All is forgiven, 22 years too late

Like many teams yesterday, the Red Sox had their home opener. It was a joyous time as the Fenway faithful celebrated the Sox 2nd title in 4 years.

Then, out of the dugout, Bill Buckner stepped to throw out the first pitch! To a raucous standing ovation, Billy Buck threw the ceremonial first pitch to former teammate Dwight Evans.

For most of the last 20 years, Buckner was the greatest symbol of Calvanistic predestined failure in New England. You know the drill -Game 6 of the ’86 World Series. The heavily favored Mets down 5-3 in the 10th, were one out away (actually twice they were ONE STRIKE AWAY twice in the inning) of losing the Series. But with two outs-Carter singled, Mitchell (who had undressed and was booking flights to San Diego) singled (wearing no cup, no less. Ray Knight flared an R-B-I single, scoring Carter, Mitchell to third. Calvin Schiraldi was lifted for Bob Stanley. With Mookie Wilson at the plate-Stanley uncorked a wild pitch -SHOULD have been a passed ball on catcher Rich Gedman) scoring Mitchell with the tying run. Then, on the most famous play in Mets history, Mookie Wilson’s groundball bounced through Buckner’s legs-Mets win and stay alive, 6-5. Two nights later, the Mets beat the Sox in Game 7.

WATCH VIDEO OF BILL BUCKNER'S STANDING OVATION AND FIRST PITCH AFTER THE JUMP...

To Met and Sox fans alike, Buckner stood as the enduring image of the supposed “Curse of The Bambino.” But lets examine a few things:

For most of the supposed 86 years of the curse, the Sox were a bumbling organization. Tom Yawkey is loved in Boston-in reality, like Leon Hess with the Jets, he was a doddering idiot. Yawkey sacrificed pitching to build an overpriced team based on offense-the long ball and no speed-and nothing else. As racist of any owner of the era, Yawkey and the Sox PASSED on Jackie Robinson before the Brooklyn Dodgers saw Jackie, not signing an African American till 1959. Boston may have been the HUB of the American Revolution, but it sure hasn’t been the most minority friendly town in America. Yawkey’s failure to integrate and bring in Latin and black players was to his disgrace and the fall of his club.

As to ’86 itself:

Schiraldi, Gedman and Stanley share in the blame. The Sox were after all, one strike away from ending at that time, 68 years of frustration. Buckner didn’t allow 3 straight hits and a wild pitch/passed ball. Manager John McNamara knew that Billy Buck had the bad wheels-why not remove him for defense?

Remember too-there was still Game 7-the Sox had a 3-nothing lead and Bruce Hurst, their best postseason hurler on the mound. He and Schiraldi blew a 3-nothing lead.

But Buckner for years was persona-non-grata-moving to IDAHO at one point because of the taunts he suffered. While it’s nice for the current organization to extend an olive branch, it was a little too late.

To Buckner’s credit-in an emotional press conference, he admitted he almost didn’t show up, but was glad he did. He admitted he has struggled to forgive the media that lambasted him for years, and that he really believed that Sox team could have, and should have won.

Hopefully, the citizens of Boston will learn from the character and grace demonstrated by a man who was a big part of their ’86 season. (102 R-B-I in constant pain) Buckner has been far more courteous to them than you could ask from the average person. He demonstrates the power of forgiveness-something that the Sox faithful took a long time to learn.