it's October 25th 1986 Queens New York
bottom of the 10th Game six of the World
Series between the Boston Red Sox and
the New York Mets the Mets have rallied
from a two-run deficit to tie the game
and the potential winning run stands on
second base but the Red Sox just need
one strike to stop them in their tracks
and prolong their chance of taking the
championship home tonight these guys on
the field they don't know what's about
to happen but you might and you might
know that it's one of the most
heartbreaking moments for a team that's
had nearly three-quarters of a century
full of them but how did we get here
what were the circumstances that created
this moment where one mistake could loom
so large and become not just a blemish
but for some another piece of evidence
pointing to the existence of a so-called
curse let's rewind it is very hard to
overstate how much tension is packed
into this moment for the Boston Red Sox
the Red Sox I don't know if you know
this nobody talks about it once had a
long period of difficulty even getting
to the World Series let alone winning it
and the Red Sox came into the 86 season
with critics doubting they'd even crack
third place something they hadn't done
since 78 to say nothing of taking the
pennant last season under new skipper
John McNamara they finished in 5th place
in the AL East 18 and a half games
behind Toronto but the Sox have been
spending the last few years building a
core of powerful players they brought up
new talent like Wade Boggs Bruce Hurst
Marty Barrett and a hot young pitcher
named Roger Clemens and this season
alongside veterans like Jim Rice and
Dwight Evans they've clicked after a
rough start in April that saw them at
one point in dead last the Sox rallied
to finish May with a lead in the AL East
that they never relinquished they played
an emotional ALCS coming back from three
to one which included a miraculous game
5 performance by Dave Henderson whose
two-run homer in the ninth with two outs
and two strikes
saved the Red Sox from the brink of
elimination they came into this world
series ready to prove the haters and the
losers wrong and the 86 Mets came into
this world series as well the 86 Mets
teeth nails doc straw Mookie the kid a
metric ton of booze and speed
the top spot in the National League and
a bunch of offensive categories and
third and home runs the top record of
baseball that year with a franchise best
108 wins and lest we forget one of the
most remarkable hip hop hits of the 80s
[Music]
they recorded this in April by the way
with a record of 1 & 0
the 86 Mets have been a bunch of rowdy
cocky troublemakers with the dominance
to back it up but attitude and partying
aside they actually have some things in
common with the Red Sox they too have
just come out of a dramatic Championship
Series with a chip on their shoulder
they too have just spent half a decade
rebuilding that included a trade between
these two teams
just this past offseason that swapped
pitchers Bobby Ojeda and Calvin
Schiraldi in fact although they're in
different leagues these teams even got
to play each other once this season in a
charity exhibition game on September 4th
at Fenway the Mets won that game 7 to 3
a game in which Red Sox first baseman
Bill Buckner led a ground ball slipped
right under his glove at first base
between his legs and into right field
huh
anyway the Mets came into the Fall
Classic on fire and the fact that they
were favored to win out over Boston has
turned up the heat even more for the Sox
but the fact that it's so close right
now tied in extra innings in Game six
with two outs a 3-2 count and a runner
in scoring position is a reflection on
how these two teams have played this
season and particularly how this series
has gone thus far
Boston took Game one in a shutout at
Shea
thanks to her sand Schiraldi but scored
only one run off an error in the seventh
from Mets second baseman Tim Tuffle
Boston's offense help secure a
commanding victory in Game two but a
leadoff homer in Fenway from Lenny
Dykstra gave the Mets and edge they'd
hold on to for all of Game three and in
Game four Red Sox pitcher al nipper just
got picked apart in Game five more
heroics from Dave Henderson and Hurst
gave the Sox the win and brought them
back to New York one went away from
their first championship in 68 years so
these two teams have had dramatic swings
all postseason
and tonight's game is no different
particularly when it comes to the
pitching the Mets started Bob Ojeda for
Game six a left-handed pitcher they
picked up in that offseason swapped for
Calvin Schiraldi though he didn't play
great for Boston he fit right in with
the Mets and had a great season he
pitched well in Game three but struggled
a bit tonight in the beginning of Game
six allowing a run in each of the first
two innings putting the Mets in an early
to nothin hole the Red Sox started Roger
Clemens Clemens came into the 86 season
as a bit of a question mark having had
surgery on his shoulder in the offseason
Clemens answered all questions in April
when he made history by striking out 20
batters in one game he followed up with
an MVP caliber season and as part of the
reason Boston is in the World Series to
begin with tonight he's mostly kept the
Mets at bay
holding them scoreless through the first
four innings before giving up two runs
in the bottom of the fifth and then
pitching shutout innings in the sixth
and seventh but going into the 8th
skipper John McNamara pulled him and
called out Calvin Schiraldi from the
bullpen Weiss it your star pitcher who's
still rolling after seven strong innings
maybe it was intuition or maybe Clemens
asked to be taken out of the game in any
case McNamara is confident in his closer
Schiraldi has proven himself a pretty
solid relief pitcher for the Sox this
season and Boston had a 3-2 lead going
into the 8th Schiraldi however had
trouble against his former teammates as
soon as he stepped up to the mound after
a single to Lee Mazzilli and a bunt from
Lenny Dykstra the Schiraldi failed to
convert into an out Gary Carter hit a
sacrifice fly to bring in Mazzilli and
tie the game at 3
fortunately for Schiraldi and for Boston
following a scoreless ninth yet another
miracle homer from Dave Henderson and an
RBI single for Marty Barrett would bring
the Red Sox lead back to 5-3 Schiraldi
came back to the mound needing just
three outs to end it once and for all
and for a moment he looked like he would
do just that
getting flyball outs from Wally Backman
and Keith Hernandez but then with one
out between him and history disaster a
single from Gary Carter another single
from Kevin Mitchell and then a line
drive from Ray Knight to right-center
that scored Carter and
Sint Mitchell the tying run to third
base McNamara trying to stem the
bleeding called the red sock of ten
years Bob Stanley to the mound to face
the batter who now stands at the plate
Mookie Wilson
but first Bob Stanley had to contend
with a greater foil himself after six
pitches Stanley got the count to 2-2 the
Sox are again one strike away from
victory on his seventh pitch of this
at-bat
Stanley threw a wild one way inside
sending his catcher to the backstop to
retrieve it at allowing Mitchell to
score tying the game and moving Ray
Knight the winning run to second and now
suddenly all the Mets need is Mookie
Wilson to bring him home and it's kind
of a miracle Mookie Wilson is standing
at the plate right now in March during a
preseason drill Mookie suffered a pretty
severe eye injury when he took an errant
ball to the face that shattered his
sunglasses and very nearly blinded him
[Music]
luckily Mookie a Mets fan favorite was
able to recover and was back in the
starting lineup by May good thing too
he's one of the Mets best batters and
one of the fastest guys in the league
something that Buckner at first base is
well aware of he knows he'll have to
hustle to beat Wilson to the bag if it
comes to ok let's talk about this guy at
first this Bill Buckner going into
Saturday there were questions as to
whether or not he should even be in the
game but not because of his fielding
here's something that might surprise you
Bill Buckner is a good baseball player
in fact he's a borderline hall-of-famer
he's a veteran workhorse a certified
slugger
a former NL batting champion and
all-star who has a history of coming
through in the clutch but Buckner is
banged up badly he's got famously bad
knees and ankles and in 1975 suffered an
Achilles injury that's been plaguing him
for over a decade just a few weeks ago
in Game seven of the ALCS
Buckner hurt himself so badly he thought
he had snapped his tendon now in the
final games of this world series he's an
agony he spends hours after games Ising
himself he's had nine cortisone shots
this season alone and x-rays have shown
that one ankle is basically bone against
bone
so going into Saturday's game some
wondered if it was worth it for John
McNamara to start a first baseman with
mobility problems especially given the
fact that this postseason he hasn't been
at his best at least defensively why not
sub in defensive replacement Dave
Stapleton which he's done late in games
plenty of times all season because
simply put there was pretty much no way
Bill Buckner was going to sit in the
Boston dugout at 36 years old and
watched the rest of his team do
something the city of Boston has been
waiting almost seven decades to see and
so John McNamara has decided that as
long as he's still hobbling at a hundred
percent I'll play him and not for
nothing but by the time we get to this
pitch button has already had kind of a
weird night right after the very first
pitch that Buckner saw tonight a man
literally fell out of the sky right in
front of him wearing a parachute and a
giant go Mets banner I'm not sure you
could call that an omen for what's to
come but you could definitely call it
some weird then just half an inning
earlier in the top of the 10th he was
hit by this pitch from Rick Aguilera
he's hurt he's been dinged and he's
probably still a little shaken and
having a man appear out of thin air
right next to him but he's still there
on first base and so here we are the
Mets are looking to capitalize on an
impossible last-minute comeback and
force a game 7 in what has already been
a wild world series and the Red Sox are
one strike away from an 11th inning and
another chance at going home tonight
with their first championship in a
general
welcome to a moment in history little
roller up along first behind
[Applause]
thanks for watching there's a lot of
other cool tidbits about this moment
that I couldn't fit into this video so
if you want to talk about them go ahead
and do it in the comments below you can
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