated, and Gladden wound up at third with nobody out in the top of the first. Gladden scored on Knoblauch's sacrifice fly to Justice. And the Twins would not score again until the seventh.

The Braves, meanwhile, got the run back in the second when Olson scored on Belliard's single. Justice led off the fourth with his first World Series home run, and the Braves led for the first time in the series, 2-1. In the fifth, the Braves scored again when Lonnie Smith homered. They loaded the bases but only scored one more run due to the clutch relief pitching of Terry Leach. With the score 4-1, the Braves looked to close it out. As it turned out, the game was just beginning.

Avery had been effective other than the one misplay in the first. But after Kirby Puckett homered in the seventh to make it 4-2 and two other fly outs made it to the warning track, Cox reluctanlty sent Avery out for the eighth inning. After a Terry Pendleton error put Brian Harper on first, Avery went to the showers in favor of the Braves regular season closer, Alejandro Pena. Pena had been 13 for 13 in save opportunities, but he had not pitched since the prior Wednesday. His first batter, Chili Davis, tied the game with a monstrous home run to left, leaving Avery with nothing to show for a great pitching effort.

At this point, the game got bizarre. Substitutions and double switches were used by both teams into the twelfth, when Minnesota manager Tom Kelley used up his entire bench and had to send reliever Rick Aguilera to bat with the bases loaded and two out. Aguilera flied to center. In the bottom of the twelfth, Justice singled to right and after Brian Hunter popped out, Justice stole second. With two outs, Mark Lemke entered the pantheon of World Series heroes by hitting a single to left that enabled Justice to just beat the throw from Dan Gladden. His score gave the Braves a 5-4 win and cut the Twins lead in the series to 2-1. Jim Clancy was the winning pitcher for Atlanta while Aguilera was the loser for Minnesota.

The game lasted a then record four hours, four minutes.

[edit] Game 4

October 23, 1991 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (Atlanta Braves)

Because game three had ended after midnight, Mark Lemke became the first player in history to win two World Series games in the same day. Game four matched up Jack Morris against Atlanta starter John Smoltz, a former Morris teammate who had idolized Morris while a youngster.

As was the custom in the first three games, the Twins scored first. In the second inning, Brian Harper scored on Mike Pagliarulo's double. The Braves tied it in the third when Terry Pendleton hit his first ever post-season home run. The Braves appeared ready to take a lead in the fifth when Lonnie Smith singled and stole second. A double by Terry Pendleton sent Smith towards the plate. The throw to catcher Brian Harper was on line and Harper caught the ball, tagging Smith and holding onto it as Smith plowed over Harper at full speed. The collision sent both sprawling, but Harper held onto the ball and got up to ensure Pendleton, who had gone to third, did not score. The Braves now had a runner at third with one out. A few moments later, Morris unleashed a wild pitch and Pendleton sped toward home. But Harper retrieved it and tagged the sliding Pendleton for the second out of the inning. Justice popped out and Morris was out of the jam due mostly to horrible base running by the Braves.

In the top of the seventh, Palgiarulo homered to give the Twins the lead, 2-1. But the Braves go the run back in the bottom of the inning when Lonnie Smith homered off Carl Willis to tie the game. The game entered the bottom of the ninth still tied, 2-2. With one out and Mark Guthrie pitching, Mark Lemke drilled a triple off the left-centerfield wall. Jeff Blauser was walked intentionally to set up a possible double play to force extra innings. After a series of moves by both managers, former Brave Steve Bedrosian took the mound to face veteran minor leaguer Jerry Willard. Willard delivered a sacrifice fly to Shane Mack in right field. Mack caught it and fired toward the plate. The ball beat Lemke to the plate, but he got around Harper with a hook slide, scoring the winning run that beat the Twins, 3-2. Harper leaped and vociferously protested, but umpire Terry Tata stood by the call, and replays showed it to be correct. The win tied the series at two games apiece and ensured it would return to Minnesota.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	7	0
Atlanta	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	3	8	0
W: Mike Stanton (1-0) L: Mark Guthrie (0-1)
HR: MIN – Mike Pagliarulo (1) ATL – Terry Pendleton (1), Lonnie Smith (2)

[edit] Game 5

October 24, 1991 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (Atlanta Braves)

It was Glavine versus Tapani in a game two rematch. And despite the final score, this contest was still up in the air until the seventh inning. For three innings, the pitchers matched zeroes, but in the fourth, Ron Gant singled to left and David Justice homered off the top of the left-field wall for a 2-0 Braves lead. Sid Bream walked and Greg Olson hit what appeared to be a double play grounder to second. But the ball hit Bream's leg, resulting in Bream being called out for runner interference but Olson safe at first. Mark Lemke, the hero of games three and four, drilled a triple that scored Olson, and Lemke himself scored on light-hitting Rafael Belliard's double. At this point, the Braves led 4-0, their biggest lead in any game in the series.

In the fifth, Pendleton and Gant singled, Pendleton to third. Then David Justice hit into a fielder's choice that scored Pendleton and gave the Braves a 5-0 lead. With Glavine working on a two-hitter, the game seemed in hand for the Braves. But Glavine was not sharp in the sixth inning and wound up getting pulled from the game. Knoblauch reached on a one-out walk and then went to third on Puckett's single. A walk to Chili Davis loaded the bases, and Glavine suddenly couldn't find the strike zone. He walked in two runs by giving bases loaded walks to Brian Harper and Scott Leius. Kent Mercker came on to get out of the jam and he gave up one run but got the final two outs. The game entered the seventh with the Braves leading, 5-3.

Tom Kelly sent David West out to begin the bottom of the seventh. West had failed to retire a batter in game three and thus had an ERA of infinity. Lonnie Smith hit his third home run in three nights, all solo shots, to give the Braves a 6-3 lead. And then the floodgates opened. Pendleton and Gant walked, Justice singled to score Pendleton, and West was again taken out with retiring a batter (he would retire his first World Series hitter in the 1993 World Series with the Phillies). Hunter singled to score Gant and put two on with nobody out and an 8-3 Braves lead. After Olson popped out, Lemke hit his third triple in his last four at bats, driving home Justice and Hunter, and scoring when Belliard singled to center. The Braves ended the seventh with an 11-3 lead and the announcers began talking about the chances of the two teams in game six.

But there were still two innings to be played. Chili Davis, playing this game in right field in place of 0 for 15 Shane Mack, singled. He moved to second on a ground out and scored on Al Newman's triple. In the bottom of the eighth, Pendleton doubled and Gant tripled, scoring Pendleton. Justice grounded out to the pitcher, Gant scoring, and Hunter ended the Braves' offensive barrage with a home run.

Both managers emptied their benches to give playing time to non-starters. Thus, Randy St. Claire was on the mound pitching to Francisco Cabrera as the ninth inning began. St. Claire gave up a run when Gladden tripled and scored on a fielder's choice, but the game ended in a 14-5 Braves rout. The Braves now had their first lead in series games, three to two, and only needed one win to clinch their first World Series since 1957.

Glavine was the winning pitcher and Tapani was the loser.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	1	5	7	1
Atlanta	0	0	0	4	1	0	6	3	X	14	17	1
W: Tom Glavine (1-1) L: Kevin Tapani (1-1)
HR: ATL– David Justice (2), Lonnie Smith (3), Brian Hunter (1)

[edit] Game 6

October 26, 1991 at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota Twins)

Both teams had each other in their palms. The Braves needed another win to capture the World Series. The Twins needed game six won to stay alive. The Braves put late season ace Steve Avery on the mound. They would also be facing Scott Erickson on three days rest and had batted him around early in game three.

The Twins, on the other hand, were coming back to the Metrodome where they had a post-season record of 9-1 including two wins over the Braves the previous weekend. And unlike the Pirates, they would face Avery on three days rest.

In the top of the first, the Braves got two baserunners on but failed to score against Erickson. In the bottom of the first, Knoblauch singled and Kirby Puckett tripled, scoring Knoblauch and setting the tone for the rest of the evening. Avery retired Chili Davis and now faced Shane Mack, who was 0 for 15 in the Series. But Mack now got his first hit, scoring Puckett, and giving Avery his first two-run deficit since August 25. Leius singled, putting runners at first and third, but Avery got Hrbek out to keep the score 2-0.

The Braves hit Erickson hard, but the balls seemed to go directly to the fielders. No better example can be cited than Ron Gant's seeming extra-base hit in the top of the third with Pendleton on first. Kirby Puckett leaped and made a sensational catch, sending Pendleton back to first instead of around the bases for Atlanta's first run. Erickson got out of it by getting a ground out from Justice.

In the fourth, the Twins appeared ready to increase their lead, putting runners at second and third with one out. But Avery buckled down and retired the side to keep the game close. Another critical play occurred in the fifth when Rafael Belliard kept the Twins from completing a double play with a fierce slide. His hustle enabled Lonnie Smith to reach first. This became important when Terry Pendleton golfed Erickson's next pitch into the seats to tie the game at two. With two outs, David Justice lifted what appeared to be a go-ahead home run for the Braves to right. At the last instant, the ball hooked foul by about two feet. Erickson retired Justice and the Twins came to bat with the score tied.

Gladden responded with a walk and a steal of second. He moved to third on Knoblauch's liner to right and scored on Puckett's center field sacrifice fly. The Twins kept their 3-2 lead into the eighth. Lemke singled to center and went to second on a wild pitch by Guthrie. Smith walked and Pendleton then singled just past the infield but not far enough to score Lemke. The Braves now had the bases loaded and nobody out. But the Braves scored only one run, Lemke, when Carl Willis got the next three batters out.

The game remained scoreless until the eleventh. Bobby Cox, perhaps sensing a long game ahead, sent Charlie Leibrandt to the mound. Leibrandt threw four pitches to Kirby Puckett. The first three gave him a 2 ball-1 strike count. The last one landed in the center-field seats for a game-winning home run that tied the series with three games apiece. It would be the first game seven since the 1987 World Series, also played at the Metrodome by the Twins, who also played in that World Series.

Leibrandt was the losing pitcher while reliver Rick Aguilera was the winning pitcher.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Atlanta	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	9	1
Minnesota	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	9	0
W: Rick Aguilera (1-1) L: Charlie Leibrandt (0-2)
HR: ATL– Terry Pendleton (2) MIN– Kirby Puckett (2)

[edit] Game 7

October 27, 1991 at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota Twins)

In the deciding seventh game, neither team gave nor asked any quarter. Scoring threats were posted and quashed with ruthless efficiency, including a heart-stopping eighth inning wherein both teams were retired with the bases loaded by double play. A slick (and rare) 3-2-3 double play between Hrbek and Harper retired the side in the top of the eighth, and Lemke returned the favor to Hrbek in the bottom of the same inning after Atlanta reliever Mike Stanton had intentionally walked Puckett, possibly leery of a sudden repeat of the previous night's heroics.

The game was finally won in the bottom of the tenth on a Texas-league single by Gene Larkin that forced home the winning (and only) run from third base in the person of left fielder Dan Gladden, usually accompanied by the excitement of legendary baseball announcer Jack Buck calling out that the Twins had won the World Series. A day earlier, Buck's highly understated joke that the Atlanta fans had had some "good-natured fun" with Hrbek had earned some extremely angry letters in Twin Cities newspapers, from local fans coming to the defense of their hometown hero.

Game 7 was also notable in that it represented the finest pitching performance from Twins rotation ace Jack Morris, ten innings of shutout baseball. A Twin Cities sports writer wrote that on that night, "[Morris] could have outlasted Methuselah."

For the second time in five years the underdog team from Minnesota, of which once, when they were playing in another town, was written "First in war, first in peace and last in the American League", had captured Baseball's highest trophy.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Atlanta	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	10	0
W: Jack Morris (2-0) L: Alejandro Peña (0-1)

[edit] Quotes of the Series

Into deep left center...for Mitchell...And we'll see you... TOMORROW NIGHT! - CBS television announcer Jack Buck, announcing Twins center fielder Kirby Puckett's game-winning eleventh-inning walk-off home run in Game 6 against Charlie Leibrandt.

Puckett swings and hits a blast! Deep left center! Way back! Way back! IT'S GONE!!! The Twins go to the seventh game! Touch 'em all Kirby Puckett! Touch 'em all Kirby Puckett! And the Twins have won this game 4-3 on a dramatic home run by Kirby Puckett! - WCCO announcer John Gordon, announcing the same event.

And after eight full innings of play, Atlanta nothing, Minnesota nothing...I *think* we'll be back in just a moment. - An emotionally-drained Vin Scully, concluding the heart-stopping 8th inning of the CBS Radio broadcast of Game 7 after both teams had quashed bases-loaded, one-out scoring threats.

THE TWINS ARE GOING TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES! The Twins have won it! It's a base hit, it's a 1-0, ten inning victory! - Jack Buck calling Gene Larkin's World Series clinching hit on CBS-TV.

...Baseball is the greatest game there is. - Twins third baseman Mike Pagliarulo.

It was I think probably the greatest World Series ever! - Commissioner Fay Vincent during the World Series Trophy presentation ceremony.

I just didn't want to quit and somehow we figured out a way to win this thing. - World Series MVP Jack Morris following his masterful performance in Game 7.

[edit] Trivia

For the first time in World Series history, both league champions had finished the previous season in last place.
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.
This was the last World Series that Fay Vincent (who was forced to resign a year later) presided over as commissioner. In Game 1, a Kent Hrbek foul pop up hit Vincent's daughter Anne in the head.
Braves outfielder Lonnie Smith played for a record fourth team in World Series play.
Twins manager Tom Kelly said going into the three games in Atlanta that managing without the designated-hitter rule was "right up there with rocket science."
Braves second baseman Mark Lemke, who hit .234 during the regular season, became perhaps the most surprising hero of the 1991 World Series. Lemke hit .417 in the World Series, drove in the game winning run (a two-out single to score David Justice, who had singled and stolen second) in Game 3, tripled with one out in the 9th inning in Game 4 before scoring the winning run on Jerry Willard's fly ball to right. Lemke tied Billy Johnson's 1947 record for triples in a World Series. The bat that Lemke hit his third triple was sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York for display.
The Braves' 5-4 victory in Game 3 was the first of four games in this Series to end with the winning team scoring the deciding run in the ninth inning or later.
By the 11th inning in Game 3 (with the score tied at 4-4), the Twins, who had used up all of their position players, had to resort to using relief pitcher Rick Aguilera to pinch-hit. With the bases loaded and two out, Aguilera hit a high fly ball that was easily caught.
At the start of Game 7, Braves lead-off man Lonnie Smith (who filled-in for Otis Nixon, who was suspended in September for drug abuse) shook hands with Twins catcher Brian Harper. In Game 4, Smith had a memorable collision at the plate with Harper.
For the first time since 1962, the World Series goes to the full seven games and ends with a 1-0 verdict.
The 1991 World Series was the first since 1924 to end with an extra-inning seventh-game. Like in 1991, the 1924 World Series ended with the home team winning in its last at-bat. Curiously, the Twins were also the winning team of that World Series, though at that time they were the Washington Senators.
The Braves were the first Major League team since the 1889-1890 Louisville Colonels to win a pennant after posting the worst record in the league the previous year.
Game 7 was a pitching duel between Minnesota's Jack Morris and Atlanta's John Smoltz. Curiously, Smoltz was a farmhand in Morris' previous organization, the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers traded Smoltz to the Braves in 1987 for pitcher Doyle Alexander in anticipation for a playoff showdown against the Minnesota Twins.
The ceremonial first pitch of the World Series prior to Game 1 was thrown by retired AL umpire Steve Palermo. Palmero had been forced into early retirement when he was seriously injured by gunshot while coming to the aid of a robbery victim one night in Dallas. After the pitch, the Series umpires jogged to the mound to exchange well wishes.
The famous Game 7 showdown that remained scoreless for 10 innings was caused by an ingenious (and rarely mentioned) play by Twins infielders. During the top of the eighth inning, the Braves' Lonnie Smith was on first and took off for a hit and run. The Terry Pendleton laced a double in the gap. Logically, Smith could have scored from first with a double, especially since he was running as the pitch was thrown. But tricky fakery from the Twins prevented it. After the batter made contact with the ball, Twins infielders Greg Gagne (shortstop) and Chuck Knoblauch (second base) feigned starting a double play by forcing out Smith at second. Smith, who was running and could not see the hit was a double, simply saw Gagne and Knoblauch up ahead readying for a force play. To eliminate the force play and beat the "force" (which never existed), Smith went into second with a hard slide. He then gathered his wits, looked up and saw the hit was actually a double. Smith then ran to third while the batter came to second. The trickery caused enough confusion for Smith to advance only to third where he logically would have scored and, thereby, won the game for Atlanta.

[edit] External links

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