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AJ McKenzie
  • 1 day ago
Scapegoating, anyone?
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Transcript
00:11the red sox came about as close as they can come and the closer you get the bigger the fall
00:16when
00:17you don't get there i was there in 86 one pitch away one strike away why is he saying i
00:24glance
00:25up to the scoreboard and i see congratulations to the 1986 world champion boston red sox
00:32first time since 1918 i'm almost in tears i'm just excited you know this is great i was feeling it
00:39digging myself and we were digging ourselves we're all concentrating getting that last out
00:45it was a saturday night it was daylight savings time i mean people were partying everybody
00:50remembers where they were what they were doing we were sitting in this bar here in new york
00:54we buy all the champagne tell them to open it all up so that even if we don't end up
00:58drinking at all
00:59nobody else is going to have any because it's going to be flat by the time we're done
01:02people had champagne when the nurses were preparing to celebrate with everybody when they woke them up
01:09for the medicine banners were hanging everywhere i mean it was such a thing of pride for us to
01:15finally win the world series i opened the windows to my apartment because when the celtics
01:25won a championship it heard the eruption around town over the rooftops and i thought this is going
01:31to be real interesting i want to hear that when you leave a game in control and turn it over
01:36to
01:36the bullpen you just hope that they can get it done sometimes sometimes they get it done sometimes
01:40they don't having written an entire column on the red sox winning the world series it's a few
01:47minutes before midnight ready to press the button to send this column off all they need is to put in
01:51the final score all of a sudden i get bear hugged from behind and it's oil can boy and i
01:57said to him i
01:58i don't know where you've been sitting but get your butt back there and sit down i said we still
02:03have one out to go
02:05they had john mcnamara was smart
02:08loop single and no big deal you know we're up by two runs and then two outs two strikes on
02:13the next
02:14end and another hit and same thing the third time
02:24the game's tied and uh you know they're just rallying back
02:29i hit the ball um down the first base side um very slowly and a ground ball prickling it is
02:38a
02:38fair ball it was probably a round ball i caught it many times
02:43but bill buckner was aging and he was injured
02:49there was a discernible
02:53that went on across the town for about 15 seconds it was agony it was visceral it was
03:01uncontrollable you are next on whdh eddie the pain but i'm still shaking nightmare of nightmare
03:07this is maybe physically ill it meant something to all of new england that is very very hard to
03:13explain unless you've experienced it the buckner era is the sports equivalent of the kennedy assassination
03:19and you're on next on whdh
03:21eddie this is it they ripped out my soul tonight eddie and i haven't got any more to give
03:26it was different than it would have been in any other city and with any other franchise
03:31people took that personally in a way that no other set of fans in america could
03:35eddie i've just got that sinking feeling it feels like something died inside of me
03:40it's probably the darkest day in boston baseball history
03:45incredible
03:49friend of mine after game six gets pulled over at a sobriety checkpoint on storo drive the officer
03:53says are you sober he says officer i've just had the most sobering experience of my life
03:58the cop goes oh you saw the game huh you have john mcnamara the manager sort of being
04:04frozen at the wheel at the critical time this is the loser mindset of of a city that's
04:12you know this is it's just a loser mindset why you would get that down
04:20when there's still a game to be played is ridiculous
04:26he couldn't make the moves that probably needed to be made that he had made all year long and
04:33that probably should have been made then that morning before the game i wrote a column entirely
04:39devoted to the fact that bill buckner should not play that he was playing on courage and i said
04:44this game is going to find him in my mind bill buckner was best fielding first baseman i had
04:51and i had no qualms about uh sending him out there to play first base i can't believe how mcnamara
04:59can do the things he does it doesn't make sense that i'm an irishman too
05:03this is the apocalyptic loss for the red sox it's the one from which until they win one no one
05:09will ever feel safe
05:10it was one of the great comebacks and of course it was one of the great letdowns in world series
05:15history
05:16the comebacks for the mets the letdown for the red sox and for their fans i mean they with good
05:22reason believe they've been cursed ever since babe ruth went from the red sox to the yankees
05:29evidence indicates that they're right the devil has taken a part in their destiny
05:33the bartender came over to me a real wise-ass new york guy and said
05:38still gonna want that champagne boss and i said uh no we don't want the champagne he goes well i
05:44got
05:44the mets fans and they're willing to buy the bottles because they're already open and i said
05:48now pour them down the drain i'm paying for them
06:01i have to really honestly say boston can't blame me anymore for
06:05bucky dent and i hope they take me off the hook after seeing what i saw tonight
06:08before the calamity of 1986 really the year that had lived in infamy for the red sox was 1978
06:15the 1978 pennant race actually ended in a tie and of course it led to the one game playoff
06:22what kind of man is mike torres to to try and take heat off of himself for him throwing a
06:30giving up a home run to a like a 220 something hitter and try to kick buckner when he's down
06:41you throwing a bad pitch is worse than a fielding error
06:48box had blown and that's the correct term a 14 game lead after july 20th
07:01mike torres gave up the home run to bucky dent and that became a lasting
07:08boston negative and as strong as the curse of the bambino is the curse of bucky bleeping dent is just
07:16about the same the greatest rivalry in all of sport is yankees red sox the monogues and the
07:22capitalets but that even went beyond to new york versus boston both immigrant cities 19th century
07:29boston was the commercial and cultural center of the nation and towards the end of the century
07:34new york began to usurp that reputation and in a sense boston has never gotten over it
07:40bostonians have such a fixation of such an inferiority complex about new york
07:44roger angel's great line about new englanders live in calvinistic clouds of self-doubt they
07:49always believe the worst will happen particularly after 86 there's been a certain cachet to adopt
07:56this woe is me i'm a red sox fan attitude in boston they haven't won for so long and
08:03um they're always waiting for something to happen and usually in a negative sense did hear
08:09a couple fans say oh don't worry about it they'll find a way to lose
08:13the wallowing in self-pity in this town is sickening the boston red sox fans have become
08:19as a result of all this the single most narcissistic group of sports fans in america
08:24you can probably say that the boston red sox i say unto you were sports first dynasty they won world
08:33series in 1903 the very first series 1912 1915 16 and in 1918 george herman b rooth was a marvelous
08:42pitcher with the red sox he was 21 years old in 1916 he pitched a 14 inning game winning a
08:482-1
08:48over the brooklyn dodgers he was then a hero of the 1918 world series when he played in boston he
08:55was this child prodigy in a sense his greatness was out on the field everywhere else he was
09:02like a bull in a china shop he was already starting to put on weight he was getting into confidence
09:08he
09:09was showing up at the park hungover none of it affected him i don't care if you put on weight
09:13or not he put on wins to the red sox record that they wouldn't have had if he weren't there
09:22but i think the one man that it did affect was harry frazee who was the
09:29harry frazee is a theatrical man and he needs more money so he can back more shows and get back
09:37in the
09:37game on broadway and suddenly uh down in new york they came up with the cash and said we'll
09:42give you the money if you'll give us babe ruth in exchange for a hundred and ten thousand dollars
09:47roughly babe ruth goes from boston to the new york yankees the yankees went on to win the 26 world
09:55series they had won absolutely zero before harry frazee sold babe ruth to the yankees the red sox who
10:02had won five out of 15 series have won absolutely none since then in their misery red sox fans cast
10:09about for an explanation for their torment and found a certain comfort in the mystical you try to
10:15reach for superstition over science in this case and that's where the curse comes in it's easy to
10:20live with it if you think that there's some sort of devil in the middle of the earth working against
10:24the god for hearing red sox fans if selling babe ruth doesn't put a curse on your franchise
10:29it certainly should
10:35there's a very good reason that the red sox haven't won since 1918
10:39and that's management i see it more as sort of the curse of tom yawkey
10:43yawkey became the owner of the red sox he liked to hire people he was comfortable with
10:48and they were not always the best people guys who played for tom yawkey were white
10:53exclusively there were no black guys on that team for a long long time they had a tryout for jackie
10:59robbins and two other players and in attendance at the tryout were joe cronin the manager and eddie
11:04collins who was the general manager and during that tryout one of those two people yelled out get that
11:12nigger off the field it's interesting that in boston which is a tough town traditionally for black
11:20athletes and fans that the bruins had a hockey player willie o'ree before the boston red sox
11:25it is true that the sox are the very last major league team uh to introduce a black player but
11:32i think
11:32it's a cheap shot saying that the red sox are racist i think that they're rooted in an aptitude not
11:37color
11:37it's the curse of the bambino and the curse of jackie robinson and they're not meant to win the
11:44world series and i don't believe i'll see them win a world series in my lifetime let me look this
11:48guy
11:48let me look at his
11:51his own history though
11:54was littered with things labeled amazing
11:57the 2-1 pitch
11:59there's a fly ball and out to the left waiting is jones
12:02the mix of the world champion
12:05matt collins passed in 2016 so he saw three
12:11boston world series wins
12:14that's good
12:16i felt like i had a part of net history coming into 86 because i made the last out in
12:2269 when i was with
12:2686 season i said that not only we're going to win we're going to dominate and of course new yorkers
12:32love that and everybody else around the world hated it a blend of brash veterans and talented youth
12:37the 1986 mets had the unmistakable look and swagger of a winner
12:43from the start of spring training in 1986 you knew that they were special they've gone through
12:49two tough pennant races in 1984 and 1985 in particular they had doc goodman and daryl
12:55strawberry and ray knight and keith hernandez and gary carter they knew they were good
13:00by 86 everything had gelled and that two or three year introduction to greatness allowed them to carry
13:07themselves in a way that nobody had ever seen before this team tended to be more boastful
13:13it was the beginning of the high fives chest-thumping strutting and parade era
13:19hello again everybody joe piscopo shea stadium the big story
13:24mets 86
13:25the video was kind of what the team was really made of
13:29we had a bunch of characters and we were very carefree
13:34let's go mets was the ben herf sports videos it was the most expensive biggest largest silliest
13:47video production for a sports team ever
13:51i can see where there was a lot of animosity from the other ball clubs i mean you don't do
13:58this
14:00you don't have your own music video and you don't give high fives and do curtain calls after home runs
14:10we were pretty much a bunch of cowboys on that team they said i travel but uh let's just say
14:16there
14:16was a few late nights you see them all over town and uh you see them misbehaving
14:23he earned the right to talk
14:27called me and he was online and said have you any idea where i am i said well it's six
14:31o'clock in the
14:32morning and i said if you're calling me at this hour i'd have to guess you're in the can he
14:36said that's
14:37exactly right
14:40even though you're partying and all that but it wasn't like everybody made out to be was every night
14:44thing or every weekend thing but we're all not church people on the team you know we're nuns or
14:50whatever i mean but you know we had fun they had fun on the field too the mets rocked their
14:56way to 69 wins in their first 101 games why do you guys imagine the cardinals came out and said
15:02we can't catch him they played hard uh uh quite a few of them party hard but the fact was
15:10they were
15:10ready to play when they were ready to play when they were on and now look at this there is
15:14a free life
15:17you would dread playing the match in 86 confidence was not even in vocabulary uh arrogance was written
15:27all over the face people were looking at us like we were kind of bad boys but i think we
15:31were just a
15:32very strong team and i think that kind of worried team still along the line
15:37it was a bit of cockiness there but still at the same time we knew we had something
15:41to prove the pitch on the way ground ball on the right side of the infield
15:45backman has it to hernandez that's win it's over they won 108 regular season games as dizzy dean said
15:53if you can do it it ain't bragging and they could do it in games one and four of the
15:58playoffs
15:59new york faced a former met mike scott that year's national league scion award winner
16:04nasty splitter scott baffled and frustrated his former team i didn't get very many hits off of
16:11mike scott we all knew that he cheated you know and he admits to it today you have guys that
16:17are
16:17huge and corking bats uh stealing signs spitballs here and there i'm sure it happens oh well we'll
16:26never know he did cut his ball because we just we saved the balls come on it was just like
16:31razor blades
16:31are packs all in the same spot and like on the round part of the ball where the seams are
16:37like this the the wide part you cut in right here well you can see that finger that he holds
16:44out
16:44just how long have the astros been cheating in their history
16:49well don't don't let me find out nolan ryan was cheating
16:53he does not have any tape on it tonight so i guess he didn't bring the sandpaper
17:00no you got people thinking there was just so much focus on cheating he's cheating he's cheating
17:06he's doing this to the ball but the fact is they weren't going to do anything about it
17:09so we had to come up with a way to try to combat it and and i don't know that
17:14we would have
17:14if they go to game seven the way mike scott was pitching they wouldn't have beaten
17:18mike scott that year nobody would have beaten mike scott
17:22last inning heroics by lenny dykstra and gary carter propelled the mets to a 3-2 lead in the
17:28series but with scott looming as the game seven starter game six became a must win
17:35you talk about game six of the world series well game six of that league championship series has to
17:41be one of the greatest games played in the history of the game we were down three to nothing in
17:46the
17:46ninth inning to bob nepper who was throwing a three-hit shutout against us and we come back
17:51and we score three runs to tie it how in the world do you stay calm here well you don't
17:56we went extra
17:57innings we had a one-run lead and i said to mel style my mel you know we've got to
18:02remember that
18:02it doesn't get any bitterness this is the greatest time in our lives and about that time hatcher hits
18:09the home run to tie it back up high in the air towards the corner perfect it is
18:16the game turned into a classic careening into the 16th inning the mets seemed to have it scoring
18:23three times but the astros answered with two runs and had two on with two outs jesse is exhausted
18:30he was pale and flush and his eyes realized oh we need something here for comic relief so i said
18:36if you throw another fastball i'm gonna knock you out right here and so uh we basically knew that
18:43i'm gonna have to go to the breaking ball the pitcher on the way swing and a miss swing and
18:48a miss
18:48strikey ball strikey ball mets win it the mets have won it they're in the world series
18:54it's a long flight back from houston everybody got a little bit toasted we had a wild group in the
18:59back they did some damage in the airplane two of the wives threw up it was like animal house at
19:0435 000
19:05feet food fights the mother of all food fights actually and the wives were having just as great
19:10a time as we were it was one of the greatest plane riots i've ever had in my life after
19:15the plane had
19:16landed the mets got a letter demanding ten thousand dollars payment for damage to the aircraft
19:21they passed some food on it and some dead soldiers on it and there might have been a little damage
19:26to
19:26the plane i don't think a whole lot one of the reasons why davy was a legend to his players
19:30is
19:31because he said well you know what if it weren't for us there'd be no world series rip rip rip
19:36tore it
19:37up let the pieces fall off the floor and said let them pay it
19:43let them pay it
19:46the forlorn history of the red sox is littered with one false spring after another
19:51but the spring of 1986 offered signs that this time might be different really the red sox had
19:58pedestrian players in many positions but they did have the rocket roger clemens a stopper which is
20:05something some of the greater red sox teams had not the 1986 season took off that day in april
20:11roger clemens struck out 20. he got caught in traffic there were minutes away from naming another
20:16starter 45 50 minutes went by and i didn't move two card links so i'm starting to panic a little
20:20bit
20:21motorcycle policeman pulled up next to me he goes aren't you on the mountain i go yes and
20:25i'm late and he goes well follow me and uh i busted through the clubhouse door i was
20:30already sweating pretty uh one out there the rest was history as they say
20:42red sox went on to win 95 games and their division and the man who caught the final out in
20:48the clincher
20:49was none other than bill buckner
20:52one of the great things about sport is that you can come so close and yet you're you're still so
20:58far and i think back to the fifth game of the american league championship series in 1986 is the
21:04ultimate example of that in baseball so close yet so far that could serve as the epitaph for former
21:11red sox infielder gene mock who managed the california angels in 1986
21:17everybody talks about the curse of the bambino in boston well gene mock he was cursed himself
21:22he was a great manager he won a lot of games he couldn't quite get the boulder over the top
21:28of
21:28the hill gene mock who saw the 64 pennant slip away in philadelphia with a 10-game losing streak down
21:36the stretch when they had it all but sewn up and now here he is in 86 with a three
21:40-run lead into the
21:42ninth gene mock of course hoping that this will be his day too and then baylor came up with one
21:47out
21:47hits a home run on a ball that i would throw him a hundred out of a hundred times
21:52and i guarantee it a home run he wouldn't even get a hit on probably it was that good of
21:57a pitch
21:57it is five to four angels
22:00dwight evans comes up pops up to third no problem two outs one out away and we're in the world
22:07series
22:08but wit wouldn't get a chance to induce the last out gene mock changed pictures after gary lucas hit a
22:14batter california's fortune was infested to donnie moore it would have been different if donnie moore
22:21would have been healthy but when i saw donnie moore i went oh no and i think everybody on our
22:29team went
22:29oh no because he physically couldn't do what he normally could do
22:42the angels rallied to tie it in the ninth but the red sox were relentless winning in 11 innings
22:48the final out was caught by dave stapleton a late replacement for bill buckner when the red sox win
22:54the game they're still down three games to two they got to go all the way back to fenway park
22:58and play
22:58games six and seven and win both of those games but they do and the pennant slips away from the
23:04angels
23:05on a pitch thrown by donnie moore i hit a home run his job is to be a closer and
23:12you know the home run
23:12really had nothing to do with donnie moore killing himself
23:18what we as baseball fans often forget is that while the the cheers gradually fade away the boos linger forever
23:29you can't beat one strike away from the world series and having everything going and just
23:34i feel like somebody just reached in and grabbed all your guts out of you
23:38you're just empty it hurts when you're that close
23:4510 days later i felt the same pain
23:54as the red sox and mets prepared for game one of the 1986 world series
23:58bill buckner was nagged by an eerie premonition
24:02the dreams are that you're gonna have a great and win and uh the nightmares are that you're gonna
24:10let the winning run uh score on a ground ball through your legs so you know those things happen
24:16you know and just uh i think a lot of it is just fate the red sox roared into shea
24:24stadium and roared
24:25back to boston with a two games to none lead and for a change red sox nation could turn to
24:31history as
24:32an ally only one team had ever won the world series after losing the first two games at home
24:38and then davy made the great move of his managing career off day in boston he said no workout just
24:45relax stay away from the park we're a great team we don't have to practice we've been playing all year
24:50long with the best team in the national league let's just get some rest we got ripped for all
24:54the arrogant mets they're so good they're down two love they got to win two out of three in boston
24:59and they're not working out i think boston was really mad at this but it worked out okay next
25:05day and then he let off with a home run high drive down the right field line
25:13he hits his home run and there was an explosion
25:16instant attitude change i remember he had the lines across the paper oil can boy said i can beat
25:23the mets well we're down four to nothing after the first inning and i could have choked him for
25:28you know let a sleeping dog lie
25:34we're gonna come back we're gonna win this game we're gonna win the next game
25:37and sure enough that's exactly what happened
25:39delivery connor hits it high and deep say goodbye
25:42hover on out into the street of lands down in boston batter put it out over everything
25:50but the red sox reversed the momentum winning game five behind bruce hurst's complete game performance
25:57so boston went back to new york with the lead and fortified with the knowledge they send their 24-game
26:03winner to the mound in game six roger clemens a lot of people forget a no hitter for three innings
26:09and was absolutely foreign gas
26:14as a power pitcher with the little coolness in the air that time in october you know you think
26:18that you can not only ride your emotions and adrenaline but hopefully pitch deep into the game
26:27there's always been the controversy which has never been answered clemens has always said he
26:30wanted to continue mcnamara has always said that clemens actually asked out he came off the mound
26:36at the end of the seventh inning and said that's all i can pitch and he had the start of
26:42a envelope
26:43tear i call it on the middle finger of his right hand you want to stay out there you know
26:48go deeper
26:49in the game but you get pitch hit for how does this call back it seems like in that point
26:53in time roger
26:55could have went back out there i think but i think mac decided against it you know what do you
26:59do
26:59guy tell us you that's it i wasn't going to force him to go back out so roger goes seven
27:05innings and
27:06goes out winning three two i've never asked to come out of a game i mean i'm gonna i'll pitch
27:11till
27:11till all my fingers are bleeding i don't know why it was the truth in 1986 and it's the truth
27:18sitting
27:18here today i don't believe a word mcnamara says i believe roger clemens you're talking about a
27:25competitor you can't tell me over a silly little blister roger would want out if i was mcnamara
27:30i'd have gone on the mound and said look at tex finish the game he got all-winner to rest
27:37is now asked to get the last six outs of the world series
27:42the mets immediately pounced on shiraldi and gary carter's sack fly tied it at three the game went
27:49into the 10th and once again dave henderson delivered the high drama and a drive to left
27:55going back on it is mookie wilson and this one is wrong henderson has done it again when marty
28:04barrett's single widened boston's lead to 5-3 it seemed the curse that had endured for 68 years
28:10was about to be exercised the red sox have never been what you call a lucky team
28:16we've been a world series but we've never won one maybe our time is due
28:25ahead by two runs and needing only three outs the red sox at last were poised to purge their ghosts
28:32they sent me down into the clubhouse in the bottom half of the 10th inning in anticipation
28:37of the first ever post-game broadcast of a red sox world series win because after all in 1918
28:43they weren't even on the radio let alone on television the commissioner was going to
28:48present the world series trophy they had already put up the plastic over the lockers and i distinctly
28:55remember the camps that said boston red sox 1986 world series champions calvin giraldi quickly got the
29:04first two outs i'm saying nan nan nan nan all that to the fans out there of course we had
29:13two outs and
29:14hey i can see we're going to be world champions
29:18i stormed up into the clubhouse and uh i put in my glove and and had into my locker and
29:26then popped the
29:31wiser i mean when you're down with one strike to go nobody's on base down a couple runs it was
29:38over
29:44i guarantee you there was a lot of people that were heading to those turnstiles
29:48i just can't play with a great deal of confidence because there was kind of a scared look in his
29:54eyes
29:55that's a crock of um no i fell behind two and oh so i just laid one down the middle
30:03because even
30:04if he hits the home run we're still ahead line into left field base hit for carter and the mets
30:09are
30:10still alive gary carter gets space yet so i congratulate him and he tells me i'm not gonna
30:15make the last blankety blank out in this world series then it was kevin mitchell's turn kevin was
30:21in the clubhouse half undressed he said mitchell's in there having a beer you know i already thought
30:26we were lost it's a big old fairy tale going around that i was inside not dressed
30:37kevin mitchell comes down to first base and i swear to you the same thing he says i'm not going
30:41to make
30:42the last out in this blankety black world series the next battle ray knight who had the chance to
30:47atone for his seventh inning error that led to 3-2 i would have been to bill butner of the
30:53world
30:53series had we lost i mean i have no question about it i went down to that dugout after that
30:58inning and i sat down actually prayed dear lord this is a game of redeeming features just give me a
31:04chance to redeem myself and that's going to be a hit into center field he's hit here comes part of
31:11the score and the time run is at third in kevin mitchell i'm thinking gosh you know this thing ain't
31:18over yet then john mclemira made the change and he brought in bob stanley i really felt kind of
31:23confident when the six-pack came in out of the bullpen protecting a one-run lead stanley went right
31:29after a desperate but resolute mookie wilson out of the way two and two i was protecting anything
31:36you know three inches on either side of the plate i would get a chance to do anything crazy
31:43i remember going in putting on a dry shirt and getting back to the dugout to watch
31:47you know what was going to happen and they throw maybe one foot outside where he couldn't reach it
32:03you can blame me you can blame getman it's the same outcome we the game is tied but getty did
32:08call
32:09for a fastball inside and when i went to throw it he went outside so he kind of got a
32:13little mix up
32:13and the ball went to the back stuff i said gosh almighty isn't it amazing we are a team of
32:18destiny
32:19all games tied when i got to the plate we were losing i'm in a dialysis
32:26i can't be the gold now
32:33little roller up along first behind the bag it gets through
32:49i see the ball trickling out in the right field and you know in amazement i touched my hair i
32:54just
32:55felt like i was on some kind of magic carpet going in there it's just dribbling down line i'm like
33:00no
33:00oh god and then he missed it you turn around and start to go after the ball and you realize
33:08this
33:08game's over it was just one of those things i mean the ball dismissed my glove when it happens
33:14you can't believe that it did or maybe you were dreaming you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish
33:22to game six of the 1986 world series mookie was going to beat him out but the problem was
33:30buckler looked up to see whether the pitcher was covering then he tried to rush himself too much
33:37the pitcher was a little late moving off the mound so now i'm saying it's a footer to me
33:46i was a big guy but i could always get over the first when i saw it go through his
33:50legs i stopped and
33:52turned around and walked off the field
33:57i thought it was a moment of tragedy this really great wounded warrior who put himself out there
34:06thought he was sacrificing the team playing her and couldn't make this one play i get on the elevator
34:13and there's bart jamahti the new president of the national league lifelong red sox fan first thing he says
34:18is that effing mcnamara why did he leave buckner in bill buckner shouldn't have been on the field
34:24then we all knew that he had the bat achilles dave stapleton was the guy that always came in and
34:30played defense late in the games they won seven postseason games that year and stapleton was at
34:35first base at the end of all seven nothing against stapleton but uh you know overall i was better
34:42persuasion than he was i'm not going to knock dave stapleton but uh buckner was better and we'll leave
34:51it at that i understood that mcnamara wanted buckner to be on the field when they won he deserved to
34:58be
34:58out there he deserved to be out there jumping up and down if we wanted you managed with your head
35:03not your heart sentimentality had nothing to do with bill buckner staying in that ball game john
35:09mcnamara great compassion man great manager the most fair man he believed in bill buckner and he
35:16was the one that really got it right boston fans they'll never believe that
35:25somehow they got all the cameras out of there got the championship trophy out managed to take mrs
35:30yorky out every last bit of evidence that everything was in place waiting for these guys to celebrate
35:35was removed by the time they came ashen face down that uh tunnel and back toward the clubhouse with
35:41the whole thing having slipped through their hands everybody's speechless and with everybody numb
35:55that monday before game seven people are walking around zombies as if they were survivors of a plane crash
36:03out in some cornfield totally disoriented and in shock swept up by momentum and playing with
36:11brimming confidence the mets turned the deciding game into a fait accompli sure enough knight and
36:17darryl strawberry clubbed home runs as the mets overcame an early three nothing deficit boston loses game
36:23seven no matter what they were five they blew a three nothing lead in game seven
36:29how was that on buckner my friends ahead until the last out i was on death when the world series
36:35is over
36:35and i pictured myself going up and hitting the homeowner tired of the game
36:43and i came back up and i thought i said money
37:10Thank you guys for giving credit, because it's tough in Boston to get credit.
37:25You saw the players crying.
37:29I was crying.
37:31My family was crying.
37:33The whole feeling was that New England was crying because of that loss.
37:38Everybody dreams about being, you know, the star of the World Series, and it just didn't happen.
37:49He's just a lifelong Red Sox fan, part-time mountain climber.
37:532001, I met a Tibetan holy man, a llama, with extremely big powers, and I explained to him about breaking
38:02the curse of the Bambino.
38:03Mr. Lama came in, gave a blessing for the gear, and said, well, good to go.
38:08I climbed Everest, placed a cap on the summit.
38:11I pinned it down with the American flag so it wouldn't go anywhere.
38:14Two days later, I came down to base camp, lit the Yankees cap on fire in the Pooja fireplaces, offering
38:20to the gods.
38:21I was told that if this doesn't work, take Bill Buckner and put him on the summit.
38:27Can you imagine being Bill Buckner to live a lifetime with that hanging over your head and everywhere you go,
38:35people reminding you of it?
38:37Buckner walked into a bar, and there was some kind of fruit on the bar, an orange or something, some
38:43jerk rolled, whatever it was, down the bar floor at him and said, see if you can catch this.
38:47It's very unfair to him.
38:49We all make mistakes, but that was a mistake that will haunt him the rest of his life.
38:53Bill Buckner's career was a very nearly Hall of Fame quality.
38:58Close to 3,000 hits, won a batting title, a tough, courageous player, a winning player, and no matter what,
39:08when people say Bill Buckner, it's the ball going through his legs.
39:10There's players that are better than me that, you know, most people don't even know who they are.
39:17People know who I am.
39:18And I'm sure, no matter how stoic he is about it, that that pains him and it pains his family
39:23to the point where he moved his family to Idaho.
39:25He got out of here, you know, and who can blame him?
39:28It is a non-negotiable tenet that the 1986 World Series was lost, not won, and that it was the
39:37single most excruciatingly painful loss in the recorded history of American team sport.
39:42That's the viewpoint in Boston that it will never change.
39:47While the Red Sox had grown accustomed to their dealings, Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were just beginning to encounter
39:54their own.
39:55The decline of Dr. K and Straw precipitated the fall of the Mets.
40:02We'll always remember this great 80s-16, but the 80s Mets will always be remembered as underachievers.
40:08To begin with, an 87 Dwight started the year suspended for the first two months.
40:15Um, for, uh, drug abuse.
40:17You're having success on the field, even though you're partying off the field, and you're just, it's hand in hand.
40:22So at that time, we just thought it was a thing to do.
40:24I said, Darryl, a high-ranking official in Major League Baseball told me that we had a young black superstar
40:30that was doing a lot of things.
40:32I said, I don't have any idea of what he's talking about.
40:34He said, it's Doc.
40:35Immediately, he says, it's Doc.
40:37Now, look Darryl straight in the eye.
40:38He could look you in the eye and lie.
40:40He lied to everybody.
40:41He lied to his teammates, he lied to Davey, he lied to his family.
40:45It's all done to protect and to expedite the addiction.
40:52Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry certainly added the tragic ingredients to what would have been prolific, marvelous careers because of
41:01their bouts with drugs.
41:03These were two of the most phenomenal talents to come into the game in the history of baseball.
41:08A history.
41:10Human tragedy offers perspective to the misfortune of a ground ball gone awry.
41:15I was on the mountain in 1986 praying to God that I'd be a hero.
41:19Well, God didn't answer my prayer that day, but in 1990, January 19th, it was my son's ninth birthday.
41:26He was diagnosed with a tumor in his sinus area.
41:29And I just prayed to God that, you know, he would cure my son and give him back to us.
41:34And he did.
41:36So I would say you could take that 86 World Series and throw it right out the window.
41:40I have my health of my son and that's the most important thing.
41:45My daughter had two little boys and she and her husband were having trouble.
41:51And the day came when she was going to leave him.
41:54And he came over and she gave him the news and he got a gun out.
41:58And he shot the two little boys in the back of the head and put the gun under his chin
42:03and pulled the trigger.
42:04When it hits that close to home, a lot of things fall into their perspective.
42:13That was completely out of my field.
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