The 1991 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1991 season. The 88th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins (95–67) and the National League (NL) champion Atlanta Braves (94–68). The Twins defeated the Braves four games to three to win the championship, their second in Minnesota and third overall. The series was also unique because of the standings of the two participating teams in the previous season: both finished the 1990 season in last place; before 1991, no league champion had ever finished the previous season in last place. In 2003, ESPN selected this championship as the "Greatest of All Time" in their "World Series 100th Anniversary" countdown, with five of its games decided by a single run, four decided in the final at-bat and three going into extra innings. In addition to the suspense of the outcome of many of its games, the Series had other highlights. For example, the series-deciding seventh game was a scoreless tie (0–0) through the regular nine innings, and went into extra innings; Minnesota won 1–0 in the 10th inning, with their starting pitcher, Jack Morris, pitching a complete game. Morris was named the MVP for the series. A number of other outlets regard the 1991 World Series as one of the greatest ever. With 69 innings in total, the 1991 World Series shares the record for longest seven-game World Series in terms of innings that had been set with the 1924 World Series (the 1912 World Series, which saw one game tied due to darkness, logged the most innings ever, at 75). Background Minnesota Twins Three years after their 1987 World Series championship, the Minnesota Twins went 74–88 in 1990 to finish last in the American League West for the first time since 1982. However, in 1991, thanks to breakout seasons from pitchers such as Scott Erickson and Kevin Tapani and a Rookie of the Year-winning performance from second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, the Twins won their division by eight games over the Chicago White Sox. They defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the American League Championship Series to advance to the Fall Classic. Atlanta Braves Following a late-season collapse in 1983, the Atlanta Braves had a string of seven consecutive losing seasons and finished last in the National League West three times in