Kirby Puckett 1987-1990 (First World Series title) when was kirby Pucketts First world Series Puckett helped lead the Twins to the 1987 World Series, What position did he play in outfield Puckett batted .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI
Did the Twins win their first world series?
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In 1987, the Twins reached the post-season for the first time since 1970 despite finishing with a mark of 85-77 (a mark that would have put them 4 games behind fourth place New York in the American League East). Once there, Puckett helped lead the Twins to the 1987 World Series, the Twins' second series appearance since relocating to Minnesota and fifth in franchise history. For the season, Puckett batted .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI Although he hit only .208 in the Twins' five game AL Championship Series win over the Detroit Tigers, Puckett would produce in the seven-game World Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals, where he batted .357.  During the year, Puckett put on his best performance on August 30 in Milwaukee against the Brewers, when he went 6-for-6 with two home runs, one off Juan Nieves in the third and the other off closer Dan Plesac in the ninth.  Statistically speaking, Puckett had his best all around season in 1988, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, finishing third in the AL MVP balloting for the second straight season. Although the Twins won 91 games, six more than in their championship season, the team would finish a distant second in the American League West, 13 games behind the Oakland Athletics.  Puckett won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, while also finishing fifth in at bats, second in doubles, first in hits, and second in singles. The Twins, two years removed from the championship season, slumped further, going 80-82 and ended in fifth place, 19 games behind the Athletics. In April 1989, he recorded his 1,000th hit, becoming the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to do so in his first five seasons. He continued to play well in 1990, but had a down season, finishing with a .298 batting average, and the Twins mirrored his performance as the team slipped all the way to last place in the AL West with a record of 74-88. CANNOTANSWER
Although he hit only .208 in the Twins' five game AL Championship Series win over the Detroit Tigers,
Kirby Puckett (March 14, 1960 – March 6, 2006) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins (1984–1995). Puckett is the Twins' all-time leader in career hits, runs, and total bases. At the time of his retirement, his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter since Joe DiMaggio.

Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and was the second to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire in 1996 at age 36 due to loss of vision in one eye from a central retinal vein occlusion, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility.

Early life
Puckett was born in Chicago, Illinois, and he was raised in Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project on Chicago's South Side (the escape from which he frequently referred to during his career). He played baseball for Calumet High School. After receiving no scholarship offers following graduation, Puckett went to work on an assembly line for Ford Motor Company. However, he was given a chance to attend Bradley University and after one year transferred to Triton College. Despite his  frame, the Minnesota Twins selected him in the first round (third pick) of the 1982 Major League Baseball January Draft-Regular Phase.

After signing with the team, he went to the rookie-league Elizabethton Twins in the Appalachian League, hitting .382, with 3 home runs, 35 RBI, and 43 steals in 65 games. In 1983, Puckett was promoted to the Single-A Visalia Oaks in the California League, where he hit .318 with nine home runs, 97 RBI, and 48 stolen bases over 138 games. After being promoted to the AAA Toledo Mud Hens to start the 1984 season, Puckett was brought up to the majors for good 21 games into the season.

MLB career
Puckett's major league debut came on May 8, 1984, against the California Angels, a game in which he went 4-for-5 with one run. That year, Puckett hit .296 and was fourth in the American League in singles. In 1985, Puckett hit .288 and finished fourth in the league in hits, third in triples, second in plate appearances, and first in at bats. Throughout his career, Puckett would routinely appear in the top 10 in the American League in such offensive statistical categories as games played, at bats, singles, doubles, and total bases and such defensive stats as putouts, assists, and fielding percentage for league center fielders.

In 1986, Puckett began to emerge as more than just a singles hitter. With an average of .328, Puckett was elected to his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game and he finished the season seventh in doubles, sixth in home runs, fourth in extra-base hits, third in slugging percentage, and second in runs scored, hits, total bases, and at-bats. Kirby was also recognized for his defensive skills, earning his first Gold Glove Award.

1987–1990 (First World Series title)

In 1987, the Twins reached the postseason for the first time since 1970 despite finishing with a mark of 85-77. Once there, Puckett helped lead the Twins to the 1987 World Series, the Twins' second series appearance since relocating to Minnesota and fifth in franchise history. For the season, Puckett batted .332 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI Although he hit only .208 in the Twins' five game AL Championship Series win over the Detroit Tigers, Puckett would produce in the seven-game World Series upset over the St. Louis Cardinals, where he batted .357.

During the year, Puckett put on his best performance on August 30 in Milwaukee against the Brewers, when he went 6-for-6 with two home runs, one off Juan Nieves in the third and the other off closer Dan Plesac in the ninth.

Statistically speaking, Puckett had his best all-around season in 1988, hitting .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, finishing third in the AL MVP balloting for the second straight season. Although the Twins won 91 games, six more than in their championship season, the team finished a distant second in the American League West, 13 games behind the Oakland Athletics.

Puckett won the AL batting title in 1989 with a mark of .339, while also finishing fifth in at-bats, second in doubles, first in hits, and second in singles. The Twins, two years removed from the championship season, slumped, going 80–82 and ended in fifth place, 19 games behind the Athletics. In April 1989, he recorded his 1,000th hit, becoming the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to do so in his first five seasons. He continued to play well in 1990, but had a down season, finishing with a .298 batting average, and the Twins mirrored his performance as the team slipped all the way to last place in the AL West with a record of 74–88.

1991–1995 (Second World Series title)

In 1991, the Twins got back on the winning track and Puckett led the way by batting .319, eighth in the league and Minnesota surged past Oakland midseason to capture the division title. The Twins then beat the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series as Puckett batted .429 with two home runs and five RBI to win the ALCS MVP.

The subsequent 1991 World Series was ranked by ESPN to be the best ever played, with four games decided on the final pitch and three games going into extra innings. The Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had each finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never happened before.

Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two with each team winning their respective home games. Puckett gave the Twins an early lead by driving in Chuck Knoblauch with a triple in the first inning. Puckett then made a leaping catch in front of the Plexiglass wall in left field to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit in the third. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic game-winning home run on a 2–1 count off of Charlie Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett's career. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, arms raised in triumph (often punctuated by CBS television broadcaster Jack Buck saying "And we'll see you tomorrow night!"), are frequently included in video highlights of his career. After Game 6, the Twins replaced the blue seat back and bottom where the walk-off home run ball was caught with a gold-colored set. Both of these sets remain in the Twins' archives. The original home run seat armrests and hardware, as well as the replacement blue seat back and bottom, are now in a private collection of Puckett memorabilia in Minnesota after the Metrodome was torn down. The Twins then went on to win Game 7 1–0, with Jack Morris throwing a 10-inning complete game, and claimed their second World Series crown in five years.

Though the Twins didn't make it to the postseason for the rest of Puckett's career, he remained an elite player. In 1994, Puckett was switched to right field and won his first league RBI title by driving in 112 runs in only 108 games; a pace that projects to 168 RBIs over a full season. But the 1994 season was cut short by a players' strike.

The next year, Puckett was posting a typically brilliant 1995 season before having his jaw broken in his final career at-bat by a Dennis Martínez fastball on September 28.

Retirement

After spending the spring of 1996 continuing to blister Grapefruit League batting with a .344 average, Puckett woke up on March 28 without vision in his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma, and was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his professional career. Three surgeries over the next few months could not restore vision in the eye. When it was apparent that he would never be able to play again, Puckett announced his retirement on July 12, 1996, at the age of 36. Soon after, the Twins made him an executive vice-president of the team and he would also receive the 1996 Roberto Clemente Award for community service.

The Twins retired Puckett's number 34 in 1997. In 2001 balloting, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he ranked Number 86 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

Puckett was admired throughout his career. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality and energy, charity work, community involvement, and attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. In 1993, he received the Branch Rickey Award for his lifetime of community service work.

Legal issues
Following his retirement, Puckett's reputation was damaged by a number of incidents. In March 2002, a woman filed for an order of protection against Puckett's wife, Tonya Puckett, claiming that Tonya had threatened to kill her over an alleged affair with Puckett. Later that same month, another woman asked for protection from Puckett himself, claiming in court documents that he had shoved her in his Bloomington condominium during the course of an 18-year relationship. In September 2002, Puckett was accused of groping a woman in a restaurant bathroom and was charged with false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and fifth-degree assault. He was found not guilty of all counts.

In the March 17, 2003, edition of Sports Illustrated, columnist George Dohrmann wrote an article titled "The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett". The article documented Puckett's alleged indiscretions and contrasted his private image with the much-revered public image he had previously maintained. Specifically, the article stated that Puckett had extramarital relationships with several women and that a female Minnesota Twins employee had obtained a financial settlement following a claim that Puckett had sexually harassed her. The article added Tonya Puckett had called police on December 21, 2001, to report that Puckett had threatened to kill her. Withdrawing from the Twins organization and from friends, Puckett moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in the winter of 2003 with his fiancée, Jodi Olson, and her son Cameron. Those who did see him became concerned about Puckett's weight, with estimates putting it above 300 pounds. However, there was also optimism with news that Puckett planned to marry Olson in June 2005.

Death and legacy

On the morning of March 5, 2006, Puckett suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at the home he shared with Olson. He underwent emergency surgery that day to relieve pressure on his brain; however, the surgery failed, and his former teammates and coaches were notified the following morning that the end was near. Many, including 1991 teammates Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek, flew to Phoenix to be at his bedside during his final hours along with his two children Kirby Jr. and Catherine. His fiancée never left his side. Puckett died on March 6, just eight days from his 46th birthday, shortly after being disconnected from life support.

In the subsequent autopsy, the official cause of death was recorded as "cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension." Puckett died at the second-youngest age (behind Lou Gehrig) of any Hall of Famer inducted while living, and the youngest to die after being inducted in the modern era of the five-season waiting period. Puckett was survived by his son Kirby Jr. and daughter Catherine.

A private memorial service was held in the Twin Cities suburb of Wayzata on the afternoon of March 12 (declared "Kirby Puckett Day" in Minneapolis), followed by a public ceremony held at the Metrodome attended by family, friends, ballplayers past and present, and approximately 15,000 fans (an anticipated capacity crowd dwindled through the day due to an impending blizzard). Speakers at the latter service included Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Dave Winfield, and many former teammates and coaches.

On April 12, 2010, a statue of Puckett was unveiled at the plaza of Target Field in Minneapolis. The plaza runs up against the stadium's largest gate, Gate 34, numbered in honor of Puckett. The statue represents Puckett pumping his fist while running the bases, as he did after his winning home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.

At the time of his own retirement in 2016, longtime Boston Red Sox first baseman/designated hitter David Ortiz stated that he had used uniform number 34 with the Red Sox to honor Puckett's friendship with him. Ortiz began his MLB career with the Twins.

See also

 DHL Hometown Heroes
 List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
 List of Major League Baseball batting champions
 List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
 List of Major League Baseball hit records
 List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
 List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
 List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
 Major League Baseball titles leaders

References

Further reading

 A children's picture-book autobiography, Be the Best You Can Be (), published by Waldman House Press in 1993;
 An autobiography, I Love This Game: My Life and Baseball (), published by HarperCollins in 1993; and
 A book of baseball games and drills, Kirby Puckett's Baseball Games (), published by Workman Publishing Company in 1996

External links

Baseball's 100 Greatest Players (#86) The Sporting News
Official Major League Baseball tribute site
SABR BioProject: Kirby Puckett
Obituary in the Star Tribune

1960 births
2006 deaths
African-American baseball players
American League All-Stars
American League batting champions
American League Championship Series MVPs
American League RBI champions
Baseball players from Chicago
Bradley Braves baseball players
Deaths from cerebrovascular disease
Elizabethton Twins players
Gold Glove Award winners
Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVPs
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball center fielders
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Minnesota Twins players
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
People acquitted of sex crimes
Silver Slugger Award winners
Baseball players from Minneapolis
Baseball players from Scottsdale, Arizona
Toledo Mud Hens players
Triton College alumni
Triton Trojans baseball players
Visalia Oaks players
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people
The 1987 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1987 season. The 84th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins and the National League (NL) champion St. Louis Cardinals. The Twins defeated the Cardinals four games to three to win the Series. Twins pitcher Frank Viola was named as the 1987 World Series MVP.

It was the first World Series to feature games played indoors, and the first in which the home team won every game; this happened again in  (also a Twins championship, over the Atlanta Braves) and in  with the Arizona Diamondbacks defeating the New York Yankees.

The World Series win was the first for the Twins franchise since , when it was located in Washington, D.C., and known as the Washington Senators.

This was the third of four World Series played entirely on artificial turf, with the others in , , and .

This is the first World Series in which the series logo appeared on the jerseys; only the Cardinals wore it. Both contestants in the following year's World Series wore a patch.

As of 2021, this is the last time 3 straight World Series went to 7 games.

Summary
The 1987 World Series was notable in several regards:  It featured the first World Series games played in an indoor stadium (the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome) and, to date, the last World Series game to start earlier than prime time in the eastern United States (Game 6 started at 4:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. CT), and it was the first World Series in which all games were won by the home team. (Four previous series had the home team winning the first six games, including the 1965 World Series, when the Twins dropped Game 7 to the Dodgers.) The bottom half of the ninth inning was never played in any game of this Series, the first and only time this has happened. In 1987, the Twins set the record for the worst (full 162 game) regular season win-loss record of any World Series championship team (85–77, .525). This record stood until it was broken when the Cardinals won the 2006 Series after going 83–78 (.516).

Besides setting a record for the worst regular season winning percentage for a World Series winner and hosting the first World Series game indoors, the Twins were the first team to enter the World Series having been outscored in the regular season. The Twins, as a team, were outnumbered in virtually every major statistical category in 1987. As ABC play-by-play commentator Al Michaels put it in the pre-game show for Game 1 "They were out everything!"

The Cardinals posted a 95–67 record during the regular season, but were affected by injuries throughout the postseason, most notably with the loss of their lone home run threat, first baseman Jack Clark, due to a sprained right ankle suffered in a game in Montreal on September 9. During the regular season, Clark led the National League in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage despite playing in Busch Memorial Stadium, which was reputed to be the league's most extreme "pitcher's park." He hit 35 home runs in 131 games, and was the only person on the team to hit more than 12. The player on the team who hit 12, starting third baseman Terry Pendleton (though named to the World Series roster) was hampered with a ribcage injury. Normally a switch-hitter, Pendleton was only able to swing lefthanded during the World Series and was also unable to play the field and thus was relegated to pinch-hitting duties or being the designated hitter in the games in Minnesota started by right-handed starters.

Game 7 was won by Minnesota on the 35th birthday of the Twins' Roy Smalley – and was also the last game of his career. Smalley appeared in four games as a pinch-hitter and reached base all four times on a double, an error, and two walks.

Matchups

Game 1

A raucous, sold-out Metrodome met the Cardinals on October 17, stunning them at times with the degree of noise. The crowd noise in the Metrodome could exceed 110 decibels SPL. The Cardinals struggled defensively, with outfielder Willie McGee losing sight of pop flies against the Metrodome's white roof in the fourth and eighth innings, and infielder Tom Lawless committing an infield error in the sixth inning. However, none of those miscues contributed to Twins runs.  The Twins' aggressive play further compounded the problems of the Cards, and the game ended as a 10–1 blowout. Starting pitcher Frankie "Sweet Music" Viola had little trouble with the Cardinals' potent lineup. For the Twins, Dan Gladden hit a grand slam and totaled five RBIs, capping off a seven-run fourth inning, with Steve Lombardozzi adding a two-run homer, while Kent Hrbek had two RBIs.

Frank Viola was scheduled to be best man at his brother's wedding, but had to cancel when the Twins reached the World Series as it fell on the same night as Game 1, in which he was scheduled as starter. ABC showed clips of the wedding throughout the game's broadcast.

Coincidentally, the song "U Got The Look" peaked in popularity (#2 on the Billboard singles chart) on this date. The song was written and performed by Prince (a lifelong Minneapolis resident) and contains the line "boy versus girl in the World Series of love".

Game 2

While improving on their game one performance, the Cards were unable to hold the Twins offense again and fell behind 7–0 before beginning to rally. The Cards' total of nine hits was just one short of the Twins but their bats lacked power as they managed only one double against three doubles and two home runs hit by Minnesota. Gary Gaetti hit a homer in the second inning. The Twins broke the game open in the fourth, scoring six runs resulting in starter Danny Cox being pulled from the game. The final score was 8–4. Randy Bush and Tim Laudner each came through with a pair of two-run-scoring hits in the fourth, with Laudner's being a home run and Bush's being a double. Bert Blyleven pitched seven innings of two-run baseball for the win.

Game 3

Traveling down the Mississippi, to the open air of Busch Stadium, Game 3 saw a tense pitching duel between Twins starter Les Straker and John Tudor of the Cardinals. This match-up was also notable for Straker being the first Venezuelan to pitch in a World Series game.

After five scoreless innings by both teams, the Twins broke through in the top of the sixth inning. Greg Gagne walked to lead off the inning, and Kirby Puckett walked to move Gagne into scoring position. Tom Brunansky's RBI single looked like all the offense the game would see.  But, in the bottom of the seventh, Juan Berenguer, in relief of Straker, surrendered leadoff back-to-back singles to Jose Oquendo and Tony Peña.  Terry Pendleton sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Vince Coleman slammed a two-run double to give the Cards a 2–1 lead.  Ozzie Smith followed by singling in Coleman for the final run, and Todd Worrell closed out saving the win for Tudor.

Game 4

In Game 4, the Twins scored first on Greg Gagne’s home run, but the Cardinals tied it on a Jim Lindeman RBI single. Tom Lawless hit a three-run homer in the fourth off Viola (only his second Major League homer after going 2 for 25 during the regular season), one of Viola's five earned runs in the game and six runs in the fourth. However, the Cards weren't done scoring. Dan Schatzeder allowed another RBI single to Lindeman and a two-run double to Willie McGee. Joe Niekro and George Frazier shut the Redbirds out the rest of the game. Bob Forsch got the win with  innings of one run relief. Starter Greg Mathews was injured in the fourth inning and was unable to play for the rest of the series. Ken Dayley got the save.

Just prior to Game 4, Reggie Jackson, who was working as a field reporter for ABC's coverage of the 1987 World Series, admitted that he didn't know who Tom Lawless was.

Game 5

Game 5 was a much closer contest, with the Cardinals coming out victorious by a score of 4–2. Curt Ford hit a two-run single in the sixth, breaking a scoreless pitcher's duel between Danny Cox and Bert Blyleven. By the end of the seventh, the Cards were up 4–0. The Twins scored two in the eighth on a triple by Gary Gaetti off reliever Todd Worrell and made a game of it but eventually relinquished the save to him as Gaetti failed to score. The Cardinals stole five bases in Game 5, the most for team since the 1907 Chicago Cubs.

Game 6

The Series returned to the Metrodome with the Twins facing elimination (a position they would find themselves in four years later against the Atlanta Braves). ABC allowed the game to be played at 3 p.m. CT (4 p.m. ET) on Saturday afternoon – the only day game of the series, and the last World Series game to date to be played in the daytime (although as the game was played in the Metrodome, the game took place under artificial lighting).

The Cardinals drew first blood off Les Straker on a Tommy Herr home run in the first, and the Twins countered with two in their half of the first on RBI singles by Kirby Puckett and Don Baylor. The Cardinals soon tied it in the second on a Jose Oquendo RBI single.

In the fourth, the Cards chased Straker when Dan Driessen led off with a double to right and went to third on a Willie McGee single.  McGee took second on the attempted throw home by center fielder Kirby Puckett. Terry Pendleton followed by singling home Driessen and Oquendo hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4–2. Another run scored for the Cards in the fifth when lefty Dan Schatzeder walked Ozzie Smith. Smith went to second on a groundout, to third on a flyout, and scored on another McGee single.

But, in the bottom of the fifth, the Twins began to claw back against John Tudor. Puckett led off with a single and was doubled in by Gary Gaetti. Benefitting from use of the designated hitter in their home ballpark, the Twins then tied it on a mammoth home run by their DH, Don Baylor. After Tom Brunansky followed with a single, the Twins took the lead for good when Steve Lombardozzi singled him with two out on a close play at the plate.

The Twins then blew the game open in the sixth. Greg Gagne led off with an infield single and Puckett walked. A passed ball by Tony Peña advanced the runners. With first base open and one out, Cards veteran Bob Forsch intentionally walked Baylor to load the bases. After Brunansky popped out, left-hander Ken Dayley was brought in to face the lefty-hitting Kent Hrbek. Hrbek finally broke out of his slump and hit a grand slam.

Brunansky drove in the final run in the eighth and the Twins had staved off defeat.  This is the last day game in World Series history.

Game 7

The 500th World Series game played, Game 7 forced a National Football League game between the Denver Broncos and the Minnesota Vikings, originally scheduled for that afternoon at the Metrodome, to be played the following night (also on ABC).

Joe Magrane of the St. Louis Cardinals became only the sixth rookie pitcher to start the seventh game of a World Series. He also is the only pitcher in World Series history to start Games 1 and 7 of a World Series without any starts in between, as the Cardinals' Game 4 starter, Greg Mathews, had had to be removed early due to an injury and was unavailable for the remainder of the Series.  Magrane had actually started the 1987 season pitching for the Cardinals Triple-A team, the Louisville Redbirds.

In the second, the Cardinals looked poised to send Frank Viola to an early shower. Three straight no-out singles by Jim Lindeman, Willie McGee, and Tony Peña plated the first run. Viola settled down to retire the next two hitters, but then Steve Lake singled in McGee for a 2–0 lead. Viola settled into a groove, however, and allow only two more hits and no runs in eight strong innings.

The Twins came back in their half of the second on a Steve Lombardozzi RBI single, but not before a missed call at home plate by umpire Dave Phillips had already cost the Twins a run. Twins DH Don Baylor reached base on a hit-by-pitch by Magrane to lead off the inning and Tom Brunansky singled him to second. With one out, Tim Laudner singled to left and Baylor was called out at home on a throw from Vince Coleman in left, while replays clearly showed Baylor was safe. Lombardozzi then singled in Brunansky.

In the fifth, the Twins tied the score when Greg Gagne reached on an infield hit and Kirby Puckett drove him in with a double. Incidentally, replays showed Gagne to be out on his infield hit, thus this run served to counteract the run the Twins lost in the second on the missed call on Baylor at the plate. The Twins seemed on the verge of taking the lead when Gary Gaetti followed Puckett with a walk and went to second when Puckett was thrown out by Lake trying to advance to third on a wild pitch that was deflected when it hit the home plate umpire in the face-mask. Baylor followed with a single to left, but Coleman threw out Gaetti at the plate in a violent collision with Lake. Coleman became the first outfielder to throw two runners out at the plate in one World Series game.

The sixth inning proved to be controversial. In the top of the sixth, Tom Herr had hit a single with one out. With Jim Lindeman at bat, the third missed call of the game would occur. On a 3-2 count, Herr would get caught in a rundown and Lombardozzi ran him back to first where Kent Hrbek was standing off the bag near the basepath.  Lombardozzi tossed the ball towards Hrbek and the ball sailed past him but into the glove of Viola behind the bag.  Viola had come over to take part in the rundown.  Herr was hindered by Hrbek returning to the bag, but clearly reached the bag safely before Viola tagged him.  However, first base umpire Lee Weyer called Herr out. Weyer's view was blocked by Kent Hrbek and, according to the broadcast crew, Viola made the tag late and Hrbek should have been called for interference.  Had this been called, Herr would have been safe, awarded second base, and the Cardinals would have had a runner at second with one out. It was the third missed call of the game for the normally highly regarded Weyer—often considered one of the best umpires in baseball. The next pitch, Lindeman flied out to right field to end the 6th inning. The Twins then took the lead in the bottom of the inning, off Danny Cox, who had relieved Magrane the previous inning. Cox walked Brunansky and Hrbek to lead off, and was replaced by Todd Worrell. As Cox was leaving, he got into an argument with home plate umpire Dave Phillips and was ejected as he was leaving the field. As of 2020, Cox is the last non-manager to be ejected from a World Series game. After retiring the first batter he faced, Worrell walked pinch-hitter Roy Smalley and struck out Dan Gladden for the second out.  The next batter, Gagne, reached first on an infield hit as Brunansky scored the go-ahead run.

The Twins' final run came in the eighth on an RBI double by Dan Gladden off Worrell, who stayed in the rest of the game for the Cardinals. Jeff Reardon retired the side in the ninth to give Minnesota their first World Series victory.

Twins manager Tom Kelly became the youngest non-playing manager to win the World Series since John McGraw in 1905.

By winning in the regulation nine innings, the Twins ensured the 1987 World Series was the first in which no games needed the bottom of the ninth inning.  No other World Series since then has had that happen, as the two other Fall Classics in which the home team won every game—1991 and 2001—both included extra inning games and walk-off wins in the bottom of the ninth.

mlb.com coverage of Game 7

Composite box
1987 World Series (4–3): Minnesota Twins (A.L.) over St. Louis Cardinals (N.L.)

Aftermath
Although Steve Carlton was not on the Twins' playoff roster, he still attended the White House to be congratulated by President Reagan. While making a photo op with the president, local newspapers listed the names of all of the Minnesota Twins. The only man who wasn't listed (and simply identified as a Secret Service agent) was a tall man wearing dark sunglasses in the back. The man in question was Carlton.

After their defeat in the '87 Series, the Cardinals' reign of dominance in the '80s ended. They failed to win their division again until 1996, did not return to the World Series until 2004 and did not win until 2006 in a season where they won two fewer regular season games than the 1987 Twins.

In 1988, the Twins actually won more games than in their championship season, finishing with a 91–71 record. They finished 13 games behind the AL West champion Oakland A's, who won 104 games. The Twins eventually sank towards the bottom of the standings, finishing last in 1990. In 1991, the Twins returned to the playoffs by beating the Blue Jays in the ALCS and winning what many call the greatest World Series played over the Atlanta Braves.

The 1987 World Series featured at least two players who went on to win Manager of the Year awards. The Twins' Don Baylor won it in 1995 for his work with the Colorado Rockies while the Cardinals' Tony Peña won it in 2003 for his work with the Kansas City Royals.

The success of the 1987 Twins inspired Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) in Beverly Hills 90210 to explain why the Twins were the ultimate definition of a team, thus enabling him to win the Dreyer Scholarship. However, his interview included a factual inaccuracy; he said Gladden hit a grand slam in the pivotal Game 4, when in fact Gladden hit one in Game 1, and Hrbek hit one in the pivotal Game 6.

Some years after the conclusion of the series it emerged that a lone Metrodome technician had, at his own initiative, tried to influence games on the Twins behalf by adjusting the air conditioning fans while the Twins were at bat. It remains unclear whether this had any effect on game play, or in particular, on games played at the Metrodome during the 1987 World Series.

In a February 2015 interview, sportscaster and author Al Michaels (who, as previously mentioned, did play-by-play for ABC's television coverage of the 1987 World Series) alleged the Twins pumped artificial crowd noise into the Metrodome during the 1987 World Series. Responding to Michaels' theory, Twins President Dave St. Peter said that he did not think the Twins needed "conspiracy theories" in order to win the World Series. Instead, he argued that "appreciation and respect" should be paid to players like Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, and Kirby Puckett, who, he said, "came out of nowhere to win a championship."

The 1987 World Series was the final one that ABC aired that went the full seven games. The next time that ABC broadcast a World Series in 1989, the Oakland Athletics swept the San Francisco Giants in four games. For the final World Series that ABC would broadcast to date, 1995, they split the coverage with NBC. ABC only covered Games 1, 4-5 and a seventh game had it been necessary.

Notes

See also
1987 Japan Series

References

External links

 Sweet Music at SI.com 
 1987 St. Louis Cardinals at baseballlibrary.com
 1987 Minnesota Twins at baseballlibrary.com
 A set of 10 play-by-play audio clips from ABC's coverage of the series
 Pictorial 1987 Minnesota Twins Roster

World Series
World Series
Minnesota Twins postseason
St. Louis Cardinals postseason
World Series
World Series
1980s in Minneapolis
1980s in St. Louis
October 1987 sports events in the United States
Sports competitions in Minneapolis
Sports competitions in St. Louis This is a list of seasons completed by the Minnesota Twins, originally known as the Washington Senators, a professional baseball franchise based in Minneapolis, Minnesota; they currently play in the American League (AL) Central division.

The Minnesota Twins franchise has won three World Series in 1924, 1987 and 1991, the first of which occurred when the team was in Washington D.C. As the Senators, the team were annual doormats for the AL except 1924-1933 when the team played in three World Series (winning one). The team enjoyed success in their early years in Minnesota, reaching the World Series in 1965 and playing in two American League Championship Series with stars (and future Hall of Famers) like Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, and Jim Kaat on the roster. From 1971 to 1986, the Twins failed to reach the postseason as their stars either retired, were traded, or fled via Free Agency. The Twins had eight straight losing seasons from 1993 to 2000 and the team was a frequent target for rumored MLB contraction, but this was followed by one of the franchise's most consistent periods of success when the team only had one losing season (2007) between 2001 and 2010. Despite the team's success during this period, the Twins failed to reach another World Series. The team has been up and down since 2010; epitomized with the franchise losing 103 games in 2016, and winning 101 games (and reaching the playoffs) in 2019.

Regular season record-by-year

Record by decade 
The following table describes the Twins' MLB win–loss record by decade.

These statistics are from Baseball-Reference.com's Minnesota Twins History & Encyclopedia, and are current as of October 7, 2021.

Postseason record by year
The Twins have made the postseason seventeen times in their history, with their first being in 1924 and the most recent being in 2020.

References

External links
 Twins Year-By-Year Results at MLB.com
 Twins Postseason Results at MLB.com

Minnesota Twins
Seasons