Things That Are Overrated: The Bill Buckner Play

The Bill Buckner play is grossly overrated as the symbol of the Red Sox futility. That was certainly the straw that broke the camels back, but it was just the end of the worst half-inning in baseball history.

Let's remember, the Red Sox scored two runs in the top of the tenth inning, and then opened the bottom of the tenth by getting the first two batters out (Wally Backman and Keith Hernandez). They were on the verge of winning the World Series and breaking the curse, and then all hell broke loose.

Gary Carter singled, Kevin Mitchell singled, Ray Knight singled and Carter scored, now the Mets are down 5-4 with Kevin Mitchell on 3rd and Ray Knight on first. Then the Red Sox replace their pitcher Schiraldi with a guy named Stanley who, and here's the crux of the post, promptly throws a wild pitch and allows Mitchell to score and Ray Knight to get to second. This was the boneheaded play of the game. This was the turning point. After the wild pitch that tied the game, the Red Sox had no chance of winning that game. They had no momentum, they had lost their spirit, and it wasn't going to happen. Immediately following the wild pitch Mookie Wilson hit the grounder to Buckner and the rest is history, but the game was already tied, and the Mets were definitely going to win that game at that point.

Buckner did let the winning in, but Schiraldi being unable to close the game out after retiring the first two batters, and Stanley throwing a wild pitch allowing in the tying run after geting the opportunity to close the game out were what lost the game for Boston. Buckner really was just the tail end of that shit storm.