[ceylan00]

Man, it NEVER occured to me until this World Series just how tough Bill Buckner must be. I mean, dude LITERALLY lost a World Series game, on a play we're ALL taught how to deal with since T-ball. And, the world let him know it. So that OBVIOUSLY had to suck. But, ANY time that series comes up, and,  in the millions of discussions about curses about Boston or any other franchise, every conversation about a blooper or "blowing it" at the wrong time, EVERY world series it's dragged back out, and I'm sure, as not the sharpest, there are probably a good hundred more or BETTER examples of that single dude having to re-live that same SINGLE mistake he made a thousand years ago. Now, I did zero research before saying ANY of this, so, I have NO CLUE as to his status, his attitude, shoot, if he's alive or passed. But, I know I make A LOT of mistakes, pretty much everyday, and if I had to have the whole WORLD in my face about ANY one of the millions, IDK, I at least, have NO idea how I'd do with that one. Hmmm, maybe a new pc is in my future. LOL Please do not blow me up w/available Buckner cards haha. No, it's nice here, not like FB, people don't do that. In my experience anyway. And, as of 9pm EST Sunday night it looks like Steinbrenner's new team, er, I mean, The Dodgers are about to crush my Rays like a little bug, but, I don't care, what a year in baseball, COMPLETELY unexpected, by me at least. I was just SO happy to have games to watch, and then the way it turned into a totally unique season, almost like little league or back alley rookie ball, which is as far as I ever got, without the crowd cheering etc, where you and the other team are hearing EVERYTHING that is said, etc. IDK, I really think that the opposite of what I THOUGHT would happen will happen, and, in the long run, Baseball purists will look at this year as something pretty cool as opposed to something desperate and staged (which is what I at least expected to see) SO, I will shut my big yapper, but, Bill Buckner, hmm, maybe he's on a scale of strong that no one, naturally or pumped up on roids or anything else, can even come close to. Maybe.

[dogger99]

Unfortunately, he did pass away last year. At least where he is now, he doesn't have to be reminded of it constantly (by the media). There were 2 outs with a man on 1st and 3rd. Nobody ever talks about the wild pitch that let the man on 3rd score and Knight move to 2nd base. If there wasn't the wild pitch the worse that would have happened with Buckner's error would have been a tie game with Knight at 3rd and Mookie at 2nd. Maybe the Mets still would have gotten another hit and won anyways. Or it might have gone to the 11th inning. We will never know. Boston still had there chance in Game 7, but they came up short.

[jbissell]

From what I understand, towards the latter part of Buckner's life, he was largely welcomed back to Boston with open arms and "forgiven".

[zeprock]

Buckner was a really good player and was playing hurt in that series. It's too bad that his career is defined by some on that one play. That being said, 2004 wiped out all Red Sox debts.

[jplarson]

It wasn't a World Series but at the time it felt like it for Cubs fans in 2003. A fan reached out for a foul ball and was demonized for a long time. ESPN did a 30 for 30 on Bartman and Buckner called "Catching Hell", exploring the incidents and perspectives.

That debt along with all the other ones the Cubs accrued was wiped away in 2016.

[DrMitchJ]

Bill Buckner seemed okay about it. Hey, famous / infamous ... it’s a fine line. My assumption is based on the fact that Larry David did a “Curb” episode where Buckner drops a signed ball, drops something else, but in the end catches a baby tossed out of a burning building ... and doesn’t drop him.

[rjcj2017]

That was the night that 11-year-old me became a sports fan, so I'm OK with it ... I was mesmerized by the concept that anything could happen in sports, and Game 4 of this series totally reminded me of that night.

[ceylan00]

Well, I was about to go look up Mr. Buckner's status after I opened my big trap, but I figured an answer would come here quicker anyway, and thank you Dog, I surely didn't mean any disrespect to the guy, hopefully he's resting in peace in a Heaven where he forever has the knees of a 18 yr old & just CAN'T miss a grounder. And JB it's good to hear that it was all good in B town in the end for the Cat, but I really didn't know, I mean, I was born in Cook County Hospital, Downtown Chicago, and Cubs fan are a shadowy reflection of RedSox fans, kinda. And I know to this day in Chi town despite the pleads for awareness & understanding, shoot, even after 2016, people still hate on poor "Bart" here and there, so it's good to hear that Boston was bigger than that. Zep I agree w/pretty much anything you say, about everything from ball to Zeppelin, but I agree 1986 was pretty messed up for 'em but '04 & definitely when they took the trophy with what was later recognized but unestablished as to the degree of trash can thumping I'd say all is right with that situation, in the end. Dr Mitch, trust you to know about the Larry David episode, and that was a hot tip considering I've burned thru pretty much all the good stuff on netflix and hbo "on demand" THIS year, so, ha, an extra laugh is always a good thing, and trust Larry David to think up a show based on that, the guy is seriously a comedic genius in a way. And RJ!! HAha Buddy! Now THAT is an interesting little tidbit my friend! See, someone was raggin' on ya about talking about only retail and you lay something like that out there! Too cool! I can TOTALLY see the appeal, to a little RJ runnin' around. Thanks for the info and explanations y'all! And what's that about?, your boy can't get ONE star on this post, geez, tough crowd....lol

[ricelynnevans75]

I believe that the amount of heat this guy took over it was beyond ridiculous.  The 8th, 9th, and 10th innings were filled with bad calls, a reliever who went in too early/stayed in too long and blew two leads, another reliever tossing a wild pitch, and pitch call confusion between pitcher/catcher.  

I found a post that I think sums it up nicely.

"Obviously Buckner should've made the play.  He said as much in the decades since before his passing away.  But he's not the one who lost the game, or the series; he simply put the exclamation point on an unthinkably bad night." 

The thing that upsets me the most about the whole thing was reading an article about an interview with Buckner.  He said that overall, Sox fans were cool with him after the fact.  To the point that he got a solid ovation from the Fenway crowd at the home opener in 1990, his last season in baseball in which he had returned to Boston.  Regardless, he still got the knuckleheads who would approach him and say something demeaning.  Worst of all, he ended up moving from Massachusetts to Idaho to escape the harassment.  Not the harassment against him, but the harassment directed at his family.  

I never found the logic in blaming the outcome of any game on one play/player, regardless of the sport.  They play X amount of innings/periods/quarters/etc.  Within all that time the team could've done something else somewhere to win/lose the game.

Some fans seem to have a strange disconnect in their heads when it comes to pro athletes.  They are human as well.  Just like every human, they make errors/mistakes as well as have successes.  To take the outcome of a game so seriously that you resort to harassing, threatening, and name calling over it speaks more about that person than the person who made the error/mistake.  

The great thing about sports is that, yes, there really is always next year.

[rjcj2017]

Well, I was about to go look up Mr. Buckner's status after I opened my big trap, but I figured an answer would come here quicker anyway, and thank you Dog, I surely didn't mean any disrespect to the guy, hopefully he's resting in peace in a Heaven where he forever has the knees of a 18 yr old & just CAN'T miss a grounder. And JB it's good to hear that it was all good in B town in the end for the Cat, but I really didn't know, I mean, I was born in Cook County Hospital, Downtown Chicago, and Cubs fan are a shadowy reflection of RedSox fans, kinda. And I know to this day in Chi town despite the pleads for awareness & understanding, shoot, even after 2016, people still hate on poor "Bart" here and there, so it's good to hear that Boston was bigger than that. Zep I agree w/pretty much anything you say, about everything from ball to Zeppelin, but I agree 1986 was pretty messed up for 'em but '04 & definitely when they took the trophy with what was later recognized but unestablished as to the degree of trash can thumping I'd say all is right with that situation, in the end. Dr Mitch, trust you to know about the Larry David episode, and that was a hot tip considering I've burned thru pretty much all the good stuff on netflix and hbo "on demand" THIS year, so, ha, an extra laugh is always a good thing, and trust Larry David to think up a show based on that, the guy is seriously a comedic genius in a way.  And RJ!! HAha Buddy! Now THAT is an interesting little tidbit my friend! See, someone was raggin' on ya about talking about only retail and you lay something like that out there! Too cool! I can TOTALLY see the appeal, to a little RJ runnin' around. Thanks for the info and explanations y'all! And what's that about?, your boy can't get ONE star on this post, geez, tough crowd....lol

Yeah, I can't do much for people who don't like me talking about retail.

Um, don't read it?

I will always speak out and comment on everything hobby related ... the good, the bad and the dooshy.

I spent basically eight years posting all kinds of happy, positive things like my awesome retail pulls, great trades I was able to make and good-natured back-and-forth jabs with all my buddies on here.

Unfortunately, other than the trading (which has actually been awesome these last few months), pretty much my entire source of enjoyment from the hobby has been taken away, so I don't have those same good vibes I used to.

And no, I won't be "adapting" or trying to "outdoosh" the doosh bags.

Don't have to, don't want to, and am confident in my prediction that they will eventually slither away to find some other scam to rip people off. They always do.  

Anyway, yeah, that fateful night in 1986 my dad was asleep on the couch and the game was on.

(As usual.)

I noticed it was the last inning, so I sat on the floor to catch it real quick ... and was hooked forever.

Put it this way ... yes, that play greatly affected Buckner's life, but if it would have never happened I probably wouldn't have become a sports fan or collected cards or anything. 

He was actually from our area and is a pretty big deal around here ... we generally chose to remember the 2,715 hits and the NL batting title instead of the stupid error.

Not to mention, he also attended the same school I did (USC), though he never played for the Trojans.

I was able to pick up a pretty beat up copy of his RC not too long ago ... for $1 ...





Thanks for posting this thread ... I'll star you up, buddy.