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1986 Revisited; Billy Buck, Mookie, and the Truth behind "The Play"
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Since the Boston Red Sox home opener this past Tuesday, there has been talk all over the place, TV, radio, internet, about the return of Bill Buckner to Boston. Included in those talks are these two articles written exclusively for ArmchairGM. With time (21 years) passing as it has, and with the notorious habit of Bostonians always having to blame somebody for something, the actual details leading up to Buckner's unfortunate linking to history have either faded or totally distorted.
My point here isn't to change anyone's mind on how they feel about the whole thing, its to try and put things in order the way they happened and tie everything together so the picture becomes clearer. If you change your mind, or if I justify how you already view everything, then that's a good thing.
Both the Red Sox and their World Series opponents, the New York Mets, had no business even being in the Series. The 1986 NLCS between the Mets and Houston Astros came down to the wire, with the Mets staging comeback after comeback and finally getting by into the Series. As a matter of fact, as part of MLB's 125th Anniversary season in 1994, they surveyed the previous 25 year history of the Championship Series, with the '86 NLCS the runaway winner as the best ever.
After long and exhausting Championship Series, the World Series started off in Boston, with the Sox winning both games. Heading down to Shea Stadium, the Mets won Games 3 and 4 to tie the Series, with Boston winning Game Five behind a gutsy complete game from Bruce Hurst.
Dispelling Myth #1:
If you went and stood on a street corner and asked people if they remember "the play", most would tell you it came in Game Seven, when, in fact, it actually happened in Game Six.
Setting the Stage
The Red Sox won the first two games of the Series in New York, a 1-0 in Game One behind Bruce Hurst, and 9-3 in Game Two, scoring six runs in five plus innings of Mets ace Dwight Gooden. The Mets came right back, winning Games Three and Four in Boston, setting up a Game Five match-up between Gooden and Hurst. The Sox won, 4-2, again whacking Gooden around, scoring all four runs with nine hits in four plus innings. Hurst wasn't as sharp as in Game One, scattering ten hits, but, more importantly, tossed a complete game.
The match-up for Game Six was Roger Clemens for Boston, with Bob Ojeda for the Mets. Clemens started the Sox' 9-3 win in Game Two, although he didn't hang around long enough to get the win. Ojeda was the winning pitcher in Game Three, allowing one run on five hits in his seven innings. Boston scored single runs in the first two innings off Ojeda, with the Mets tying the score in the bottom of the fifth off Clemens, with one run being unearned on an error by Dwight Evans. Boston scored in the top half of the seventh, with the Mets again tying the score, with a single run in their half of the eighth inning.
Neither team scored in the ninth inning, with the game then moving into extra innings. With Rick Aguilera on the mound for the Mets, Dave Henderson led off the inning with a solo homer to left field. After striking out both Spike Owen and Calvin Schiraldi, Wade Boggs doubled and scored on a single by Marty Barrett.
Why did Schiraldi hit in the tenth inning?
Schiraldi had taken over as the Sox closer late in the season from the exhausted Bob Stanley, who had 66 appearances during the season. He had come into the game in the eighth inning and promptly blew the save. As mentioned, Bruce Hurst had thrown a complete game two day's prior, so the Sox bullpen was defintely rested. Switch-hitter Wally Backman and lefty Keith Hernandez were the first two scheduled hitters for the Mets in the tenth inning. Lefty Joe Sambito was available, and to this point had only faced two batters so far in the Series, allowing a single to lefty hitting Darryl Strawberry and a double to righthander Ray Knight in Game Three. My guess is Manager John McNamara allowed Schiraldi to hit only because Henderson's homer had given the Sox the lead again.
The Bottom of the Tenth Inning
McNamara's decision to leave Schiraldi in the game appeared prophetic, as both Backman (to left) and Hernandez (to center) flied out. With the Shea Stadium message board congratulating the Red Sox on their apparent World Series Championship, catcher and clean-up hitter and future Hall of Famer Gary Carter stepped into the box. Carter flipped a Schiraldi slider into left for a single and Kevin Mitchell, hitting for Aguilera, singled to center with Carter stopping at second. With two strikes on him. Ray Knight, fooled on another Schiraldi breaking pitch, dumped a single into righ-center field, scoring Carter, with Mitchell going to third. McNamara brought in Bob Stanley at this point to face Mookie Wilson. With a 2-2 count on Wilson, Stanley uncorked a wild pitch, scoring Mitchell with the tying run and Knight moving down to second. On the next pitch, Wilson bounced towards first, with the ball hitting a spike mark and bouncing through the legs of the surprised Bill Buckner at first base, scoring Knight with the winning run.
Game Seven
With rain postponing the seventh game for a day, the Sox, apparently unfazed by the turn of events in Game Six, jumped on Mets starter Ron Darling for three runs in the top half of the second inning. The Mets tied the score in their half of the sixth off Bruce Hurst. The Mets took the lead in the seventh, scoring three runs off, guess who? Yep, Calvin Schiraldi. Boston scored two in the eighth to make it a one run game, but the Mets, behind a Strawberry homer and a single by eventual winning pitcher Jesse Orosco, pushed the lead back to three at 8-5, which became the final score after Boston went down in order in the ninth.
Epilogue
For some reason, the media always needs to place the blame for something on someone. Whether it is to justify their story, make themselves appear smarter, I don't really know. But as the chain of events makes clear, there are a handful of guys far more deserving of the blame, both in Game Six and Game Seven, than is Bill Buckner.
Let's start by working backwards. Schiraldi had thrown 55 pitches in his two and two thirds of work in Game Six. Following the rainout the next day, the weather wasn't all that great for Game Seven, 53 degrees at game time with leftover clouds. A little warm perhaps for a late October night in New York, but after such a heavy workload in Game Six, maybe Bob Stanley should have been Boston's first option out of the pen? And if Schiraldi was the closer, why was he in a tie game in the seventh inning? And what about the old adage, in Game Seven, everyone is available except the Game Six starter? So why not use Bruce Hurst? With the rainout, he had two day's rest, and under normal circumstances this would have been his full pen session, so why not use him for an inning or two?
Now to Game Six.
After Buckner, the first person blamed is usually Manager John McNamara.
"Why wasn't Dave Stapleton playing first base in the tenth inning?"
Stapleton was a utility infielder who actually was in his final major league season in 1986. Why? Because, at the age of 32, had been battling injury problems for several years. Statistically a pretty good fielder at first base, (.993), he had played only 318 career games at first base, not an ideal guy to have out there in that situation. And let's not forget, Buckner was a great defensive first baseman, as I'll explain later on. But the only answer to this question which I fully accept is the answer given by McNamara himself,
"I wanted Buck to be part of the celebration on the field."
A class gesture to honor a player appearing in just his second World Series in to that point a 17 year career, and, the last he would ever appear in.
Did I mention Bob Stanley's wild pitch right before Wilson's groundball? Even if the chain of events had repeated themselves, Ray Knight would only have gotten to third base, and Wilson, hitting seventh in the lineup, was followed by light-hitting utility man Kevin Elster, who had replaced the equally lighthitting Rafael Santana back in the fifth inning.
As mentioned previously, why was Schiraldi allowed to hit in the tenth inning? The Henderson homer likely was the deciding factor, but to that point of the game, the Sox had only gone to the bench once, using Mike Greenwell to hit for Roger Clemens in the eighth inning. Where was Don Baylor? Where was Tony Armas? Shoot, this was the perfect opportunity to pull the double switch, hitting Stapleton for Schiraldi, with Stapleton then going out on defense in the bottom half of the tenth.
Myth #2
This is the biggest one for me. I've seen the replay's a thousand times, and I am convinced without question or debate that even Buckner had caught the ball, there is no way he would have beaten Wilson to the bag. And the reason why had nothing to do with his feet! The wild pitch had moved Knight into scoring position, forcing Buckner to play back and guarding the line. Wilson was not a pull hitter per se, the situation itself calling for the prevention of the extra base hit. With the rocket armed Dwight Evans in rightfield, anything in the hole and at or to Evan's throwing hand would have put him in perfect position for a play at the plate. The only place where a strong, accurate throw would have been difficult would have been down the line, forcing Evans to field the ball cleanly, then, as a righthanded thrower, reverse his momentum for the throw. In essence then, the wild pitch caused a defensive realignment which basically took Buckner out of ideal fielding position.
There is also a lesser shown replay, from the rightfield camera. In this view, one can plainly see Bob Stanley hesitating before breaking towards first. Wilson hit the ball hard enough in Stanley's mind where he may have thought the play would have been routine. He also may not have realized, for just a split second, that Buckner had backed up to guard the line. Either way, I believe without a question in my mind even if Buckner had made the play, Wilson would have beat both Buckner and Stanley to the bag. This would have left a first and third situation again with the weak hitting Elster due up. And the Mets at this point had already pretty much used up their bench, with Elster himself, Mitchell, Howard Johnson and Danny Heep already out of the game.
So what we have here is a laundry list of events, all of which lead up to Buckner's unfortunate place in history. And it's not fair to him, this being a guy who;
- Is one of only 44 players with 2500 games played,
- One of only 45 players with 9000 at bats, and one of only 70 with 10,000 plate appearances,
- 47th all time in doubles (498)
- Tied with Willie Mays for fifth longest streak of most consecutive seasons with at least one HR (20),
- Ranks third all time for most career HR (174) without a 20 HR season,
- Ranks 13th in career assists by a first baseman, (was an OF his first 9 ML seasons),
- Holds ML record (184) for most assists in a season by a 1B, and holds four of the top ten seasons overall,
- Ranks 45th in career DP by a first baseman,
- Has more career hits than Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Jimmy Foxx, Reggie Jackson and Ernie Banks.
- Scored more runs than Hall of Famers Kirby Puckett, Gary Carter, Hank Greenberg, and Mickey Cochrane.
- Struck out only 453 times in over 10,000 plate appearances, with a single season career high of 39.
- Had six top ten finishes in his respective league batting races, including winning the NL title in 1980 with a .324 mark.
Bill Buckner didn't suck. Nor did he deserve what he's gone through the past twenty one years. Buckner was a solid, if unspectacular player for 22 seasons and contributed to two different teams, (Dodgers and Red Sox) making the World Series in two different eras, (early '70's pitching, mid-80's hitting). The other day, there were 35,000 Bostonians who welcomed Buckner back to Boston with the hopes he could forgive and forget, and to once again become a member of one of baseball's most storied and proud franchises. Unfortunately, some people are unwilling to forget, as the following day's headline, under Buckner's picture throwing out the first pitch was;
"Bill Buckner, goat of 1986 World Series...."
Unforgivable, and unacceptable.
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Then again, it's pretty easy to sit back and say this kind of thing when your fave team won 26 World Series -- and the Red Sox won zero -- over the same 86-year span. Ask the Cubs how they feel about Bartman... Is it fair? No. But if something similar happens to the Yankees in the midst of a similar championship drought, you can be damn sure their fans would find somebody to blame too.