RIP

One of my favorite Cub!

several years ago he was back on the field at Fenway for some ceremonial thing and was given a rousing ovation. Totally forgiven, and never blamed by knowledgeable Boston fans who recognized the incompetence of the manager.

Pre-leg/ankle/foot injury, Bill Buckner was an excellent all around baseball player...even adept at a stolen base here and there.

A great competitor, a great addition to that near championship Red Sox team. Can only fantasize what he might have done here if healthy.

I had not heard this news til I saw this thread. Do we know the cause of death?

Sad day.

You and I (and delta and others) were gifted to have had the pleasure of watching a real pro represent the teams we love.

He deserved better.

If what you say is true, and "knowledgeable" fans never blamed him, then our city is woefully lacking said fans.

The guy was practically run out of town.

It's easy to say that he's "forgiven" but it's no coincidence it wasn't until AFTER the Sox won the series.

got a standing "O" opening day of his "comeback" to Boston in 1990, well before he threw out the first pitch to open the 2008 season. Unlikely he would have come near Boston for the end of his career if there was a chance he'd get taunted again.

The media latched onto the goat thing, and many fans bought into it. Not all, not baseball knowledgeable fans who saw what happened. It's like why stories of crime appear on the news, but not stories of law abiding everyday people. Normal is not news. But the believers are loud and emotional.

Passionate pink hat types maybe fell victim to the emotion, and they spend a lot on their passion, which comes and goes, front runners that they are. Highlights endlessly repeated can create a version of what happened, but isolating the highlight with the Scully narration was just a momentary event, but isolated from the whole is/was misleading.

But if a wild pitch (debatable passed ball) earlier in that game had not happened, there never would have been a 10th inning.There was no reason to have not put Stapleton at first for the bottom of the inning once they took the lead either. Suddenly the manager got "sentimental" and sent a crippled defender onto the field?

A lead was blown in game 7 as well. Buckner did not blow the series.

I know because I am a knowledgeable baseball fan. As are most people I know.

'...There was no reason to have not put Stapleton at first for the bottom of the inning once they took the lead either...'

Yep. Damned Calvin Schiraldi always got a pass.

Game Six wrecked me so bad, I couldn't bring myself to watch Game 7. I was in a bar for both games. A friend told me they were winning in game 7. It didn't matter. Knew they were done.

Fast forward to 2004. June/July, Sox are 10 games back. I'm drinking bourbon, with my Sox hat on (that I got from the Lansdowne shop on my honeymoon) when two gross, oversized Yankee fans walked in, started playing pool. One of them, in that filthy new york accent pointed at my hat and said "Your guys a looozas, and you'll always be looozas."

Circled the bar in record time, dropped the bigger of the two with one shot to the jaw, just in time to watch the half of the pool stick broken over the back of my head, fly through the air like a helicopter blade. It went downhill from there.

I had to get peeled off of the floor. That following week, they started gaining ground and later (a month after my father in law died) they won the series. One beating for a championship? Gladly.

great story.

my father was born in 1916, died Feb of 2005 after several months in a hospital bed in his living room.

too young to have seen the previous, but just with it enough to take my call and let me know he did know what happened...even though that knowledge did not stay long with him, it was and is an incredible thing for me to know he got his ring.

I have a friend who is from NY, big Mets fan. Knew him for a few years before a "discussion" of the play came up at a party filled with locals and therefore Sox fans.

After listening to us for a while, he chimed in with "the rest of the country saw the play and thinks Wilson would have beaten Buckner to the bag anyway"!!!

we were stunned, none of us had ever heard any argument other than goat/no goat. I figured he was alone in that assessment as a Met fan trying to legitimize their miracle win. But he insisted that just our local media blamed the loss on the error and was carrying on a nonsense issue. Insisted it would have been a base hit anyway so what was the difference.

If you'd step off your perch for more than a minute you'd realize that you're correct. But you're still mostly wrong.

America 2019 agrees that Bill Buckner did not blow the series.

But Boston circa 1986 did. And that's before the pink hats even existed.

Unless you think he moved his family to Idaho because he liked potatoes.

Hint: it wasn't.

When Buckner first moved, he was vocal about not wanting his kids to grow up reliving '86.

Changing his tune later on doesn't negate anything.

He has had more than one "3 strikeout" games so far this season.

One of the hosts brought up an interesting statistic during the conversation . . .

Bill Buckner played 22 seasons in the MLB and NEVER struck out 3 times in one game.

I like what you've done here.

and perch made me laugh.