Reliving the 1991 World Series

It’s been 25 years since the Twins beat the Braves in the classic 1991 World Series, which makes 25 years of Minnesota fans wandering alone in the sports wilderness saying things like “remember the 1991 World Series? That was awesome.” 

Because the only thing Twins fans had this season was our memories, I thought I’d ignore the present and celebrate the past by watching the 1991 Series in its entirety again and kind-of live-blogging it. 

(I say “kind of” because I went back after the fact to edit and make sure my thoughts were coherent).

I was 10 when this World Series took place, so I remember it pretty well, but our memories can be unreliable after too many years. I was interested to see what I forgot (or what I never knew) about this series, and to see what plays made me say “oh yah, I remember that now.” And I watched this to see if the series still held up as the best ever. In my mind, in the 25 years since this series reached its epic conclusion on Gene Larkin's 10th-inning Game 7 single, there are only two World Series that took place that could give it a run for its money: the 2001 Series, when Arizona ended the Yankee dynasty, and the 2011 Series, when the Cardinals came back from the dead to upend Texas. I like to think the 1991 Series was still better than those, but I am quite biased in this matter.

Anyway, I watched this on my 1991 World Series DVD box set. Those DVDs don’t have the pregame pomp and circumstance and have only a limited postgame, so I didn't comment much on those things, just the action and commentary. (And, as if given a gift from the gods, Tim McCarver was the color commentator, so that brought back warm fuzzy memories). All these games appear to be on YouTube in their entirety if you want to follow along on your own.

I watched these games in September, as the Twins season slogged to an end, and October, because I don't have cable and can't watch the actual playoffs occurring right now, but I chose to publish each one 25 years to the day that the game in question took place. So tomorrow, exactly 25 years after Jack Morris took the mound to open the Series, my write up of Game 1 will appear in this space.

It was a lot of fun to do this and relive these amazing games. Hope they're worthwhile to read about, too.