20 Years Later Who Do You Blame?

Has it been over 20 seasons since the fall classic of 1986, it is hard to believe that many seasons have gone by.  For most Red Sox fans over the age of thirty you remember that post season as fresh as last weeks World Series win. I always wonder though who other fans of the Olde Town team blame for the collaspe of 86. I wonder what they rememberand how sharp those memories of that World Series twenty years ago.

  It would be easy to blame Bucker, really simple, after all it was a routine ground ball that went through his legs, the kind of grounder that is caught in every game played on every night of the baseball season.  For me Buckner missing that grounder is just theater in the Red Sox drama that is crushing endings.  That game was already tied at point, and we were the visiting team, so at best the game could only have been extended at that point, to an outcome that will never be known.  No one blame's Tim Wakefield for giving up a homerun to Aaron(bleeping)Boone in game seven of the 2003 ALCS, because it was not his fault that game was lost, he just happened to be there to help write that cruel chapter.

  For me the goat of 86 will be forever and always Calvin Schiraldi, and to small measure Red Sox manager John Mcnamera.  Schiraldi had so many chances to be a hero that October, but he always came out smelling the horrible coward that he was.  Schiraldi's World Series box score looks like this,  0-2 in three games in four innings that included seven hits, six earned runs and three walks.  Calvin was given the lead three times in the series with the chance to close it out, and all three times he failed so badly that he made Eric Gag-me look like Jonathan Papelbon.  In game six of the 86 series, Schiraldi entered the game needing 6 outs to close it, with a one run lead, he blew that lead of course.  When given the chance to redeem himself in the 10th with a two run lead and a shell shocked Mets team, he totally collasped again, giving up 3 straight hits and a run and leaving two men on for Bob Stanley to clean up.  We all know how the game turned out, what some Sox fans forget is that the Red Sox had a two run the next night, game seven that was handed to Schiraldi as well, that was promptly turned into a 3 run deficit the following inning.  So draw your own conclusions, I will agree with some that maybe the manger should be held more accountable for putting someone in that so obviously could not handle the pressure and the stage he was on.  So let me know Red Sox Nation who do you blame for the 86 series slipping away.