With the MLB Championship Series in full swing and the 2016 World Series set to embark next week, it brings to mind what happened 25 years ago. If you recall, that's when the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves took part in one of the most memorable series in baseball history.
In fact, the 1991 World Series is arguably the greatest World Series of all time and certainly of my generation (all apologies to the 1975 Fall Classic). Like most great World Series, it went the full seven games and had the added sweetener of that Game 7 being one of the greatest games in Series history. There were five games that were won by just a run and three games going into extra innings, including Games 6 and 7, and four walk-off wins.
Those stats alone could make for a great Series, but when you figure how these two teams got here, you're even more amazed.
For starters, prior to the 1991 season, the Atlanta Braves stunk. They were three years removed from a 54-106 season and lost 97 games in both 1989 and 1990. I know it very well since my uncle, Russ Nixon, was manager of those teams. However, guys like Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, David Justice, Ron Gant, Steve Avery and Jeff Blauser did give this struggling franchise a solid foundation on which to build. Throw in the addition of Bobby Cox in the dugout, who replaced Nixon midseason in 1990 and would stay on the job for another 20 years, and the Braves were destined to turn things around. It began in the offseason when the Braves brought in Terry Pendleton, Sid Bream and Falcons cornerback Deion Sanders.
However, not even the most optimistic of fans could predict just how quickly this team would turn things around. Who knew that at team that finished in last place place in four of the previous five seasons would win the NL West and begin a string of 14 consecutive division titles? And that Pendleton would become the NL MVP in 1991 and Glavine would win his first Cy Young Award? Virtually no one, I'd venture to say.
Atlanta, which hadn't had much success in professional sports, went wild. Fans who had nothing to do with the team for years suddenly showed back up. The Braves spent a full seven games beating Barry Bonds and the Pirates in the NLCS, winning Games 6 and 7 at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium.
The Minnesota Twins were no strangers to this. Seven players on that team were on the 1987 Twins squad that beat the St. Louis Cardinals for the championship. The Twins, however, were regressing as an organization and had finished the 1990 season in last place in the AL West with a 74-88 mark. They had made some moves in the offseason, bringing in Chili Davis, Mike Pagliarulo and signing Jack Morris. They also had this young second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch, who was entering his rookie season.
The Twins used a 15-game winning streak at midseason to surge to first place and never relinquished the top spot, besting a team that had owned the division. Minnesota's 1991 division championship was the lone time the Oakland Athletics didn't win the AL West from 1988 to 1992, and it ended the A's three-year run of World Series appearances. The Twins also beat the Blue Jays, a team that would go on to win the 1992 and 1993 World Series, in the ALCS.
Oh, and one last thing about my uncle Russ Nixon — he spent the 1991 season as the manager of the Twins' AAA team in Portland, making for another connection between the teams.
With both teams rebounding from difficult season in 1990, the Twins and Braves plowed through the competition and readied themselves for battle in the '91 World Series.
Game 1
The opener wasn't the most notable of games, especially in this particularly series. It did have two former World Series champions as the starting pitchers, as Jack Morris (1984 Tigers) and Charlie Leibrandt (1985 Royals) faced off. Before that, the ceremonial first pitch was made by umpire Steve Palermo, who was forced into retirement after being shot while trying to break up a robbery three months earlier. The Twins took control of this one on a Greg Gagne three-run home run in the fifth inning and cruised to a 5-2 victory.
Game 2
Back in Minneapolis, the Twins got to Glavine early with a Chili Davis two-run shot in the first inning. After scoring a run in the second inning, the Braves had one of their first bad breaks in the third. Ron Gant, caught with a wide turn off first, seemingly got back to the base safely when Kent Hrbek picked up Gant's leg off the base, and he was called out (the Twins even had a bobblehead of the incident to celebrate the 20th anniversary season in 2011).
Both Glavine and Twins starter Kevin Tapani pitched to the eighth inning in a 2-2 tie. In the bottom of the eighth, third baseman Scott Leius smacked Glavine's first pitch over the left field wall for the winning run ... Leius' lone career postseason home run. The Twins won 3-2 and headed to Atlanta with a 2-0 series lead.
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