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The gesture spoke volumes about the magnitude of what had transpired in the first six games of the 1991 World Series.
Just before Minnesota righthander Jack Morris delivered the first pitch of Game 7, Atlanta leadoff hitter Lonnie Smith extended his right hand to catcher Brian Harper. The combatants, involved in a bone-jarring play at the plate earlier in this Series, shook hands. It was as if the players were acknowledging that their teams had waged one of the most dramatic and fiercely competitive battles in World Series history. Both teams had fought the good fight. May the better team win.
In this duel of uppity upstarts (the Twins and Braves finished last in 1990), Minnesota proved the better team. Barely.
In Game 7, the 36-year-old Morris, a longtime standout for the Tigers, was matched against John Smoltz, 24, a Detroit native who as a youngster had idolized his pitching opponent. It was a classic pairing in what turned out to be a classic game.
Morris and Smoltz were in peak form, battling to a 0-0 tie after seven innings at the Metrodome. Then came one of the most momentous -- albeit scoreless -- innings ever in baseball's autumn extravaganza.
Smith, playing with a record fourth team in Series play, led off the Braves' eighth with a single to right field and Terry Pendleton followed with a drive to deep left-center, a smash that bounced off the wall and seemed certain to snap the tie. However, running with the pitch and not knowing where the ball was hit, Smith hesitated after rounding second (the Twins' middle infielders acted as if they had the ball) and could advance only to third on Pendleton's double.
While the Braves and their fans agonized over the baserunning blunder, Atlanta nonetheless was in an enviable position with runners on third and second, none out and power-hitting Ron Gant at the plate.
"Enviable," though, doesn't necessarily translate into successful -- as the Braves discovered.
Gant grounded out to Twins first baseman Kent Hrbek, with Smith holding at third. Dave Justice was the next batter, but Twins Manager Tom Kelly ordered an intentional walk to the Braves' cleanup man. That stratagem filled the bases and sent Sid Bream to the plate, and Bream slapped a grounder toward Hrbek, who threw the ball home for a forceout and then took the return peg from Harper for a double play. Stunningly, Atlanta had been denied.
The Twins' ability to dodge a bullet wasn't wasted on the Braves. Manager Bobby Cox's team did some ducking of its own in the bottom of the eighth when Minnesota had runners at third and first with one out and Kirby Puckett due up. At this juncture, Cox summoned Mike Stanton to replace Smoltz.
Stanton issued an intentional walk to Puckett, loading the bases, and then went head-to-head with Hrbek, who had batted only .143 in the American League playoffs and was hitting just .120 in the Series as he strode to the plate. Hrbek hit a soft line drive up the middle, but Braves second baseman Mark Lemke snared the ball and stepped on second to double up Chuck Knoblauch.
Minnesota threatened again in the ninth as Chili Davis singled and Harper, attempting to sacrifice, pushed a bunt past Stanton and first baseman Bream for a hit. Stanton injured his back while chasing the ball, and he gave way to Alejandro Pena, who induced Shane Mack to ground into a double play, issued an intentional walk to Mike Pagliarulo and then struck out pinch-hitter Paul Sorrento.
After the Braves went quietly in the 10th inning against the impenetrable Morris, Dan Gladden started the Twins' half of the inning with a double and was sacrificed to third by Knoblauch. Intentional walks to Puckett and Hrbek followed, loading the bases with one out in this 0-0 standoff. Pinch-hitter Gene Larkin then drove the ball to left-center, over a drawn-in outfield, and the Twins were 1-0 winners and World Series champions for the second time in five seasons.
As was the case in 1987, the Twins had won all four games at the Metrodome and lost three successive times on the road.
The Twins had forced Game 7 when, down three games to two, they won another spine-tingler at the Metrodome when Puckett drilled an 11th-inning home run that netted the Twins a 4-3 triumph in Game 6. Puckett, who in the third inning had made an extraordinary leaping catch on a drive hit by Gant, belted his homer off Charlie Leibrandt, who had just entered the game.
Leibrandt had started Game of the Series, which the Twins won, 5-2, behind Morris' strong seven-inning effort and homers by Greg Gagne (a three-run shot) and Hrbek (a bases-empty, upper-deck blast).
Game 2, while decided by Minnesota rookie Scott Leius' tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning, might best be remembered in the years ahead because of a play at first base and not the final score of 3-2. As Atlanta's Gant tried to retreat to first base after rapping a third-inning single, the 250-pound Hrbek took a throw from pitcher Kevin Tapani and seemed to lift the 172-pound Gant off the base while applying a tag. Umpire Drew Coble didn't see it that way -- Gant's momentum supposedly carried him off the bag-and the baserunner was called out.
The Twins' Kelly, facetiously saying that managing without the designated-hitter rule was "right up there with rocket science," got a chance to display his lineup-juggling skills in Game 3 as the Series moved to the home park of the National League champions. Demonstrating little aptitude for things scientific, Kelly used all of his position players by the end of the 11th inning of a 4-4 game and had to employ relief pitcher Rick Aguilera as a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded in the 12th. Aguilera was retired on a fly ball.
Atlanta won in the bottom of the 12th, with Lemke delivering a two-out single to score Justice, who had singled and stolen second. The Braves' 5-4 victory was the first of four games in this Series to end with the winning team scoring the deciding run in the ninth inning or later.
The Braves also won Game 4. In yet another thriller, Lemke, a .234 hitter in the regular season but a .417 batsman in this Series, tripled with one out in the ninth and the score tied at 2-2. He then raced home on journeyman Jerry Willard's fly ball to right, just avoiding the tag by catcher Harper.
Harper had a busy night. He was bowled over by Smith in a fifth-inning collision -- both needed airbags -- as the Braves player tried unsuccessfully to score on a double by Pendleton. Moments later, Harper tagged out Pendleton after the Atlanta third baseman attempted to score from third on a pitch in the dirt.
Having squared the series with their 3-2 victory, the Braves went out and played smashball in Game 5. Justice whacked a home run and drove in five runs and Smith and Brian Hunter also homered as Cox's crew coasted, 14-5. The homer was the third in as many nights for the veteran Smith, who had taken over Atlanta's left-field job in mid-September when offensive catalyst Otis Nixon was suspended because of drug problems.
Then it was back to the Metrodome, where Puckett and then Larkin performed their heroics for Minnesota and a handshake seemed to put this gritty struggle between the Twins and Braves into perfect perspective.
World Series Moment:
