The Red Sox plan to honor their 1986 AL Championship team with some sort of pregame ceremony before tonight’s tilt with the Mets. I’m fairly sure Mookie Wilson wasn’t invited, but apparently, Bill Buckner won’t be there, either. From the Providence Journal’s Steven Krasner.
Several members of the 1986 team were on hand last night, after the Red Sox’ marathon 8-7, 12-inning victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Those players were Oil Can Boyd, LaSchelle Tarver, Dave Stapleton, Jim Rice, Bruce Hurst, Marty Barrett,
Wade Boggs, Ed Romero, Steve Crawford, Pat Dodson, Joe Sambito and Tim Lollar, along with coach Joe Morgan and general manager Lou Gorman.
“We fooled everyone,” said Rice. “We went out and played good baseball.”
“We had great team camaraderie,” said Stapleton. “That 1986 season was special.”
Last night, they made it a point to take Buckner off the hook. Buckner elected not to attend the reunion.
“The biggest thing that bothers me is all the blame on Buck,” said Stapleton, echoing a theme brought up unsolicited by Boggs and Boyd. “He had a great career. He was one of the main reasons we even got that far that season.”
“He was our Big Papi,” said Boggs, referring to Boston’s clutch-hitting David Ortiz.
Boyd, meanwhile, says his irritation at being bypassed for Game Seven in favor of Bruce Hurst didn’t last long.
“I was a winner. I wanted to win. At the time I felt like I could go out and (beat the Mets). I felt like I was a guy who rose to the occasion,” said Boyd. “But at the same time they handed the ball to Bruce, and that was all right. He had already beaten them twice.”