The Twins' 1991 World Series Victory In Their Own Words
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The World Series starts Tuesday.
The Twins will not be in it – not after just finishing their worst season ever.
But there was a time, now 25 years ago, when they were on top.
To celebrate the anniversary of their 1991 World Series title, what better way to mark the milestone than to let them tell the story – of that team and that title – in their own words.
KENT HRBEK: It doesn't feel like 25 years ago. Until I try to go play the game again, if I try to play catch.
DAN GLADDEN: It doesn't seem that long ago. Other than when I see some of the players on that team. A little greyer, we're all a little heavier.
GENE LARKIN: My hairline definitely says it.
LARKIN: Twenty-five guys get together in spring training. Everybody says it, first day of spring training, everybody's got a chance. But it's a long grind.
GLADDEN: We were in last place in 1990, so in the offseason, there was some glaring needs. Jack Morris, get a front line pitcher, that was one of 'em.
LARKIN: Baseball's a funny game. You can turn it around pretty quickly with a pickup here, a pickup there.
JACK MORRIS: We had a lot of different personalities.
GLADDEN: I think there was a lot of Alpha males in there, which made for a good den.
LARKIN: How well we got along, I think that was a unique situation. Very rarely do you have that many guys get along.
MORRIS: It was probably the funnest team that I ever played on, because we had so many different characters.
HRBEK: Puck was a leader, but we had a bunch of guys that weren't afraid to take the bull by the horns. But we always had that one constant of TK being around, to make sure that the bull we were taking was going the right way.
TOM KELLY: It was like reading a storybook. And you kept turning the page, and chapter to chapter, or game to game. And it got better and better and better. And it really ended up with a doozy.
HRBEK: The dome was so electric. It was a horrible place to watch baseball. It was a great place to play. And the fans, them screaming and hollering and making it so loud. I mean it was horribly loud, to where it would shake the building.
HRBEK: I got no story to change. I mean, I get it from little five year old kids who'd never seen the play before but it's because their dad told them, that I lifted a guy off of first base.
HRBEK: I mean, I played 14 years in the big leagues and had a pretty good successful career. And my whole career is around this play at first base.
KELLY: Kirby had the game of his life, in Game 6. That certainly was all about Kirby Puckett.
LARKIN: That famous saying, 'jump on my back.' He has that great defensive play, and then he hits the home run to win it.
MORRIS: Everybody asks all the time, did Puck really say 'jump on my shoulders?' He said it every game. He talked more trash than any player I knew.
KELLY: I was worried about him, after Game 6, a little bit. He was washed out a little bit. It's an emotional thing, these games, and it can wear you down. Chuck Knoblauch, I remember, he was jumping up and down, couldn't stop. (I) tried to calm him down, after the game. So this is where my mind went, going to the next day.
LARKIN: I know me, as well as everybody else on the team, was feeling really positive that we've got the guy we want on the mound for the biggest game of the year.
GLADDEN: Knowing that we've got Jack Morris going Game 7, we're in a good spot.
GLADDEN: When I look back 25 years ago, I think of Game 7.
MORRIS: My dad kept looking at me during breakfast. He didn't say anything, but he kept looking at me and with this different look that I had not seen. And I finally looked at him, I go, 'What? What do you got going on?' He goes, 'Well I'm just kind of curious, I'm wondering what my son thinks about pitching one of the biggest games of his life.' And I said, 'Dad, relax, we're gonna win.' I literally said that. I said, 'Relax, we're gonna win.'
MORRIS: Because it was meant to be. When Puck hit his home run, there was a peace that came over me. I knew I was prepared. I knew, more than any other game in my entire life, I was ready to pitch.
LARKIN: You can't throw a better game in that big of a game. You just can't do it. It's impossible.
MORRIS: I can't really describe it, but it's just a combination of confidence and will. The confidence to go out there, and then willing it to happen.
GLADDEN: Leading off the 10th, I wanted to hit the home run. So, took a big swing, broke my bat. Thought I squared it up better than that, but I'm glad the bat broke, because if not it probably would've been a fly ball out. Just hustled into second base, and once I got to second base there was something that told me, this game is over.
GLADDEN: Bunt me to third, walk Puckett, walk Hrbek. Gene Larkin in the wings to pinch hit for Jarvis Brown.
LARKIN: My ten seconds of fame?
LARKIN: Because the bases are loaded with one out, I know the outfield's coming in, the infield's gonna be in. It's a very good hitter's situation if it wasn't the 7th Game of the World Series when you're really, really nervous. From the on-deck circle to the batter's box, my knees were shaking. It really was. And I've seen films of myself smiling coming up there, but I don't know where the smile came from. There's no question that's the most nervous I've ever been in an athletic event.
LARKIN: He threw a perfect hitter's strike for me up and away, and I've just got to get the barrel of the bat to the ball. Soon as I hit the barrel I said, 'This is over.' And then I jogged a few steps, raised my right arm, it drops in and Danny scores and the rest is history.
GLADDEN: There's no better feeling, than to be able to win the biggest game that you can possibly play.
MORRIS: The only way I can describe it is, I think the entire world would be a better place if everybody could have that feeling.
LARKIN: You don't wanna take the uniform off. You don't wanna leave the field. The fans are obviously going nuts.
HRBEK: A buddy of mine came in the clubhouse and he thought -- it was like 15 minutes after the game was over -- and he thought I was full of champagne and beer already, thought I was intoxicated. I might've had a few beers after the game, but I was just emotionally spent.
LARKIN: It took me two days to go to bed. Two days. I was so on a high. And then when I did crash it was a big time crash. It was like, out, done.
KELLY: Just to be perfectly honest, this is a true story. I woke up and was trying to figure out who's pitching, you know, and it had been over for 10 days now. That's how draining it was.
LARKIN: It's gotta be Top 5, right? If you think about how many games were 1-run, extra inning contests. And then Game 7 has to be up there. If it's not the best Game 7, it's gotta be real, real close.
HRBEK: I don't know how much closer you can get than 1-0 in 10 innings.
LARKIN: Sometimes I have to exhale and say, why did that happen to me? If you played the game as a young kid, you always think about your back yard, playing with your brothers or your dad, and you're throwing out Game 7 of the World Series drama with your brother in your back yard. Well that happened to me in real life. Which is, you know, crazy, it really is crazy. And the further it gets away from me, the older I get, the more crazier it gets.
LARKIN: Let's hope that down the road we can watch the Twins win another World Series before our lifetimes are over. I always get, 'Do you realize you're the last Twin to get a World Series hit?' I says, 'Yeah, I hope I'm not the last one forever, you know?' The Cubbies have been a hundred years.
