Bill Buckner receives a four minute ovation from the sold out Fenway Park fans at the Boston Red Sox home game opener.

Rewind to 1986, the year the Boston Red Sox had the chance to break “The Curse of The Bambino”. A dribbler was hit to first base and Bill Buckner missed the ball and ended up costing the Red Sox the World Series. The City of Boston was ruthless and Buckner became in a sense a hated man. The media ripped him to shreds, and Buckner even began receiving death threats.

Buckner basically went into hiding from all of the abuse he received for what many viewed as his fault for that losing day. He left the Boston in 1987 to play for the LA Angels. Buckner then went on to play for the Kansas City Royals in 1988. The first baseman came back to play for the Red Sox in 1990, but he was still so damaged emotionally, he could really never get his mental game back and his last game was May 30th, 1990. He moved his family across the country to an Idaho ranch and became a real estate investor and name his first housing subdivision, Fenway Park.

Today at the Red Sox home game opener and Bill Buckner was invited to throw out the first pitch. In an emotional interview with the media shown on ESPN tonight, Buckner said, “I really had to forgive not the fans of Boston per se, but I would have to say, in my heart, I had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family through. So I’ve done that. I’m over that. And I’m just happy that I just try to think of the positive. The happy things.”

The story really tugged at this SoCalSportsChick’s heart strings because missing a ball like that could’ve happened to any Major League ballplayer. Buckner could have had a long standing career in Major League baseball and it is just so very sad that his future as a ballplayer was cut short due to spiteful people and the way the public often treats celebrities or sports players when they make a mistake.

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Tonight’s game also had The Red Sox receiving their 2007 World Series rings which was their second world series rings in just four years. They went on to play their first home game at Fenway Park against the Detroit Tigers. Victory prevailed as the Red Sox beat the Tigers 5 to 0!

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Sport Tidbits:

“Curse of The Bambino”
In 1918, the Red Sox won their 5^th World Series title. Babe Ruth led the way to success. In 1920, the Red Sox traded Ruth to the New York Yankees, who by the way had never won the title. The Yankees went on to win 26 World Titles and are now a world-renowned team of any sport.

It would be an astonishing 86 years later that the Boston Red Sox would win a World Series Title against the Saint Louis Cardinals and so the “The Curse of The Bambino” was lifted. To this day, many fans believe the Lunar Eclipse that hung over the ballpark that winning night attributed to the win and several other fans believe it was Babe Ruth hovering from the heavens and releasing the Red Sox of the curse.