October 26, 1991: Game 6 of the World Series is played at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Twins are hosting the Atlanta Braves, broadcast live on CBS. While the game is still going on, NBC airs Saturday Night Live.
This episode would be the debut of Ellen Cleghorne's character Queen Shenequa, but it opens with their version of NBC's political talk show The McLaughlin Group, with Dana Carvey playing host John McLaughlin. He and all the panelists are wearing Halloween costumes. Then, Carvey keels over with a knife in his back, and the real McLaughlin takes over -- but stays in character, exaggerating his tagline, "Wrong!" the way Carvey does.
When host Christian Slater comes out, he sees the entire audience doing the Braves' Tomahawk Chop and War Chant. He turns and sees McLaughlin and executive producer Lorne Michaels watching the game, rather than watching the show they're actually working on, doing the Chop with the big red foam Tomahawks, and wearing Indian headdresses -- something they couldn't have gotten away with today. With the game in extra innings, Michaels says, "Braves in 6." McLaughlin says, "Wrong! Braves in 7!"
They're both wrong: Kirby Puckett makes a great catch and hits a dramatic home run in the bottom half of the 11th inning, to give the Twins a 4-3 win, and tie the Series. What has been shaping up as one of the best World Series ever will go to a Game 7. As with 1975, the last time a World Series game ended with an extra-inning home run, and that also a Game 6, the upcoming Game 7 turned out to be worthy of what had come before.
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October 26, 1991 was a Saturday. Among the college football games played that day were these:
* Number 1 Florida State beat Louisiana State, 27-16 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
* Number 2 Miami beat Arizona, 36-9 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.
* Number 3 Washington beat Oregon, 29-7 at Husky Stadium in Washington.
* The night before, Number 4 Michigan won the Little Brown Jug by beating Minnesota, 52-6 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* Number 5 Notre Dame beat Southern California (USC), 24-20 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
* Number 8 Penn State beat West Virginia, 51-6 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.
* Number 9 Nebraska beat Missouri, 63-6 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
* Number 10 California beat San Jose State, 41-20 at California Memorial Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Berkeley.
* Number 12 North Carolina were upset by Number 19 Clemson, 29-19 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.
* Number 17 Illinois were upset by arch-rival Northwestern, 17-11 at Dyche Stadium (now Ryan Field) in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.
* Number 18 Syracuse beat Rutgers, 21-7 at the old Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.
* Number 20 East Carolina beat Number 23 Pittsburgh, 24-23 at Dowdy-Ficklin Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina.
* Among the service academies, Air Force beat Texas-El Paso (UTEP), 20-13 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs; but Army lost to Boston College, 28-17 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; and Navy lost to Delaware, 29-25 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.
The NBA season started 6 days later. There were 9 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-3 at the Colisée de Québec.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* The New Jersey Devils beat the San Jose Sharks, 9-0 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. The Devils got 2 goals each from Claude Lemieux, Tom Chorske and Doug Brown; and 1 goal each from Laurie Boschman, Walt Poddubny and the newly-acquired Scott Stevens.
This was the biggest margin of victory in the Devils' history. They matched it twice in 2000, on March 10 in a 9-0 win away to the Atlanta Thrashers, and on October 28 in a 9-0 win away to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Boston Bruins at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The Calgary Flames and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 2-2 at the St. Louis Arena.
* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-4 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Nottingham team Notts County, 2-0 at Highbury in North London, on late goals by Alan Smith and Ian Wright.
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