I WAS 19 AND WATCHED IN MY APT. IN GAINESVILLE, FL

Oct. 27, 1991: Kirrr-bee does it!

Kirby Puckett's home run in the 11th inning gave the Twins a 4-3 victory over Atlanta in Game 6, setting off a raucous 10-minute ovation that didn't quiet until a postgame interview was shown on the Metrodome scoreboard.

By Howard Sinker, Star Tribune

There will be one more baseball game in 1991. For that, you can thank Kirby Puckett. Was there ever any doubt?

Was there?

Can't hear you, Minnesota.

Not because you weren't loud. It's because our eardrums have been burned into toast.

For that, you can thank Kirby Puckett.

Puckett slammed a home run in the 11th inning Saturday night to give the Twins a 4-3 victory over Atlanta in Game 6, setting off a raucous 10-minute ovation that didn't quiet until a postgame interview was shown on the Metrodome scoreboard.

In front of 55,155 folks who paid to get in, including about 1,500 who were rooting for the visitors, the Twins made sure the 88th World Series would play through one more full weekend. For that, you can thank...

Oh, heck, never mind.

Today is it. Mad Jack Morris for the hometown nine, John Smoltz for the visitors. Biggest game of all.

Morris saw Puckett's ball sail beyond the wall in left and knew that his turn on center stage was next. Is he ready? "Words from the late, great Marvin Gaye come to mind," Morris said. " `Let's get it on.' "

During last night's game, the assembled were a bit less festive, a bit more focused on the game - at least until the very end. It was a bit less civil, a bit more warlike. They booed Kid Edina, catcher Greg Olson of the Braves, who'd been accorded a cheerful welcome at last weekend's games.

There was an air of urgency under Thunderdome. That the Twins had won six straight World Series games there without losing any, in 1987 and 1991, didn't count as much as the need for timely hitting, good pitching and solid defense.

Puckett: three hits, three runs batted in, two runs, one magnificent catch. He didn't take the mound, though. Or sell programs.

"This is the game I'll never forget," he said. "It's pretty awesome."

Down three games to two, straight shots of optimism had been replaced by a mix that included a healthy portion of hope.

The same potion was in vogue four years ago when the Twins brought St. Louis back to town with the Cardinals needing just one more victory.

Did they get it? You don't need to be reminded.

This was Game 6, the sequel, with Puckett in the role of Kent Hrbek, whose grand slam slammed St. Louis in 1987.

In Atlanta, fans responded to the tension of Game 3, the four-hour thriller, by sitting on the edge of their chairs in eerie near-silence for most of the final few innings - until their team finished off a 12-inning victory.

Here, the tension turned up the volume. During batting practice, early-arriving fans cheered when Hrbek and Mike Pagliarulo parked consecutive home runs. And they cheered when the duo, both left-handed batters, bounced hard grounders into foul territory in right field - where the Braves were loosening up.

No signs here like the one in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium - "Hrbek is a jrk." Here, one read: "Hrbek is our hro."

"It's home," Hrbek said. "H-O-M-E."

At home, instead of Hrbek, the big boos were for Mark Lemke, the Atlanta second baseman whose hitting was a big reason for his team's midweek success.

The fans were putting their hopes on the right arm of Scott Erickson, a candidate for the least-respected 20-game winner in the history of baseball. They were willing to give Erickson the benefit of any doubts, though, as the second-year pitcher took the mound. He was manager Tom Kelly's guy; he was their guy.

As Erickson worked through the first, allowing a single and a walk, every strike drew a roar; the two-strike situations got those anticipatory standing ovations normally saved for the ninth inning. Third baseman Scott Leius gave reason to gasp when he fumbled speedy Lonnie Smith's grounder to open the game, and reason to scream when he got the ball to first just before Smith arrived.

The Twins were home, with Tone Loc and Technotronic pumping up the crowd instead of the way it was in Atlanta - with the ersatz Indian mantra that has maddened Minnesota in recent days.

The wild thing was, it seemed to work right away. The other second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch, lined a single to right and scored when Puckett followed with a triple.

Hey, something had to be different. Shane Mack got a hit, after going without in his first 15 times up in the Series. A piece of the bat sailed toward third base, the ball sailed into left field, the Twins led 2-0.

Atlanta's bats weren't quiet, but the Twins aided Erickson with sizzling defense, jumps and glovework that seemed to be lifted from highlight reels.

Air Leius leaped high to snare Brian Hunter's line drive to start the second. Air Puckett leaped against the glass in left-center to take away a double or triple from Ron Gant with a masterful catch in the third. A liner by David Justice went into Hrbek's glove to end the third instead of going to the right-field corner for a run-scoring double.

Erickson played that game of dodge (the bullet) ball until the fifth, when Terry Pendleton, the National League batting champion, knocked a homer to center that tied the score at 2.

Atlanta's choppers, most of whom were sitting in the upper deck above first base, did their best to draw attention to themselves. It was one of the few times when their carrying-on could be heard amidst the sea of white hankies.

If anyone had doubts about the intensity on the field - and foolish doubts they would have been - Gant must have erased them in the seventh. He celebrated the most modest of successes - barely beating a double-play relay at first - by raising his fist and pumping it wildly. He had everything but a hanky in upraised hand.

The rush was justified, though, because his speed allowed Lemke to score for a 3-3 tie. Had he been a bit slower, he would have been the third out and those extra innings probably wouldn't have been played.

The extra innings, though, allowed the Twins to come together, a hugging mob at home plate that lurched with joy in the direction of Atlanta's dugout.

Once more? For that, you can thank Kirby Puckett.

© 1991 Star Tribune.