Remembering The 1986 Red Sox

Greetings to one and all here in the Blog Community (or the Blogosphere as it is known these days). It has been awhile since I have posted due in part to work commitments. For those that don't know I am a traffic reporter (or Traffic Information Manager) by trade, and once the Summer holidays arrive, the calls to our Operations Center go through the roof. As a result of this, my "web surfing" opportunities become more few and far between during this busy time. Yes I can post from my house but as a result of my line of work,I find I have less of a desire to go online when I am on my own time.

Our subject today is the 1986 Red Sox, a topic I had meant to write about earlier in the week when the Mets came to Fenway Park for a three game series. The '86 Sox were honored in a pre-game ceremony last Tuesday, an event that I admit I kind of snikered at when the plans were announced months ago. "Why on Earth would they want to honor that team?," I wondered aloud. The ceremony was announced just after the season began and I had forgotten about it until the weeks leading up to the Mets series, when the media started hyping it up, and various players from that team started making the rounds on the Sports Talk Show Circuit. Despite the buzz all anyone was talking about was Pedro Martinez's return to Fenway as the series began last Tuesday.

As I watched a replay of the opening game of the Mets series and the ceremony that preceeded it on NESN late Tuesday evening, I admit I still viewed it quite cynically. I do still believe that if the Sox did not win the World Series in 2004, such a ceremony would have never taken place.There were wounds opened during that fateful Series during October of 1986 that would only be healed with a world Series victory, which was finally delivered 18 years later. Despite my cynicsm, I watched as players such as Bruce Hurst, Marty Barrett, Oil Can Boyd, Joe Sambito, Steve Crawford, Calvin Schiraldi (yes him!!!), Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, among others were introduced, and suddenly a sentimental feeling took over me. This feeling was even more pronounced as footage from the 1986 season was shown on the Centerfield scoreboard. It felt very werid because as those that know me can attest, "Sentimental" and " Boston Red Sox" are words that I rarely utter in the same sentence.

Any newer Red Sox fan (by that I mean anyone under the age of 30) should realize the part that the 1986 Sox have played in the resurgence of Red Sox baseball over the last two decades. Just as the 1967 Impossible Dream season ressurected interest in Red Sox baseball from the time period of the late 60's right through the 70's, the'86 team had much the same effect. Early season attendence was down throughout the mid 80's, due in part to the celtics playing into June almost every year. Manager John McNamara's 1985 bunch finished a mediocre 81-81 and when 1986 began the Patriots were making their run to Superbowl XX. When the Sox broke broke camp in April all eyes were on the Celtics and their run to title number 16 so to say the Sox were sailing below everyone's radar, was an understatement. The Red Sox/Yankees rivalry had cooled significantly back then (The Yankees were experiencing their most significant down turn in franchise history from the 80's, until 1996), and half empty houses through May and June were quite common at Fenway during the early to mid 80's. After the '86 season the Sox experienced a resurgence, and subsequent spike in fan interest that they still enjoy to this day (despite another brief recession during the early to mid 90's as a result of some terrible teams).

As the 1986 season progressed there was a feeling that things were different with this edition, as compared to Sox teams of the previous few years. Dwight Evans homored on the very first pitch of the season in Tiger Stadium (after a lenghty argument during the ground rules discussion regarding of all things the alignment of home plate, which the delayed the start of the game). Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters on April 29th (a game in which the Boston Globe only had Peter Gammons assigned, due to the fact all the other writers were at the Boston Garden, covering the Celtics/Atlanta Hawks Eastern Conference Semifinal game).

Another thing that I recall about this particular Sox team was its flair for the dramatic and its ability to win games in the strangest of manners. NESN brought back many of these memories during a recent special about the 1986 season. The team won an early season game in Cleveland which was called as a result of fog rolling in from Lake Erie. This inspired the famous quote from Oil Can Boyd that "that's what they get for building the stadium so close to the ocean." Don Baylor won many games by getting hit by pitches (he set a record that year). One contest was won when the opposing pitcher balked in the winning run. They won a game Vs. the California Angels on a sacrifice fly, a play in which Angels manager Gene Mauch argued vehemently that Marty Barrett left early from third base. I still remember the sights of De-facto Captain Don Baylor urging all the players to quickly exit the dugout and head towards the clubhouse, and Mauch arguing with the entire Umpiring crew as NESN was going off the air.

The division title was won on September 28th, 1986, a Sunday afternoon, Vs. the Toronto Blue Jays. Bill Buckner caught the final fly-ball out, and a wild celebration ensued at Fenway. A few game later vs. Baltimore, Roger Clemens took a nasty shot off the elbow (from the bat of John Stefero I believe), and one and all were wondering whether the staff ace would be okay for the coming playoffs. Of course he would wind up being fine but it did not stop Clemens from milking the injury for all that it was worth, as he would do many times throughout his career.

The playoffs brought more drama. After falling behind 3 games to 1 against California, newly acquired Dave Henderson (from a late season trade for Steve Lyons that also brought Spike Owen and Tom Seaver) vaunted himself into Red Sox lore with a three run homer in the 9th inning of Game 5, with Boston one out away from elimination and thus tying the game at 5-5. Don Baylor would win the game in extra innings with a sacrifice fly (that scored Henderson). The teams then headed back to Fenway, where the Sox prevailed in seven games over a newly demoralized Angels team.

Next up were the New York Mets in the World Series. The Sox won the first two games in Shea Stadium , while the Mets took games three and four in Fenway(Lenny Dykstra homered on the very first pitch in game 4 off Oil Can Boyd). Bruce Hurst sparked a Sox victory with a solid, complete game pitching effort in game 5, and then it was back to NY for games 6 & 7, where disaster would strike for Bill Buckner and the Sox. I will not go into the details of "Game Six", played on October 25th, 1986, because every Baseball fan knows what happened. It was a sad ending to one of the most memorable Red Sox seasons ever. Looking back on it now with 20 years worth of hindsight, and with a World Series title finally under our belts, it is true that some of the wounds have healed with time. That is something that we all never thought would be possible.