Minnesota Twins Tickets

THE CARDINALS RETURNED TO THE WORLD Series in 1987 after their heartbreaking Series loss in 1985. This despite injuries to many of their best players, including Jack Clark, Tommy Herr, John Tudor, and Tony Pena. "It's amazing we got this far with a spring training team out there," said Jim Lindeman, a rookie who helped fill in for Clark at first base. The Cardinals' opponents in the Series were the Twins (Minnesota Twins Tickets). The Minnesota squad got most of its firepower from Kirby Puckett, the exuberant, roly-poly center fielder who finished third in MVP voting while batting .332. Minnesota's regular season record was a pedestrian 85-77. Fortunately for them, they played in the A.L. West while the four best teams in the American League happened to play in the East. They beat the Detroit Tigers in the playoffs to become the second worst team ever to grace the World Series. (The 1973 New York Mets, with an 82-79 record, were the worst.)

"Minnesota had the fifth-best record in the American League that year," Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said, "and they proceeded to kick our ass around that lunatic Homerdome, where you can't see a pop fly or hear it come off the bat." Indeed, the plastic-and-concrete hangar known as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was believed by many to be the Twins' greatest asset. With 55,000 fans screaming and waving their famed Homer Hankies, the building got so loud that many visiting players could neither hear nor think. "The noise level was unbelievable," Puckett said. "Some of the other, because communica¬tion was impossible once the ball was in the air." Thus, the Twins took the first two games of the Series.

The Cardinals trailed the third game 1-0 until the seventh inning when Vince Coleman ripped a two-run double that proved to be the decisive blow in a 4-1 St. Loui; victory. The next day Herzog played a hunch, starting .227 career hitter Tom Lawless at third base in place of the inju Terry Pendleton in Game 4. The veteran utility man had gotten only two hits all year, but he made Herzog look like a genius when he parked a Frank Viola pitch into the seats, instantly doubling his career home run total. View Minnesota Twins Tickets order information. Lawless also made a fine play in the field as the Cardinals beat Viola soundly, 7-2. The next day the Cards won their third straight game as they stole five bases, the most in a World Series game since the 1907 Cubs.The Twins had seen their two games to none lead vanish rapidly in Missouri, but they were confident that they could win the final two games in their cozy Homerdome. The Cardinals built an early 5-2 lead in Game 6, and were only five innings away from winning the Series. But Kirby Puckett's single-one of four he would get that day-started a fifth-inning rally. The Twins proceeded to sell Minnesota Twins Tickets and to unload on Tudor and three Cardinal relievers over the next two innings with Kent Hrbek's grand slam providing the exclamation point. "I wanted to circle the bases twice," the overjoyed Hrbek said. The Twins emerged with a 11-5 win and a ticket for the seventh game.

The Cardinals scored two quick runs off Viola in Game 7. Viola soon noticed that they were hitting his changeup, so he started throwing mostly fastballs, and the Cardinals did not score again. It was a close game thanks mostly to the Minnesota Twins Tickets overenthusiastic baserunning, as three Minnesota runners were thrown out on the base paths, including two at home plate by jelly-armed left fielder Coleman. (Replays, however, showed that one of the men Coleman threw out-Don Baylor in the second inning-was actually safe.)
The balance started to tilt Minnesota's way in the sixth inning as they took a 3-2 lead and also flustered Cardinal pitcher Danny Cox, who was ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Dave Phillips imme¬diately after being removed from the game. This marked the second time in three years that a Cardinals pitcher was ejected from Game 7 of the World Series. That was the beginning of the end for the Cardinals. The Twins added an insurance run in the eighth. and Jeff Reardon saved the game for Viola. A Minnesota franchise reigned atop the sports world for the first time since George Mikan played for the Minneapolis Lakers.

It was the first World Series in which the winning team had failed to win a road game. (buy Minnesota Twins Tickets) Herzog, never one to take defeat with grace. blamed his team's loss on the Twins' ball park. "I still don't know how you win at the Metrodome, and I'm not sure I want to know," he said. "I do know one week isn't enough for a baseball team to figure it out. The Cardinals could've played there till Easter and never won a game." Viola was named the MVP of the Series. The sweetest music to his ears came when the Baseball Hall of Fame asked for the hat he had worn in the seventh game. "One day you're just another player," he said, "and the next someone wants to hang your hat in the Hall of Fame."