Red sox Get Their Rings-- Spring Has Sprung

The only thing better than Opening Day is the home opener at Fenway Park if the Red Sox kick off their season on the road. And today was that day, with comfortable temperatures throughout the region the Red Sox took to the Fenway infield this afternoon to receive their 2007 World Series rings.

I had to come back to Worcester early today in order to attend a creditors meeting regarding HE&PG LLC, Brett Levy and the University Park Lofts. Because of this I left work in Canton at noon, by the time I hit the Mass Pike tolls in Auburn I flipped the station from Howard 100 over to WEEI and what do I hear? Bill Buckner throwing out the first pitch. Unless you have been reading this blog from the start (and few of you have, if any) or delve deep in my archives you would not be aware of the fact that I got into an altercation with Bill Buckner in Pawtucket back in 1993 when I was 18. It was pretty much directly after this altercation that Buckner declared that he was moving away from New England to Idaho.

I copied and pasted a couple articles from when the incidents happened into a post back in 2005, I've included the link below.

Since I was an impetus in Bill Buckner leaving New England I will say this.

I respect his accomplishments on the baseball field over the course of his 20 year career. However the emotion of the loss in game 6 of the 1986 World Series had a long and lasting impression on me. I was 12 years old at the time and I feel that game and that series was my induction to "Red Sox Nation" and "the fellowship of the miserable". Without that heart wrenching loss a whole generation of late 20 and early 30 somethings would not have had the true Red Sox experience. Something that I could share with my parents as well as my grandparents. The shared experience of Red Sox losses and perpetual futility was something that bonded my family closer and I'm sure many others throughout New England.

Bill Buckner, Bucky Dent, Aaron Boone and all the rest just made the Championships of 2004 and 2007 all that much sweeter. We know that the kids of this generation will never know the heartbreak that many of us endured, even if we did have the Celtics in the 80's. In the 200's we are lucky enough to live in a region that has been laden with championship hardware and that trend looks as if it will continue. I'm certainly not gonna complain. But I'm not going to back down and blame 1986 on Calvin Schiraldi, Bob Stanley or John MacNamara. Baseball is a game of plays and Buckner did not make the play when it counted. Great career, bad play. But Bill Buckner you are forgiven as you made these past two championships all that much sweeter.


Previous Buckner Post with articles

Red Sox World Series Trophies @ DCU Center

Here is the information on the DCU website regarding the appearance of the World Series trophies at the DCU Center on Sunday. I will freely admit that that I will be showing up down there like a modern day baseball nerd in order to get my picture taken for all of posterity with the trophies!!!

RED SOX TO VISIT WORCESTER, MA WITH 2004 AND 2007 WORLD SERIES TROPHIES
11:00AM-3:30PM

The Boston Red Sox will visit Worcester with the 2004 and 2007 World Series Trophies for a public viewing. After the World Series victory in 2004, the Red Sox shared the triumph with their fan base by taking the World Championship Trophy to different cities and towns throughout Red Sox Nation. The team continues the tradition after the win in 2007, bringing the two trophies to the DCU Center on Sunday, March 30th!

The viewing will take place in the Showcase Corner of the Convention Center. Fans should enter Door #1 of the facility.

Also joining the festivities will be Worcester's Sports Mascots including Finz from the Worcester Sharks, Surgeo from the New England Surge and Twister from the Worcester Tornadoes!

Boston Red Sox 2007 World Series Champs!!!

Wow. Two World Series championships in three years. Both World Series sweeps. My how the tides have turned. This team turned it on in the playoffs and the maligned players of the regular season like Drew and Lugo came up with monster post seasons so their mediocre regular seasons are forgiven.

This team is lined up so nice for the future. Here's to hoping that they can sign World Series MVP Mike Lowell and keep pretty much all of this team intact.

Way to go Red Sox!!!

Fall In New England

Nothing better than a sign rooting on the Red Sox that is accompanied by dried corn stalks and bright yellow and orange fallen leaves. The corn and the leaves are a sure sign that we are well into October which would seem to mean the Sox are deep into the playoffs.

As I type Eric Gagne is pitching some mop up duty in the 9th inning of game one in which the Sox batters have been patient and pummeled the Rockies pitching to the tune of 13-1. After tonight's game Sox fans can feel good going into tomorrow nights game throwing Curt Schilling against the rookie Ubaldo Jimenez. If the bats can stay half as hot as they were tonight the Sox will be a buzzsaw ripping thru the World Series. Just got a clean inning from Gagne and the Sox win game one.

World Series Prediction

I won't get home from work tomorrow until shortly after game one of The World Series has already started so I figured I better get my prediction out there and timestamped now.

Sox in 6.

That means they win the World Series at home in front of the Fenway faithful. I'll be sitting, standing and pacing around the house biting my fingernails for the duration, but as I sit here right now I have a plenty good feeling that the Sox can pull thru in 6. Not to say that the wheels can't fall off the wagon and the whole thing goes to shit, because we have certainly been there and done that in the past!

It's a shame that injury has forced the Sox elder statesman Tim Wakefield out of the World Series lineup, and interesting to see that Theo's flop acquisition of Eric Gagne did make it onto the World Series roster. Now let's see if Tito ever has the stones to use him in the series. And if he does let's all hope that he can step up when it counts and wash away all the missteps that he has gone thru the past two months.

Let the Fall Classic begin.

Crying on the living room floor 20 years ago today

While surfing the internet towards the end of my workday today it came to my attention that tonight was the 20 year anniversary of the ball going thru Bill Buckner's legs. Bill Buckner, the most famous guy I've ever been in a physical confrontation with... But more on that in a few.

No my memory isn't that great these days, for most of that I blame the late 90's, but I will admit that this is a rare moment of early adolesence that I can recall. I was a tender 11 years old and a huge Red Sox fan. My parents were in the middle of some major renovations on the hhouse I grew up in, the roof was pretty much torn off the house as they were raising it/putting on an addition. At that point the upstairs was pretty much unihabitable and the cold October night was separated from the house by some industrial grade tarp. But the temperature was about to get much colder as the game at Shea progressed.

I know that over the past 20 years there have been plenty of buckner apologists. Buckner had a great season up until that fateful night, the fact that Mcnamara left Buckner in the game, Stanley's wild pitch or Gedman's past ball, whichever you choose. But it was plain and simple in my eyes at the age of 11 and it remains just as simple to me today. Routine grounder to 1st, scoop it, step on the bag, jump up and down, Red Sox are World Champs. But it was not to be. So I sat on a fold out bed in a house that was in process of being torn apart and could not believe what I saw unfold before my eyes.

So with that said I guess it was for New Englanders everywhere when I got into a confrontation with Buckner outside of McCoy Stadium. So with today being the 20th anniversary of the game I was mentioned indirectly in an article by Ben Houser today on espn.com and on Sunday evening there is a special "Outide The Lines" edition about Game 6. So I will have to keep my eyes out for that Sunday evening.

I've snipped the 2 paragraphs below from today's espn article. The 18 year old fan being referenced is I. Buckner should get his facts straight regarding the incident as he says he was "coaching for the Red Sox in Pawtucket", in fact at the time he was a hitting instructor for the Syracuse Sky Chiefs and had no affiliation with the Red Sox. And He is right, he did not "punch me out", but he certainly did "grab me by my neck" and proceeded to attempt choke me out in front of a crowd of 50 while giving me a verbal beating!

Taken from espn.com (link below)
What happened? The wrath of Boston fans happened. On a day of celebration for our country, July 4, 1993, Buckner wasn't celebrating. Instead, the then-43-year-old Buckner had a confrontation with an 18-year-old fan, who knew Buckner only as the man who ruined the Red Sox fortunes in '86.

"People would make derogatory comments, and that bothered me," Buckner said. "I was coaching for the Red Sox in Pawtucket. I am signing autographs for all the kids. Then somebody came up to me and made an obnoxious, rude comment. I think it is a combination of being around the Red Sox ... [and] their affiliate ballpark, and just kind of a combination just [set] me off. I got pissed, grabbed the guy around the neck, wanted to punch him out, but I didn't. Thank God for that."

So I have posted below a couple of the articles about my Buckner "incident" a while back, see the links below. (Note: I did replace my real name with "4rilla".


Today's espn article
Previous Buckner post w/ articles
Recently Revealed Double Curse
Today's Boston Globe Article
Todays's Boston Dirt Dogs