1991 World Series - Aftermath

Aftermath

In one respect this series was similar to the 1987 World Series also played by the Minnesota Twins (against the St. Louis Cardinals), in that the home team won all seven games. The pattern of the home team winning each game did not occur again until the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. Seven Twins players appeared in both the 1987 and 1991 Series, playing for the Twins both times: Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Greg Gagne, Dan Gladden, Gene Larkin, Randy Bush and Al Newman. In addition, the Braves' Terry Pendleton also played in the 1987 Series, as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The series was also unique because of the standings of the two participating teams in the prior season: both finished the 1990 season in last place; before 1991, no league champion had ever finished the previous season in last place, yet this was the case with both the Twins and the Braves. The Twins also won the AL West Division in 1991 with every team in the division having a .500 or better record, a feat the Braves themselves would achieve when they won the National League East in 2005.

Following the game, CBS Sports analyst Tim McCarver consoled Atlanta fans by stating that this was an excellent team and that he expected they would "be around" for some time to come. The Braves would, in fact, go on to win an unprecedented fourteen consecutive division titles. They returned to the World Series the following year, but lost in six games to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Braves made three additional trips to the World Series before the decade ended, winning in 1995 against the Cleveland Indians, but falling in 1996 and 1999 to the New York Yankees.

The Twins would contend for the 1992 American League Western Division title for much of the season but finished six games behind the Oakland Athletics, who won the division for the fourth time in five seasons. The Twins' 90-72 record would be their last winning campaign until 2001, which was Tom Kelly's last season as the team's manager. Over the next several seasons, the players that made up the core of the 1987 and 1991 Twins slowly began to leave. Dan Gladden, the Twins' left fielder, departed in the offseason for Detroit. Jack Morris, the pitching hero of the series, signed with Toronto and returned to the World Series the next year. Greg Gagne and Chili Davis departed following the 1992 season, with Brian Harper leaving at the end of the 1993 season. Kent Hrbek's production began falling due to injuries that kept him off the field for much of the next two seasons, and he retired in 1994. The Twins then traded away both Scott Erickson and Kevin Tapani (neither ever regained their 1991 form) in the 1995 season, as well as Kirby Puckett to retirement due to a loss of vision in his right eye caused by glaucoma. Chuck Knoblauch was the last hitter of the 1991 team to remain in Minnesota, eventually forcing a trade to the Yankees following the 1997 season, where he won three additional World Series titles. After being traded to the playoff-bound Boston Red Sox in 1995, Aguilera would return to the Twins through the 1999 season, the last remaining player from the 1991 championship team.

This was the last World Series that Fay Vincent presided over as commissioner, as he was forced to resign near the end of the 1992 season by the owners.

The Twins and the Braves have met three times in Interleague play since the 1991 World Series. In 2002 the Braves finally experienced a Metrodome win by taking two games from the Twins in a three game series, only for the Twins to sweep a three game series from the Braves at the Metrodome in 2007. The Braves ultimately finished with an all-time record of 2–7 in the stadium before it closed as a baseball venue in 2009. In 2010, the teams played a three game series at the new Target Field, in which the Braves won two out of three games. As of the 2011 season the Twins have never traveled to Atlanta for a regular season series, and Game 5 of the 1991 World Series remains the most recent game played by the Twins in Atlanta. However, the Twins played at Turner Field in 2011 for the first time for two pre-season exhibition games. The Braves and Twins split the series 1–1.