Little roller up along first, behind the bag – it gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight and the Mets win it!
Vin Scully’s call of the winning play of Game Six of the 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets is unforgettable, painfully so for any Red Sox fan who was tuned in on that fateful night more than twenty one years ago. The former first baseman and outfielder for five different Major League teams has never lived down that one split-second of his life, at least not until he walked towards the pitcher’s mound from the Green Monster to deliver the ceremonial first pitch for the 2008 home opener at Fenway Park. Bill Buckner was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation and raucous cheering, the fans’ way of saying to him, “We forgive you.”
Buckner threw a strike, acknowledged the crowd, and walked off, and the Red Sox started their first home game. The Sox helped to extend the Detroit Tigers’ losing streak to seven games, a 5-0 shutout, but it was lost in the flurry of commentary and questions asked to Buckner. In a media session, he said that he had to forgive the media for what they put him and his family through.
He played for four more seasons after that World Series, and finally retired at the end of May in 1990 after 43 unproductive at-bats in his second stint with the Red Sox. It didn’t seem anyone was willing to forgive Buckner, even four year s later. Having received multiple death threats, insufferable heckling, and outright bashing in the media, Buckner packed his bags and moved his family to Idaho, far, far away from the Boston area.
As the 1990’s moved along, it seemed the legend of Buckner never faded. His moment was quoted in movies, TV shows, and even songs. The fans appeared to be wiling to forgive and forget, but the media was not. Buckner returned to Fenway in 1997 as a hitting coach with the White Sox, but never went out of his way to be in that neck of the woods. He was in exile, and finally came out of it when his name was announced over the loudspeakers in Fenway.
Buckner will never get back the 18 years of his life he spent exiled in Idaho. While he did have a modicum of success in the business world there as a real estate investor and owner of Bill Buckner Motors, it had to have been very hollow success, with the realization that he wasn’t welcome anywhere but a bar infested with Mets fans old enough to vividly remember the ’86 World Series. The media is culpable for helping to alienate Buckner from society, and it’s just business as usual – this is what the media is good at; it’s what sells newspapers and magazines and reels in television viewership.
If you need another sports-related example of the media fueling alienation, take a look at where Steve Bartman has been since Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS between the Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs. Mark Prior was pitching to Luis Castillo with Juan Pierre on second base, and Castillo hit a foul ball down the left field line towards the stands, but close enough to the field were left fielder Moises Alou had a chance to catch it, or so he thought. The ball descended on a group of outstretched hands, and it deflected off of Bartman’s. Alou slammed his glove down and begged for the umpire to rule fan interference, but it was to no avail. Bartman was escorted out and was the butt of many a joke in the years following, just like Buckner, until Alou recently admitted he didn’t really have a shot at catching the foul ball anyway.
While the Cubs fans did initially treat Bartman rather boorishly, by throwing items at him and yelling obscenities, the hatred was inexorably fueled by the media, who not only blamed Bartman for aiding the Cubs’ loss in Game 6 of the NLCS, but also in Game 7, some citing karma or a deflated attitude. The media was burdening a fan, who was practically unknown at the start of the eighth inning, with the responsibility of losing two playoff games despite only being responsible for one maybe-could-have-been-an-out. Had the media not implied to their readers that it’s okay to harbor such ill will towards someone who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, Bartman wouldn’t have had to go into exile in the four and a half years that ensued.
Again, it’s what sells papers. Unfortunately, we live in a capitalistic society where ethics and compassion are thrown to the wayside in favor of padding one’s wallet. Buckner and Bartman aren’t actual people to those in the media; they’re those cliche dollar signs and a sound clip of a cash register drawer opening up. To the owners of publications, it meant more subscriptions, more advertisers, and zeros at the end of their paychecks (and perhaps a vacation to Bermuda). To the journalists they employed, it was a great way to climb the proverbial ladder and get recognized, all in an effort to – you guessed it – add another zero at the end of their paychecks.
Some time this week, turn on ABC or NBC around 7 PM when one of those celebrity “news” shows come on (or just turn on the E! channel), and jot down how many topics portray celebrities in a favorable light. As I write this, I have open in my browser the popular celebrity website TMZ.com. I’d like to recite a few of the topics on the front page:
• David Naughton, famous for being in a Dr. Pepper commercial, has pleaded no contest to domestic battery.
• American Idol contestants “will be trying their best not to massacre the songs that inspire them.”
• A guy is impersonating the creator of “Entourage” in an attempt to get laid.
• “Racist homophobe Brandon Davis and sex-tape impresario Rick Salomon are a match made in douchebag heaven!”
• A picture of Jamie Lynn Spears, who is pregnant, with the caption, “Jesus take the wheel.”
So, you can see that portraying people in a positive light isn’t something the media is particularly interested in. Buckner and Bartman are, unfortunately, victims of a predatory industry. And as long as profits are the chief motivator for businesses, this will never change. Alex Rodriguez will continue to be bashed by the New York media, using faux talking points like “he’s not clutch” or “he’s overpaid.” Lindsay Lohan will continue to be portrayed as a promiscuous alcohol- and drug-abusing socialite. Why? It’s what the American people are most interested in.
For as much blame as I’ve lain at the media’s feet in this article, I’d be remiss not to place the initial blame at the feet of the American public for so strongly desiring such trash in the first place. If negative press wasn’t so popular among us, publications wouldn’t pander to it. If Red Sox fans had no interest in blaming Buckner for one poorly-timed error, the media would have had no interest in wasting gallons of ink printing the insults to paper. If we are to prevent this type of treatment in the future, it is required that American society as a whole adopts a less vicious and dare I say more modern ideology.