Dick Bremer by Dick Bremer

Author:Dick Bremer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2020-01-22T20:52:13+00:00

Stitch 56. The Honeymooners

Game 2 figured to be a great pitchers’ duel and it didn’t disappoint. The Braves sent their ace and future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine to the mound against, perhaps, the most underrated starting pitcher in the American League in 1991, Kevin Tapani. Tapani may have been the steadiest starting pitcher for the Twins that year. He made 34 starts and pitched 244 innings. He had 16 wins and had the lowest ERA (2.99) on the starting staff. He didn’t have a very good ALCS but was hoping to rebound in the World Series.

My new bride and I got to the Metrodome early, a subconscious effort to make up for what we missed the day before, at least for me. Our first date was Game 2 of the 1987 World Series. Our first date as a married couple was Game 2 of the 1991 World Series.

We watched as Chili Davis smacked a two-run home run against Glavine in the bottom of the first inning. Tapani was brilliant and it looked like the Twins were on their way to a commanding 2–0 lead in the series. But Glavine was just about unhittable after the first inning, Tapani gave up a couple of sacrifice flies, and the game was tied at 2–2. The tension that was building for Game 2 set the stage for the rest of the series. It seemed like every game was more nerve-racking than the one before. The main reason that the 1991 World Series is considered by some to be the best in history is that five of the seven games were decided in the winning team’s last at-bat.

Game 2 was the first of those five games. Over the course of the regular season, Scott Leius and Mike Pagliarulo formed a perfect platoon at third base. Pagliarulo, a left-handed hitter, got the biggest home run of the ALCS in Game 3. Now, it was the right-handed hitting Leius’ turn. His eighth-inning home run against Glavine gave the Twins a 3–2 lead. Rick Aguilera came in to pick up his second save in as many nights and the Twins were headed to Atlanta with a 2–0 lead in the World Series.

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that after what happened in 1987, I would know better than to take anything for granted. After the Game 2 win over the Cardinals four years earlier, I used the 2–0 Twins lead in the Series to awkwardly end my date with Heidi saying that if there was going to be a Game 7, perhaps we could go. I didn’t think there was much of a chance of the series returning to Minnesota back then, much less there being a Game 7.

Four years later, as we were walking out of the Metrodome surrounded by euphoric fans, I remember telling her incredulously, “We’re going to win the World Series again.” At the time, I was more concerned about missing the celebration in Atlanta than imagining the Series coming back to the Twin Cities.

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