'91 World Series celebration goes on 30 years later

The celebration has never really stopped.

There was a ticker-tape victory parade through the streets of downtown Minneapolis. The entire roster dropped by the White House, and presented a Twins jersey to President George H.W. Bush. And on Saturday, team officials and coaches, manager Tom Kelly, and 20 members of the 1991 World Series champions gathered at Target Field, about a mile from where Kirby Puckett's Game 6 home run landed, and reveled in their victory once more.

In fact, there was, and perhaps still is, only one place where those no-place-like-home champions aren't treated like one of baseball's greatest postseason stories.

"I went on a trip to the Bahamas" shortly after helping beat the Braves and earning his second World Series ring in his hometown, Kent Hrbek said during Saturday's pregame ceremony. "And I had to change planes in Atlanta. And everybody loved me in Atlanta, as you know. So I was seated in the smoking room at the Atlanta airport. Put my ball cap on, put my shades on, and hid as good as I could."

There's no need to hide in Minneapolis, where three decades have passed without another championship, allowing the legend of Kirby Puckett, Chili Davis, Jack Morris and "We'll see you tomorrow night!" to do nothing but grow. "The greatest World Series in baseball history," emcee Dick Bremer called those seven games, and the tension of that October can still be felt.

Five one-run games, four of them won in walk-off fashion. Three games went to extra innings, including Games 6 and 7 in the Metrodome, probably the two most memorable games in Minnesota Twins history. Puckett's famous game-saving catch, followed by his game-winning home run; Saturday's ceremony included a video tribute to the team's most charismatic player, who died in 2006.

But the players knew their season would be something special long before they met the "Worst-to-First" Braves, a team that captivated baseball fans for ending its long history of losing. The Twins, after all, put together a 24-2 run, including 15 consecutive wins, in late May and most of June, that signaled their own turnaround from a seventh-place finish the year before.

They were never so confident as when Morris, a St. Paul native and another free-agent signee, was on the mound. And Morris, already in his 15th season in the majors, never rose to an occasion the way he did in Game 7, pitching 10 shutout innings and working out of a handful of dangerous jams. He was the hero when Gene Larkin lined a pinch-hit single deep to left-center field off Alejandro Pena, scoring Dan Gladden with the run that made the Twins a champion.

All of which set up Saturday's ceremonial finale: Tom Kelly throwing the first pitch.

"There was no way TK was going to take the ball out of Jack Morris' hand. So we decided, since that wasn't going to happen, we'll bring out Jack Morris to finally give him the ball 30 years later," Bremer said as the Hall of Fame righthander delivered the ball to his manager. "And 30 years ago, Tom Kelly made the decision to pinch-hit Gene Larkin, which proved to be the right call. So once again, we'd like to send Gene Larkin to home plate" to catch that pitch.