Down to the Last Pitch

Never in baseball history had a last place team rebounded to take the pennant the following season. Yet in 1991, lightning struck twice as the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves, a pair of cellar dwellers the year before, faced each other in an unforgettable World Series.

For both clubs, the turnaround was one for the ages. Minnesota and Atlanta rallied throughout the 1991 season around a crop of rising stars—Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz—who each spirited their team's unlikely run all the way to the World Series. And what a Fall Classic it proved to be, with five of the seven games decided by a single run, four decided on the final pitch, and three—including game seven—ending in extra innings. When the final out was recorded, the cover headline in Baseball Weekly read: “Best World Series Ever.”

In Down to the Last Pitch, Tim Wendel delivers all the hopes, dreams, and drama in a season—and a Series—touched by magic.