WORLD SERIES / ATLANTA BRAVES vs. MINNESOTA TWINS : Twins’ Fans Take to Streets to Celebrate

It took 10 tension-filled innings, but then the Twin Cities reacted Sunday night with fans pouring into streets and howling their approval of the 1991 World Series champion Minnesota Twins.

Traffic came to a standstill outside the Metrodome as fans took to the streets minutes after Gene Larkin’s game-winning single. Fans climbed signposts in the light drizzle and doused each other with beer to toast the Twins’ 1-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

“It was a long, dragged-out game, but we did it!” Thomas Snee of Edina said as he high-fived everyone in sight. “I’ll be out partying all night. You’ll see me here tomorrow morning.”

Things were rocking long before the 10th inning in Hubert’s bar across the street from the Dome. Police stood warily at the doors as fans stomped with each Brave out and cheered with every Twin hit.

“What time is it? Time for the Twins to win!” the crowd chanted in the bottom of the eighth inning as Minnesota loaded the bases.

Well, not yet. It took two more breathless innings to score the winning run.

“I knew this game would go into extra innings,” Steve Luzum of Apple Valley groaned after the Twins went down in the ninth. “But fundamental ball will win.”

Before Sunday’s finale, Twin fans prayed for Metrodome Magic to carry their team to another championship.

“No matter what happens today, Minnesota fans have already seen the promised land,” the Monsignor Francis Fleming said after conducting Mass at St. Olaf Catholic Church.

Just a stone’s throw from the Metrodome, his church sported a cryptic message: “Vincite Gemini II.” And underneath: “Luke 13:30.”

“In Latin, that means Invincible Twins. We hung the same sign in 1987,” Fleming said. “The Bible scripture says the last shall be first. It’s a teaching tool. They go home and look it up. It’s a free lesson in the scripture.”

Many fans were ready to canonize Kirby Puckett after he hit Saturday night’s 11th-inning home run to give the Twins a 4-3 victory. And many were decidedly drained after a tight Series, which featured three games decided in the final at-bat.

But most held out hope that their team, undefeated under the Dome in the past eight World Series games, would add to that string in the deciding contest.

One fan, Dan Buche of St. Paul, stood shivering in front of the Metrodome in search of a pair of reasonably priced tickets. Scalpers were asking more than $200 for most of them, and box seats were going for more than $600.

“A lot of people missed it in ’87. They don’t want to miss it again,” Buche said. “It might be 20 years before this happens again. And how often does any team make it to the seventh game of a World Series?”

Like many, he noted that Twins fans didn’t seem quite as keyed up this year about their team’s good fortunes as in 1987.

“This has been a great Series,” Buche said. “But there’s a little less enthusiasm this time through. People were dancing in the streets in 1987 after the Twins clinched the division. People were just ecstatic. But that was a Cinderella story. This time, they’re a legitimate team.”

Across the street at a tent owned by Sears Roebuck & Co., sweat shirts and T-shirts declaring the Twins the American League champions were selling at fire-sale prices.

“We’re hoping they become obsolete,” said Dennis Misko, regional manager for Sears, said before the game.