“All is Forgiven” [sic]
Yes - I’ve got some catching up to do… deal with it. First order of business, Bill Buckner throwing out the first pitch at the Sox home opener a week ago - and this notion that “now all is forgiven”:
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/04/08/bill-buckner-throws-out-first-pitch-for-red-sox/
All *what*?!
Any Red Sox fan, general baseball fan, sports fan, or to be blunt, any individual with brainmass greater than the common amoeba who does - or ever did - hold Bill Buckner responsible for the Red Sox losing the 1986 World Series is an absolute and complete moron.
I thought I’d posted on this previously, but I don’t find anything in the archives - so here is a (likely incomplete) list of the myriad reasons that only an idiot would blame the 1986 WS on Bill Buckner (in no particular order):
1. It was Game *Six*. If the Sox had won that game, yes - they would’ve won the WS (more items related to this often misrembered fact to follow). But there was a Game 7… indeed a Game 7 where they had a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning (at Shea). Bruce Hurst (named WS MVP, unofficially, when the Sox had two outs and nobody on with a 2-run lead in Game Six… more on this in a moment) came back on 3 days rest and pitched great… for five innings. He gave up three runs in that bottom of the sixth, and left the game with the score tied. The Sox went on to lose 8-5 in Game Seven - you know, when they could’ve also won the World Series.
2. Calvin Schiraldi. He was the losing pitcher in Game Six… and Game Seven. His Game Six stat line: 2.2 IP, 4H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K. His Game Seven stat line: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K. Well done. BSG likes to talk about “the Peyton Face” - but where was he to describe “the Schiraldi Face”. The deer-in-headlights look is a euphemism for “the Schiraldi Face”. Two outs in the bottom of the tenth, nobody on, two-run lead, two strikes to three different batters… can’t get the final out. It was so bad, John McNamera had to turn to…
3. Bob Stanley. I think it’s foolish to select an individual Goat in almost any team sport situation, but if you insist on doing so - then Stanley’s your guy/Goat, not Buckner. First, the wild pitch to get Ray Knight to second base and into scoring position. Second, if you watch the film, he breaks late towards first base and most likely wouldn’t have even made it there to beat Mookie to take a throw… thus extending the inning. Bob Stanley had one good year (1978) and then proceeded to make a career of giving up leads in ballgames - ask any true Sox fan, they’ll confirm this. If it went another inning, guaranteed Stanley loses the game - and it wouldn’t have required any errors, trust me.
4. Tie ballgame. If Buckner makes the play, it’s still a tie ballgame… the game continues. Yes, the winning run scored on the error, but playing in Shea… having made an incredible comeback just to tie the game… with Bob Stanley coming back out for the eleventh… um, yeah - I’m sayin’ the Mets were more likely to win that game if Buckner makes the play to extend the game.
5. John McNamera. Bill Buckner is held together with MacGyver adhesive, which is why Mac replaces him with Stapleton late in every other game… except the last one, saying he wanted Billy Buck to be out there when the game ended. Dumbass. I think he would’ve enjoyed it just as much from the dugout, as he “rushed” (much as he could at the time) onto the field with his victorious teammates… oh wait, even if Stapleton/Buckner had made the play, the game wouldn’t have been over (see #4 above).
6. Physical error. It was a physical error. It happens. Oh, hey - look at Game 1: Seventh inning. Ron Darling walks Jim Rice. Rice goes to second on a wild pitch. Gedman hits a ground ball right… between… Tim… Teufel’s… legs… and Rice scores from second. Final score in the game? 1-0. So, first of all, both teams scored a winning run on a ground ball through an infielder’s legs. This just in: It happens. Physical errors are part of the game. If Buckner had made a mental error, or had a lapse in effort? I’d be leading the campaign against him, but that wasn’t the case. He hustled over, he got down, and he missed it - just like (a much younger) Tim Teufel in Game One.
7. 14 LOB. In Game Six, the Red Sox left 14 men on base - 12 in the first nine innings i.e. if they brought in just one more runner of the extra 12 they had, had somehow managed to score four runs while leaving *eleven* men on base in the first nine innings, it never would’ve gone to extra frames. Now Buckner was 0-5 (with one HBP) in the game, from the #3 spot… and Jim Rice was also 0-5 (with one walk), from the cleanup spot. Buckner, like Rice - and the rest of the lineup - missed myriad opportunities to bring additional runs home to win this game. Buckner didn’t leave all 14 of those guys on base.
8. Shouldn’t have gone back to Shea. The Sox won the first two games of the Series, at Shea Stadium. Going back to Fenway, for the next three games, all they had to do was win two of three at home. Kudos to the Mets for winning four out of five, which is what my abacus tells me they had to do after going down 0-2 at home - but the point is the Sox shouldn’t have even gotten to Game Six… much less to the tenth inning of Game Six.
9. Damn scoreboard operator. Now, I generally am not one to believe in large scale curses - but I do admit to smaller superstitions, generally revolving around the simple truism: Don’t tempt Fate. With two outs, nobody on, Sox up by two, in the bottom of the tenth inning of Game Six… the damn scoreboard operator at Shea Stadium has to go and put up “Congratulations Boston Red Sox, 1986 WS Champs”. Balls. I don’t fault NBC for moving into the Sox clubhouse before the game ended, for deciding on Hurst as the WS MVP to that point (good call, btw), or for the Red Sox clubbies for putting up the plastic sheets and wheeling in the champagne… all understandable. But did the Shea scoreboard operator have to jump the gun? Well, yes he did. In a stroke of pure genius, he rattled the Baseball Gods to the point that they failed to note it was not the Red Sox scoreboard operator making assumptions… tempting Fate… and they acted swiftly and decisively - we all saw the result.
Now, Point #9 is clearly tongue-in-cheek… but to be perfectly honest, its a far more valid reason for the Sox losing the 1986 World Series than to pin it on Bill Buckner.
I was happy to see (in print) and hear (in subsequent interviews) that Buckner clarified his concerns and (justifiable) animosity wrt to “coming back” to Boston in any sort of ceremonial manner. Indeed, for 2004, he was invited and didn’t come - saying he had prior plans involving his son (a college ballplayer at the time, IIRC - but someone who I would expect would’ve completely understood if Dad had decided to go to the April 2005 Ring Ceremony in Boston). Buckner noted that he never had a problem with Boston fans, but specifically directed his ire at the Boston (and national) media. Sure, the media is a convenient scapegoat (sucks when the shoe’s on the other foot, eh?) - but in the case, a justifiable one.
Yes - there were, and maybe still are, some Red Sox “fans” who blame Bill Buckner. That is the Mindless Minority… sheep who fell into line behind an overzealous media determined to identify “hero” and “villain/goat” wherever possible, then continuing that myth in perpetuity. The *facts* are these (in addition to the facts itemized above): When the Sox returned to Boston after the 1986 WS and had their rally/parade/whatever as AL Champs, Bill Buckner got the loudest ovation. When he came out for Opening Day in 1987, the fans cheered him. He left Boston and then came back in 1990 to finish his career as a Red Sox - and on Opening Day 1990, he *again* got the loudest ovation. *Actual* Red Sox fans with an IQ greater than Forrest Gump recognized the facts, and made sure that Bill Buckner knew how they *actually* felt - despite media myths to the contrary.
“All is forgiven”? That’s a joke. Nothing to forgive. And any individual, sports fan, baseball fan, or Red Sox fan who either (a) now “forgives” Buckner, or (b) will never “forgive” Buckner, has only proven they have the brainpower of an inanimate carbon rod.
Okay, I’m done now.