Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves Gave Us the Best World Series of All Time

by Tim Wendel

  “When you look back on those great Braves teams, that’s what they were lacking. An automatic, lockdown guy coming out of the bullpen.”

  When the dust settled, Atlanta general manager John Schuerholz declared that the Twins were the champions of the games played indoors in 1991, and his Braves were the champs of the games held outdoors.

  ———

  The summer after the Twins-Braves Series I went to Cuba for the first time, and even fans there were asking whether this was the best World Series ever. My assignment was an exhibition series between the United States and Cuban Olympic baseball teams before the 1992 Summer Games. Back then I thought I knew everything there was to know about baseball—after all, I had just covered my first World Series, and an epic one at that. But nothing could really prepare me for that first game in Cuba.

  The exhibition series was held in Holguin, on the eastern end of the island, and by noon the Soviet-style stadium was filled to overflowing for a 7:30 p.m. first pitch. The US roster was young but loaded with players who would soon reach the major leagues—Nomar Garciaparra, Phil Nevin, Darren Dreifort, Charles Johnson, and Jeffrey Hammonds.

  As dusk settled over the land, the foul poles glowed neon pink in the tropical twilight—the better to determine fair from foul—and the crowd grew more rambunctious thanks to the salsa band and the incessant ringing of cowbells. I walked into the stadium alongside Hammonds. As we gazed out upon the site, he nodded at the outfield fence. “What does that mean?” he asked about the Socialism o Muerte slogan, which was splashed in red lettering. I told him that I believed it meant “socialism or death.”

  There was no real press box, so members of the US press—all six of us—sat in the stands. During the early innings I gazed out at Hammonds, who was playing in center field, only a few feet away from the Socialism o Muerte proclamation. That’s when an old man, a Cuban, sat down next to me. I was at the end of the row, and he sat in the aisle to my right.

  “You’re an American?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “Please tell me about the Minnesota Twins,” he said in broken English.

  I began to tell him how the Twins had just won one of the best World Series ever played. That said, it would be difficult for them to repeat, as they didn’t have the deep pockets to hold on to all their stars and their best players were only getting older.

  “I know all that,” the Cuban gentleman interrupted.

  “Then what do you want to know?” I answered.

  “What do they look like?”

  What do they look like? That remains one of the most curious questions I’ve ever been asked. With that single query, the old Cuban made me realize how star-crossed his nation is and how memorable the Twins-Braves Series remains.

  In my tourist Spanish, with help of my good friend Milton Jamail, I went about the diamond, describing the 1991 world champions. Of course, I put Kent Hrbek at first base (grande pero con elegante), Brian Harper behind the plate (hombre resuelto) and Jack Morris (lanzador bigote) on the mound. I finished with Kirby Puckett in center field, a guy who is difficult to describe in English, let alone a second language. How do you tell somebody about a bowling ball of a man who always seemed to smile and had such a flair for the dramatic?

  As I spoke I turned to Milton to my left and also gazed out toward the field, trying to come up with the best words. When I finished I turned back to the old man. His eyes had swelled with tears and he stood up, clasping me on the shoulder.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Now I know.”

  Then he disappeared down the row toward home plate and into the crowd. Even today, when I think about that memorable Series and the Twins and the Braves, two teams that always seemed ready to rise to the occasion, I see the old man’s face. That odd mix of happiness and sadness, determination and relief, still sums up those times the best for me.

  APPENDIX I

  AFTERMATH

  The Twins

  KIRBY PUCKETT Puckett spent his entire twelve-year career in Minnesota, where he hit .318, won six Gold Gloves and appeared in ten All-Star games.

  During spring training in 1996, Puckett awoke with blindness in his right eye. The diagnosis was glaucoma, and it forced him to retire before his time. A decade later, he suffered a fatal stroke and became the second-youngest person to die who had already been enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Lou Gehrig, at thirty-seven, was the only Hall of Famer younger than Puckett.

  “A seven- or eight-year-old kid watching the game would pick him out, and he just looked different,” sportscaster Bob Costas once said of the Twins’ star. “He had an affection for the game, and there was a kind of energy about it that was fun.

  “I’m sure he took it seriously. You have to take it seriously in order to be a great player, but there was nothing grim about the way he went about it.”

  Puckett was cremated after his death but left no written instructions about what should become of his remains. Jodi Olson, his fiancée, claimed that Puckett had told her he wanted his ashes spread across an inner-city ballfield. In addition, she said she would like some of his ashes to wear in locket around her neck. But Puckett’s children were the primary beneficiaries in his 2003 will. The battle over his ashes and his estate went to court, where five of Puckett’s siblings agreed in court papers that Catherine and Kirby Jr., then sixteen and fourteen years old, respectively, should have the ashes, and the remains should not be divided in any way. Judge Benjamin E. Vatz in the Maricopa County (Arizona) Superior Court agreed in his ruling in October 2006. He wrote that if Puckett had wanted his remains to go to Olson “then he would have taken care to express that wish in writing.”

  A statute to Puckett stands outside the Twins’ new home at Target Field in Minneapolis. Unveiled before the home opener in 2010, it joined statues to such Twins greats as Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew. Local artist Bill Mack portrayed Puckett in the moments after his Game Six home run, as he rounded second base, his arm raised overhead in a fist.

  JACK MORRIS Soon after Game Seven, Morris exercised his option for free agency and signed with Toronto, briefly becoming the game’s highest-paid pitcher. Perhaps the World Series MVP understood better than others that the national pastime was first and foremost a business, and often a cruel enterprise at that. After losing out as a free agent in 1986, Morris wasn’t about to let it happen again. He said that leaving the Twin Cities became strictly “a business decision.”

  “The majority of people in the world today have played Little League baseball or some form of baseball,” he told USA Today’s Hal Bodley in the spring of 1992. “It’s easy for them to say, ‘I could have done that.’ Everybody relates to baseball, so it’s difficult for them to comprehend what’s going on today with salaries. They ask, ‘How much is enough?’ I guarantee you, in their right mind, if they are thinking clearly, they would have done the same thing.”

  Even though Toronto’s offer was about $2 million higher than Minnesota’s proposal, some in the Twin Cities derided Morris for leaving after one season, saying he had shed crocodile tears upon becoming misty-eyed at his Twins signing. “But I think he was sincere when he returned to town to play for the Twins,” official scorer Stew Thornley said, “and I think he was sincere when he left, too.”

  As the new member of the Blue Jays’ rotation, Morris won a league-high twenty-one games and found himself back in the World Series on another winner. Yet in the ’92 postseason, Morris went winless on the big stage and Lonnie Smith, of all people, hit him up for a grand slam in Game Five of that year’s World Series.

  As part of his free-agent windfall, Morris bought a seventy-five-hundred-acre farm near Great Falls, Montana. By 1994, he was in Cleveland, and at age thirty-nine he was expected to be elder statesman on the Indians’ young staff. When two of his farmhands back in Montana quit, Morris began to split time between the ball club and his farm. In August 1994, the Indians gave the five-time All-Star his unconditional release. �
��You can be benevolent to a point, but there comes a time when you’ve got to do something,” Indians general manager John Hart said. Two pitchers from Triple-A, Chad Ogea and Julian Tavarez, competed for Morris’s spot in the rotation.

  An incredibly durable athlete, Morris left the game having made fourteen Opening Day starts and at one point going 515 consecutive starts without missing a turn in the rotation. In his eighteen-year career, he was on the disabled list only twice.

  Despite a rocky relationship with the media, many felt he deserved to be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. From 1979 through 1992, according to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, Morris won 233 games compared to Nolan Ryan’s 168. As of this date, though, Ryan was enshrined in Cooperstown, and Morris remained on the outside looking in.

  “He’s arrogant, sure,” Detroit manager Sparky Anderson once said. “He knows he’s good. He’s like a great thoroughbred who’ll bite you if you try to get near him.”

  Morris went on to a second career in broadcasting, first with the Twins and then with the Blue Jays, and maintained that compliments he received from strangers about his performance in Game Seven, what he termed as “warm fuzzies,” took the sting out of the Hall of Fame slights.

  KENT HRBEK The first baseman played fourteen seasons in the major leagues, all with his hometown team. Stars like Hrbek, George Brett (Kansas City Royals) and Tony Gwynn (San Diego Padres) played with one team for their entire major league careers and now appear to be icons from a forgotten time. Hrbek left the game before he was ready, a victim of the baseball owners voting to curtail the end of the regular season and cancel the World Series in 1994. Even a larger-than-life star like Hrbek couldn’t rise above the looming labor war. After retiring, Hrbek took the lead in raising money and awareness in the fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which had killed his father, Ed. “When we get a cure for this thing, I’m going to rent out the Metrodome for a party,” Hrbek told Sports Illustrated, “and everyone’s invited.” A restaurant/bar at Target Field, the Twins’ new ballpark, was named for him and has memorabilia from his playing days. A series of photographs there show him once again pantomiming the no smoking pregame warning from the old Metrodome and giving the thumbs-up to another beverage.

  GREG GAGNE The shortstop played only one more year with the Twins before moving on to the Kansas City Royals and then finishing his big-league career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Afterward, he returned home to Somerset, Massachusetts, where he coached high school baseball.

  CHUCK KNOBLAUCH Gagne’s double-play partner (with or without a ball in his hand) played in the Twin Cities for seven seasons, leading the league in doubles in 1994 and in triples in 1996. Before the 1998 season, he was traded to the New York Yankees for four players, including left-hander Eric Milton and shortstop Cristian Guzmán. With the Yankees, Knoblauch made key defensive plays to help preserve the perfect games by David Wells and David Cone, and was on three more World Series championship teams. Toward the end of his twelve-year career, Knoblauch began to have difficulty making accurate throws. The mental block became as debilitating as it would be for Steve Blass, Mackey Sasser, Dave Engle, Steve Sax, and the Braves’ Mark Wohlers. In 2001, the New York Times chronicled him making seven wild throws in three days and he retired after the 2002 season.

  DAN GLADDEN After scoring the winning and only run in Game Seven, Gladden signed with the Detroit Tigers for the 1992 season. After two years in the Motor City, he played a season in Japan, helping the Yomiuri Giants win the championship in that country. His aggressive play sparked the first on-field brawl in that country in fourteen seasons. After his playing days ended, he found himself in the broadcast booth as a color commentator for the Twins Radio Network. A Harley-Davidson enthusiast, he attends motorcycle rallies when his schedule allows.

  He loves to tell the story about how in the wee hours after he scored the winning run in Game Seven, he and some buddies returned to the Metrodome and found his broken bat in a garbage can. He brought it home, where it now hangs on his wall.

  RICK AGUILERA The right-hander saved 318 games in his sixteen-year career, becoming one of the top closers of his era. His time with the Twins seemed to be over in 1995 when he was traded midseason to the Boston Red Sox as a cost-cutting measure. The Red Sox were in Minneapolis at the time, which meant Aguilera said his goodbyes in the home clubhouse and then walked down the hallway to the visitors’ dressing room. It was a far cry from his arrival to the Twins when Kirby Puckett personally greeted him. But Aguilera returned to play with the Twins from 1996 to 1999. He finished his career with Chicago Cubs in 2000, saving twenty-nine games, and now lives in southern California.

  BRIAN HARPER The Twins declined to pick up the $2.5 million option on the catcher’s contract before the strike-shortened 1994 season, leaving Harper to wonder how much his religion had come into play. “As a Christian, when I do something wrong, I ask God to forgive me,” he told the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune. “So when somebody does something wrong to me, I’m obligated, according to the Bible, to forgive them. I felt that there have been some wrongs done, but I’m obligated to forgive.” After his playing days ended he became a minor-league manager for the Angels, Giants, and Cubs. Playing for the ’91 Twins remained the highlight of his sixteen-year playing career with seven different teams. “We were a loose bunch, joking around, laughing, enjoying our work,” he said. “We just loved coming to the ballpark.”

  GENE LARKIN He was one of seven Twins to be a part of the 1987 and 1991 World Series teams. (The others were Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Randy Bush, Greg Gagne, Al Newman, and Dan Gladden.) Larkin retired after the 1993 season and still makes his home in the Minneapolis area, where he works as a financial planner. His son, Geno, followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a switch-hitter who can play first base or the outfield. Occasionally, the two of them watch footage of the 1991 World Series together.

  SCOTT LEIUS In his first full season in the majors, Leius played in all seven games of the ’91 series. After four more seasons in Minnesota, he played a season in Cleveland, was out of the majors in 1997, before returning to play two more seasons in Kansas City. He served as a youth coach in the Minneapolis area.

  KEVIN TAPANI Traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tapani played briefly for the White Sox before moving across town for five seasons with the Cubs. After retiring, he returned to the Twin Cities, where he still makes his home.

  SCOTT ERICKSON A twenty-game winner in 1991, Erickson lost a league-high nineteen games two seasons later. He went on to a fifteen-year career in the majors, but the closest he came to the twenty-victory plateau again came in consecutive seasons in 1997 and ’98 with the Baltimore Orioles. After his pitching days were over, Erickson returned to the West Coast, where he had grown up, and went into television and film production and was a minor-league pitching coach. In 2004, he married Lisa Guerrero, a former sideline reporter with Monday Night Football.

  CHILI DAVIS He finished his nineteen-year playing career with the New York Yankees in 1999, the only other team that he said was as close knit as the ’91 Twins. After two seasons in Minnesota, Davis returned to the West Coast. As the designated hitter with the California Angels, he set a major league record for most RBI in a season (112) without the benefit of a sacrifice fly.

  “A big part of what allowed me to set that record was how Kirby Puckett and I just talked about hitting, your approach at the plate, about hitting with runners in scoring position,” Davis remembered. “Puck would say, ‘Don’t let them steal your at-bat. Pick out your pitch, and drive him in with a hit, drive him in with a knock.’”

  That remained his philosophy after his playing days were over and he became a hitting coach, most recently with the Oakland Athletics.

  TOM KELLY He managed for sixteen years in the majors, compiling a 1,140–1,240 record, which included two pennants and two World Series titles.

  The Braves

  MARK LEMKE After eleven years in the majors, Lemke tried to make it as a coa
ch, but his arm couldn’t take throwing batting practice day after day. He moved to the broadcasting booth, hosting the pre- and postgame shows for the Braves Radio Network. When Skip Caray died, Lemke was the choice to be color analyst, joining Pete Van Wieren. Years after being the best Braves player in the World Series, Lemke remains close to the team and a fan favorite in Atlanta.

  “Even though we didn’t win that year, I’d say for most of us we never were a part of something with more excitement and just general passion than those games,” he said. “And then to see the city where you play go berserk over baseball, that’s something you never forget. We wouldn’t win it all until ’95, but nobody on either team will forget that Series in ’91.”

  Lemke hit .286 in four World Series and .282 in five NLCS. In comparison, he hit only .246 during the regular season in his career. “He was a postseason phenomenon about every year,” Andy Van Slyke said. “I always used to kid him. I’d say, ‘Mark, if you were in the playoffs for the whole year, you might make some real good money.’ There always seem to be that guy in postseason—the guy who comes out of nowhere.”

  RON GANT He would play sixteen years in the majors, including seven with Atlanta. During his career, Gant hit thirty or more home runs in four seasons. In 2005, he began as a color commentator for TBS in Atlanta and seven years later debuted as a news anchor for WAGATV, cohosting the morning show Good Day Atlanta.

  STEVE AVERY The future looked bright for the left-handed phenom in 1991 as he went 18–8 and became the youngest pitcher to win a playoff game. But Avery would reach that victory total only once more in his eleven-year career, going 18–6 in 1993. Eventually, he was dropped from the best rotation on baseball, which included Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Greg Maddux. By the 1996 World Series, he was relegated to mop-up duty and he went on to pitch for Boston and then Cincinnati before returning to the game for a brief stint with his hometown Detroit Tigers in 2003 in which he went 2–0 and batted 1.000 (1 for 1).