The Baseball Project is a rock supergroup who sing songs about baseball. If this is your first exposure to them, then, HOLY SHIT, are you in for a treat. See the first installment for a proper introduction.
For this second go-round, we’re annotating lyrics for their song “BUCKNER’S BOLERO(1)” and the sad story of the 1986 World Series.
The Bolero is a Spanish three-quarter dance that originated in the late 18th century, a combination of the Contradanza and the Sevillana. It is also an Argentinian cowboy hat worn by gauchos, or a cropped, tailored jacket, inspired by the matador's chaquetilla. In the context of this song, it probably refers to a fielder swiping a glove and missing a ground ball, similar to a Matador swiping their muleta in front of a charging bull. I am unnecessarily compelled to further tell you that “Bolero” is a 1928 composition by Ravel, famously used in the Dudley Moore-Bo Derek movie 10 (1979). It is not used in the movie Bolero (1984), also starring Bo Derek.
If Bobby Ojeda(2) hadn’t raged(3) at Sullivan(4) and Yawkey(5)
And hadn’t been traded to the Mets for Calvin Schiraldi(6),
The Mets Bobby Ojeda has a spectacular 1986: 18 wins, 2.57 ERA, 148 strikeouts, and 4.7 WAR, all career-bests. He finished fourth in Cy Young voting. Down two games to none in that year’s World Series, Ojeda pitched seven innings of five-hit, one-run ball in Fenway, to start New York Mets’ comeback.
During a Boston players-only meeting regarding a potential strike one year earlier, then-Red-Sox Ojeda dispelled any notions that he was pro-ownership, “I don’t care what you say. They (Red Sox ownership) are going to try and pay us as little as they can. Yes, if you are older, you don’t want to miss a paycheck being out on strike. But I’m young!” Three months later, he was traded to the Mets. MLB owners were found guilty of collusion against free agents in 1985 and 1986 and eventually paid the Player’s Union $280 million in lost wages.
Hayward Sullivan was a Red Sox backup catcher who went on to become a controversial general partner from 1978 to 1983.
Starting in 1933, Tom Yawkey was the sole owner of the Red Sox for 44 seasons. Jean Yawkey, his wife, inherited the team and maintained control from 1976 to 1992. In 2018, the city of Boston and the Red Sox reverted Yawkey Way to its original Jersey Street moniker (and changed Yawkey Station to Lansdowne Station), distancing the city and the team from Tom Yawkey’s questionable-at-best reputation.
Calvin Schiraldi (plus John Christensen, Wes Gardner, and La Schelle Tarver) was traded to the Red Sox for Bobby Ojeda (plus Chris Bayer, Tom McCarthy, and John Mitchell) on Nov. 13, 1985. Schiraldi became the Red Sox closer in August of 1986, earning nine saves down the stretch. In World Series Game 6 however, he gave up the game-tying sac fly in the eighth, pitched a scoreless ninth, and with a two-run lead in the tenth gave up three straight singles before Mookie Wilson’s fateful grounder to Buckner. In Game 7, with the game tied, Schiraldi gave up three runs in 1/3 of an inning. Schiraldi took the loss in both games 6 and 7.
If Oil Can Boyd hadn’t been such a nut-case(
7)
And Jim Rice had twice taken as easy extra base(8)
During the 1986 season, Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd quit the Red Sox after a perceived All-Star snub, was suspended, got into a tussle with police, and was hospitalized. “I had the whole cover story about hepatitis,” he wrote in his autobiography, “but it was flat-out me smoking crack every damn day. I was smoking cocaine, freebasing, doing crack… whatever you call it, that’s what I was doing.” Despite all that, Boyd returned and helped Boston down the stretch. He started World Series Game 3 and gave up four first-inning runs in a loss. Due to a rainout, Boyd was bypassed to start Game 7. After finding out the day of the game, Boyd disappeared. Pitching coach Bill Fischer found Boyd completely drunk and in no condition to function, much less pitch out of the bullpen. Fischer locked Boyd in the manager's office for the entire game. Boston’s bullpen game up five earned runs in the 8-5 loss.
In Game 6, Jim Rice was thrown out at home to end the seventh inning. Had he scored, the Red Sox would have had a two-run lead. Instead, the Mets tied the game with a single run in the bottom of the eighth. In Game 7, Rice was thrown out at second base in the top of the third inning with Boston up 3-0.
If the Red Sox had had a better playoff fourth starter(
9)
Instead Nipper served up a big fat slider to Carter(10)
What would have Seaver have done if not for his bum knee(11)?
Would he have take the ball and exacted revenge on his old team(12)?
Red Sox starting rotation in the World Series was Bruce Hurst (Games 1, 5, & 7, 1.96 ERA), 23-year old Roger Clemens (Games 2 & 6, 3.18 ERA), Oil Can Boyd (Game 3, seven innings, six runs), and Al Nipper (Game 4, 6 1/3 innings, five runs).
With no score in the top of the fourth in Game 4, Al Nipper gave up a two-run homer over the Green Monster to Gary Carter, a double to Darryl Strawberry, and a run-scoring single to Ray Knight. The Mets had a 3-0 lead they would not relinquish, evening the series 2-2.
Tom Seaver started 16 games for the Sox in the second half of the ’86 season (3.80 ERA, 72 strikeouts in 104 innings, at age 41), but tore a ligament in his knee in late September. Boston sent Al Nipper to the mound in Game 4 where Seaver would have started.
Seaver pitched for the Mets for nine-plus seasons, winning the NL Rookie of the Year (’69), three Cy Young awards (’69, ’73, and ’75), leading the NL in strikeouts five times, and making the All-Star team every year in that span. That Kind of success will earn you nicknames like “Tom Terrific” and “The Franchise.” After a protracted public contract dispute with Mets board chairman M. Donald Grant, Seaver was traded to the Cincinnati Reds on June 15, 1977, in what was referred to as the “Midnight Massacre.”
If Gooden had pitched like the real Dr. K(
13)
Or Donnie Moore hadn’t had that nightmare day
That stuck with him till he couldn't take anymore
And turned his own kitchen into a killing floor(14)
Dwight Gooden had been called “Doc” since Little League. “Dr. K” was born after he led the NL in strikeouts his first two years in the majors (276 in ’84 and 268 in ’85). Gooden had a 2.84 ERA with 12 complete games and 200 strikeouts in 1986, finishing seventh in Cy Young voting. In two starts in the NLCS, he threw 17 innings, allowing just two runs. In two World Series starts, however, Gooden gave up 17 hits and 10 runs, covering just nine innings, and took losses in Games 2 and 5.
WARNING: THIS IS DISTURBING. Donnie Moore was the closer for the California Angels in 1986, who were poised to clinch their first World Series appearance. They had a 5-2 lead heading into the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS against the Red Sox. With two out, a runner on first, and two runs already in, Moore was brought in to face Dave Henderson. Henderson hit a two-strike splitter eight rows deep into the left field stands for a 6-5 lead. The Angels tied it up in the bottom of the ninth, but lost the game in 11. They lost two blowouts in Boston, and the Red Sox, not the Angels, played the Mets in the World Series. Despite several injuries, a litany of painkillers to combat them, and plenty of blame to go around, Donnie Moore took responsibility for the Angels collapse. On July 20, 1989, just a few months after retiring, Moore shot his wife three times (she somehow survived) and took his own life with a .45 pistol in front of his children. Media coverage simplified the narrative. “I think insanity set in. He could not live with himself after Henderson hit the home run. He kept blaming himself. That home run killed him,” Moore's agent, Mike Pinter, told the press repeatedly. But a long history of violence, domestic abuse, and substance abuse dating back to Moore’s teenage years, belie this simple conclusion.
And John McNamara, what was he thinking?
Was it him, and not the party boy Mets(15) doing all the drinking?
If he’d hit Baylor(16) for Buckner and yanked the first baseman for his by-the-book late inning defensive replacement(17)
That ball would have been snagged (if it’d ever been hit)
And Mookie’s last name wouldn’t now be “86”(18)
As detailed in several players biographies, the 1986 Mets consumed copious amounts of alcohol, cocaine, and amphetamines on a daily basis. In a 1995 Sports Illustrated cover story on the team, Tom Verducci wrote, “Between 1986 and 1991, of the 22 Met players who appeared in the 1986 World Series, eight were arrested following incidents of alcohol-related and/or battery related crimes (Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, Rick Aguilera, Lenny Dykstra, Kevin Mitchell, Bobby Ojeda and Tim Teufel) and a ninth was disciplined by baseball for cocaine use (Keith Hernandez).”
Don Baylor was the Red Sox primary designated hitter during the 1986 season, hitting 31 home runs with 94 RBIs (a 1.6 WAR season). Going into Game 6, Baylor had a .932 OPS in the playoffs and at least one hit in eight of nine games. In the eighth inning of Game 6, McNamara let Buckner hit with the bases loaded and two out. He flew out.
Boston manager John McNamara replaced Buckner with Dave Stapleton for late inning defense in World Series Games 1, 2, and 5 (and four times in the ALCS). Buckner was hitting .179 at the time of his error in the tenth inning of Game 6, clearly hobbling on bad ankles. Ray Sons of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “Watching Bill Buckner try to play in this World Series makes one wince. He said before the Series began that someone would have to shoot him to keep him out of it. If he were a racehorse, someone would.”
With two outs in the tenth inning of Game 6, runners on first and third, and the Mets down by one run, William “Mookie” Wilson (he slashed .289/ .345/ .430 and was worth 3 WAR in 1986) faced Red Sox reliever Bob Stanley. Wilson had an 11-year career, but is so remembered by this at-bat, he and Buckner often co-signed photos of the play at autograph shows.
Bob Stanley picked a pretty bad time to uncork a wild pitch(19)
And I'm sure he's still thinking that you could have blocked it, Rich(20)
Then the tying run might have not been tallied by Mitch(21)
If one play killed the Sox, can you please tell me which?(22)
With a 2-2 count, Stanley pulled a slider, the seventh pitch of the at-bat, way inside. Wilson jackknifed, barely avoiding being hit by the pitch, which bounced all the way to the backstop.
Rich Gedman (an All-Star for Boston in ’85 & ’86) caught every inning of the playoffs in 1986. Fangraphs ranks him as the third best catcher in baseball for that year (behind Jody Davis and Bob Boone).
Mets left fielder Kevin Mitchell scored from third on the wild pitch, tying the game 5-5. Ray Knight moved up to second base on the play.
On the tenth pitch of the at-bat, Wilson hit a slow roller to Bill Buckner at first base. Wilson's speed (24 stolen bases that year) may have caused Buckner to rush the play. The ball rolled between Buckner’s legs, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run from second base. The Mets got a walk-off win and tied the series, 3-3. By Baseball Reference Championship Win Probability Added, Buckner’s error was actually [pushes up nerd glasses] fifth on the list of biggest plays in that World Series, a couple spots behind Stanley’s wild pitch.
I guess everything happens for some sort of reason
And there must be a tragic end to every long season
If even one man doesn’t do the one thing he does
We’d all know Bill Buckner for just what he was
A pretty tough out for the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Cubs(23)
Ten thousand at bats and close to three thousand hits(24)
And he stole plenty of bases before his legs quit(25)
As tough to walk as he was to strike out(26)
But there's only one play that ever gets talked about
Buckner played primarily for the Dodgers (’69-’76), Cubs (’77-’83), Red Sox (’84-’86, ’87, ’90) with stops in Toronto, Anaheim, and Kansas City along the way. He led the NL in batting average in ‘80 and was an All-Star in ’82. In nine different seasons, he ranked either first or second in at-bats per strikeout.
10,037 at-bats and 2,715 hits.
183 career stolen bases, with a career high 31 in 1974 for the Dodgers. On April 8 that year, he climbed the fence trying to catch Hank Aaron’s 715th home run.
Buckner had 450 walks and 453 strikeouts in his career. On average, that’s only 29 strikeouts per year. Incredible by today’s standards.
Now some kind of fame(27) lies in being a scapegoat
And if not that, then you're just an historical footnote(28)
And your 22 years playing ball might be forgotten
Maybe Bill Buckner was lucky his luck was so rotten(29)
Buckner appeared as himself on a 2011 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. At a card show, he meets Larry David, who later tosses him an autographed baseball (signed, of course, by Mookie Wilson). Buckner misses the ball and it flies out a window. He later redeems himself by catching a baby thrown from a burning building.
Before the 1974 season began, Buckner, Tom Paciorek, and Tommy Lasorda traveled to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, to be extras in The Godfather Part II. As Paciorek recalled it, “After we spent all day getting fitted for uniforms and our hair cut, they called and told us that our parts had been canceled. Later, Tommy, Buck, and I were going deep-sea fishing. Buck wanted to get in the film and they were filming that night, so we went back. The scene where Michael Corleone finds out it was Fredo. We are in that scene. We didn’t actually get our faces in the scene, but my right arm is!”
Bill Buckner returned to Fenway Park on April 8, 2008, for the Red Sox home opener, as the club was celebrating its 2007 World Series title. Buckner threw out the first pitch and received a four-minute standing ovation. After the game, Buckner said, “Probably about as emotional as it could get. A lot of thoughts [were] going through my mind... I really had to forgive, not the fans of Boston, per se, but in my heart, I had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family through. I‘ve done that, and I‘m over that and I‘m just happy.” Buckner passed away on Memorial Day, May 27, 2019 at age 69. Dwight Evans said, “No one played harder than Bill. No one prepared themselves as well as Bill Buckner did, and no one wanted to win as much as Bill Buckner.”
This is great! Re-watched Red Sox/Mets game 6 last week- ugh. Sox fans finally forgave Buckner and it was great to see. Steve Bartman not so lucky. Also watched the Donnie Moore/ Hendu game as it happened; sad that Moore couldn't find the help he needed.
I love a bolero and matador pants too!