Today is the 20th anniversary of the best day of my life. The day when I learned that anything was possible. The day when I first heard the three greatest words in the English language. Gets. By. Buckner.
I remember that night, all of us watching in my parents room. Mama Poop (who was just called mom at that time because we'd never heard of a blog, or the internet) said "I have to admit, this game is a little exciting." That was quite an admission coming from her. I remember jumping on the bed like a crazy loon with Master Bates (who DEFINITELY wasn't call that in 1986) and my mom didn't even yell at us.
I remember watching that clip 1000 times since. I've watched "A Year to Remember" hundreds of times, and they add that little drawn out hum of a note throughout the inning. "Buddy was telling me he was gonna throw one in the dirt one of these times." "I have only one theory of hitting and that is thou shalt not pass without offering, and that's what I did." "Mirrors, magic wands, all that counts is that we win the ballgame."
Game 7 was rained out the following night meaning it would be played on a Monday. Monday night football that week was Giants-Redskins, the year the Giants won the Super Bowl, and up until a couple years ago it was the lowest rated MNF game ever.
But Game 7 was an anticlimax. The real magic happened that night when the ball rolled through Buckner's legs.
The short version:
The version from Ken Burns' "Baseball"
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