It’s all crap. Garbage. Hogwash.
In 1990, Bill Buckner made his triumphant return to Boston. This was four short years after the 1986 World Series, when old wounds were still fresh on Red Sox fans’ minds.
So, given the way things have been portrayed, we must have booed him off the field, destroyed his confidence, eaten his first born, and banished him to Canada. After all, we’re the awful Red Sox fans who blamed our cursed baseball team on his bad fielding, right?
As a matter of fact, Buckner received a five-minute standing ovation on Opening Day. Five minutes. Not a mixed reaction, not a smattering of boos—an overwhelming standing ovation.
Bygones were bygones, we all sang kumbaya, and we all loved each other again.
People love to pretend that never happened. They love to demonize the evil Boston sports fans who turned a pretty decent baseball player into a sympathetic punchline. Bringing him back reminds the rest of the world how ridiculous Red Sox fans are—even though the Red Sox fans have absolutely nothing to do with how he’s been portrayed.
It’s ESPN, who shows the highlight every time a team chokes in the playoffs. It’s Dan Shaughnessy, who should have paid Buckner a percentage of every penny he’s ever earned seeing that he built a career off of linking Buckner to his invented Curse. It’s the local sports TV stations in Boston, who continue to replay the Buckner error every time the Red Sox face the Mets in interleague play.
It’s not the fans. We could care less. We moved on.
Buckner said it right in his press conference yesterday: His issue was really with the media. I was glad to hear him say it, since I’ve heard him say some pretty negative things about Red Sox fans in the past.
Anyway, I lost my point entirely…
To sum this thing up, Bill Buckner should not have been a part of what was supposed to be a happy celebration. Save the ridiculous emotional healing crap for Dr. Phil.
By the way, Dice-K looked pretty good yesterday.
I’m SeanMC.
SeanMC is a Senior Writer at Bleacher Report. His archive can be found here. You can find everything he writes, including articles for other publications, here.
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