Big World Series OOPS

It's 1986 and the Mets are losing the World Series to the Boston Red Sox. It's game 6, everything looked good for the Boston Red Sox. Roger Clemens pitched an amazing game. The Mets never had the lead in the game. The infamous Curse of the Bambino would be broken. It would end an almost 60 year drought. 

Then Clemens came out of the game. He pitched an amazing game and now it was left to the closing pitchers to end the game. Players were switched. Mets got on base. The Mets tied the game. The game went to 11 innings and before midnight that night, the Mets had won a game they were losing most of the night. 

The Mets had the momentum and won game 7 and the World Series that year. 

Boston Red Sox fans were outraged. They had the victory and lost it all. How?

Fans blamed one player. Bill Buckner. 

Who was Bill Buckner?

Bill Buckner was born in December 14, 1949. He made his major league debut with the Dodgers on September 21, 1969. During a career that would end on May 30, 1990, he had 2700 hits. He played for The Cubs, The Dodgers, Red Sox, Royals and Angels.

In 1986, Buckner had a .267 average and 18 home runs. At some point in the season he had ankle issues. Even with ankle issues, he continued to be a big part of the team.  

While I said that Buckner took the heat for the Red Sox loss, there were other issues that were in play before Buckner was sent out to relieve another player. The pitcher, Calvin Schardi gave up two singles in that inning. There was a wild pitch by Bob Stanley that advanced Mets players that were on base. The score was tied when a ground ball was hit to Buckner. Buckner misjudged it and the ball rolled through his legs. This allowed a Met run to score. 

In spite of those other facts, Boston fans blamed Buckner to the point that he was traded the following season. 

Time and patience has allowed baseball fans to see that the Mets win in 1986 was not Bill Buckner’s fault. Baseball is a team and the Red Sox team made mistakes before Buckner took the field that day. He would come back in 1990 to cheers from fans. 

Today Bill Buckner is in real estate.

This information came from Wikipedia and Baseball-Reference.com