Ten Favorite World Series: 1991 World Series (#3)

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Hip hip hooray! Baseball is the best! I'm looking at my favorite World Series that have happened in my lifetime. For years yesterday's entry, the 1975 Series, was the best World Series in my lifetime. Then.....along came three more series that beat it. Here's the first one that topped it. #1991: Braves/Twins The Atlanta Braves started their decade-long rule of the National League in 1991 in a most extraordinary way. In 1990 they were the cellar-dwellers in 1990, with 97 losses. In 1991 they turned that around, winning 94 games. But they weren't the only "worst-to-first" team that year. In 1990 the Minnesota Twins finished a month behind the A's, and in 1991 they won the AL West. Welcome to the "worst-to-first" World Series. And, if you're going to pull a feat like that off, you'd best make the Series one to remember. Check. A "home cooking" World Series, where the home team won every game, was just one of the highlights of an outstanding World Series that a lot of people probably didn't watch because there weren't "name teams" (yeah, they say the ratings are up when the Evil Empire plays....I say ). That is their loss. Three of the games went to extra innings, and only one (game five's 14-5 rout) was a "laugher." Even that wasn't the "laugher" the final score might indicate, given that the Braves scored six runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth. So, with the Twinkies down three games to two heading back to the Homer Dome (officially, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome), game six came along. In the bottom of the 11th inning Kirby Puckett hit a home run that easily matches the one Fisk hit in '75 (with Jack Buck's legendary, "And we'll see ya tomorrow night!" call), not to mention one of the best catches you'll see in a game from Puckett in the third inning. And then there was one game left: game seven. Sometimes game sevens are anti-climatic, given all the drama that happens in game six. It's understandable why so many legendary World Series games are game six match-ups, because if the series doesn't get tied up, it's over. But man oh man did the Twins and Braves save the best for last. There was an ad campaign in the mid-90s for baseball that featured pitchers taking BP and saying, "Chicks dig the long ball." None of that in game seven. It was a pitcher's duel to the the end, with Jack Morris staying on the mound for all ten innings until the Twins pushed across a run to win the game, and the title, by a 1-0 score. That was the Twins' second, and most recent, title. The Braves were close to matching the AL's Indians for futility, but they did win a series (1995, beating the Indians). Long after the champagne stains were cleaned out of the carpet and the uniforms people still remember this incredible series. 1991 World Series Atlanta Braves (NL) / Minnesota Twins (AL) Winner: Twins, 4 games to 3 Best game: game seven (Twins won, 1-0 in ten innings) Who I was pulling for: Twins The only run of game seven: