Atlanta Braves Tickets

No TEAM HAD EVER REBOUNDED FROM A last place finish to appear in the Fall Classic the next year in the 88-year history of the World Series. In 1991, two teams did exactly that: the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves. The Braves were a laughingstock, having finished last in four of the previous five seasons. But in their first full year under manager Bobby Cox, they improved by an astounding 29 games, capturing the division title, the pennant, and Atlanta Braves Tickets. Twenty-one-year-old pitcher Steve Avery went from 3-11 to 18-8. Tom Glavine, a 25-year-old left-hander, improved his ERA by nearly two runs and transformed himself into a Cy Young award winner. Free agent signee Terry Pendleton exploded for a career year en route to the batting title and the MVP award.

The Twins also got much of their improvement from their pitching. Right-hander Scott Erickson blossomed into a star, and free agent Jack Morris, a St. Paul native, won eighteen games. The first game of the World Series was a struggle between two battle-tested veterans, as Morris of the Twins and Charlie Liebrandt of the Braves squared off. Morris prevailed 5-2 on a surprising home run from Greg Gagne, the Twins' shortstop who was known more for his glove than his bat. Minnesota won the second game on another homer by a light-hitting infielder. This time it was Scott Leius, a utility man with six career home runs, who broke an eighth-inning tie and led the Twins to victory over Glavine. The Braves felt the outcome was tainted by a missed call, which occurred when Minnesota tried to pick off Ron Gant rounding first base after he singled in the third inning. Gant made it back, but Kent Hrbek, Minnesota's six-foot-five, 260-pound first base-man, appeared to physically lift Gant off the base as he applied a tag. Umpire Drew Coble called Gant out instead of calling obstruction on Hrbek. It may or may not have affected the outcome, but it was a call that incensed Atlanta Braves Tickets and Braves fans would long remember.

One benefit of having two last-place teams in the World Series was that they were equally hungry. From the very first pitch they fought it out tooth and nail, never giving up on a game. Game 3 in Atlanta looked like a sure Braves victory, but Minnesota's Charles "Chili" Davis-a designated hitter who was riding the pine because the game was in a National League park-hit a two-run pinch hit homer to tie it in the eighth. Each manager went all out to win the game in regulation, but it stretched into extra innings. With a runner on second in the twelfth, Atlanta's Mark Lemke, a .234 hitter, singled. Dan Gladden's throw from the out-field arrived a split-second too late to nail David Justice at the plate, and he scored for a Braves win. Atlanta Braves Tickets and A Series record 42 players had been used when the game finally ended at 12:42 a.m. Justice's run was the first allowed by the Minnesota bullpen in its 28 post-season innings.

Morris and John Smoltz faced each other in the fourth game. This game was also tied entering the ninth inning. Atlanta could have put it away early, but in the fifth inning Twins catcher Brian Harper tagged out two runners, Lonnie Smith and Pendleton, at home plate. The exhausted relief pitchers feared another extra-inning battle, but Lemke tripled in the bottom of the ninth. Atlanta then sent third-string catcher Jerry Willard to the plate with one out. Willard did construction work in the off-season to make ends meet, and had driven in only four runs during the regular season. He had also been the only Brave not to see action in the previous night's marathon. Willard flied to shallow right field and Lemke tagged and sprinted home. Remarkably, this game, too, would end on a play at the plate, as Lemke was safe on a close play and the Braves won. Willard retired from baseball three years later. His career World Series stat line read zero at-bats and one all-important RBI.

Game 5 was a stinker compared to its two predecessors. Atlanta pummeled the Twins 14-5 as Smith tied a record by homering for the third consecutive game. Erickson fooled nobody in Game 6, but the Braves seemed to hit all their drives right at fielders or just on the wrong side of the foul line. Erickson struggled mightily but gave up only three runs in six innings. He was fortunate to have Kirby Puckett on his side. Puckett had one of the greatest individual games in Series history: an RBI triple in the first inning, a memorable leaping catch in the third, a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the fifth, a single and stolen base in the eighth, and a game-winning homer in the eleventh. The homer came off Liebrandt, who had been pounded in the first game. Braves Tickets brokers /Braves fans, with benefit of hindsight, complained that Cox made the wrong move bringing in Liebrandt to face Puckett. But as Steve Rushin pointed out in Sports Illustrated, "It didn't matter whom he put on the mound to face Puckett. The man was going to hit a home run no matter what." It had been a terrific World Series even before this, but Puckett's heroics seemed to lift it into the realm of the magical. "Whatever happens tomorrow, it's been a great Series," Puckett said. "This is a game I'll never forget." Nor would anyone else.

The Twins were fortunate to be playing the seventh game at the raucous Metrodome, where their all-time postseason record was 10-1. Morris acted as if he had been preparing for this his whole life. He had only one thing to say before the game: "In the words of the late, great Marvin Gaye, let's get it on." They did. Morris and Smolt' each pitched remarkably. Neither pitcher allowed the other team to score. Both teams loaded the bases in the eighth inning and both teams got out of the jam by turning a double play. Smoltz exited in that inning, but Morris soldiered on. The game went into extra innings still scoreless and Morris retired the Braves in the top of the tenth. check out  Braves Tickets to watch their games. Gladden, Minnesota's shaggy-haired out-fielder, led off the bottom of the tenth with a double, then moved to third on a sacrifice. That brought up Gene Larkin, a journeyman player known mostly for breaking many of Lou Gehrig's hitting records at Columbia University. Larkin lifted Alejandro Pena's pitch over the drawn-in outfield and Gladden pranced home. He jumped on the plate with both feet for the Series-winning run. The 36-year-old Morris had pitched the game of his life-or of anyone else's. It was every kid pitcher's dream to throw a shutout in the seventh game of the World Series. Seven men had done that before-Babe Adams, Dizzy Dean, Johnny Podres.