Buckner To Nation : Fuck Off



There's no reason on earth to listen to the James Brown Show, but a timely interview with Bill Buckner came pretty close.

"I don't want to bring a downer on the whole situation because I'm very happy for the Boston Red Sox.. and they certainly deserved to win the World Series this year." Buckner said on Sporting News Radio's James Brown Show.

"I'm just a little disappointed with the whole thing. This whole thing about being forgiven and clearing my name, you know, I mean ... cleared from what? What did I do wrong? It's almost like being in prison for 30 years and then they come up with a DNA test to prove that you weren't guilty.




"I've gone through a lot of, what I feel, undeserved bad situations for myself and my family over a long period of time, and for someone to come up to me and say, 'Hey, you're forgiven.' I mean, it just kind of brings a really bad taste in my mouth."

Bill Buckner is officially forgiven for charging cash to sign photos with Mookie Wilson at card shows. But the guy who really deserves the heavy questions, former Boston manager John McNamara, conveniently casts aspersions on Roger Clemens in today's NY Times, as quoted by Murray Chass.

Roger Clemens started Game 6 of that World Series with the Red Sox up by three games to two over the Mets. The game would always be remembered for the Mookie Wilson ground ball that rolled between Buckner’s legs, but “there were a number of other things” to remember, McNamara, the Red Sox’ manager then, said yesterday.

“One of the biggest,” he said, “was Clemens coming out of that game with a three- or four-hitter after seven innings. That was his choice. He walked off the mound after seven and said, ‘That’s all I can pitch.’ ”

After the game, which the Mets won in the 10th inning on Buckner’s two-out error, McNamara was questioned for having removed Clemens.

“Roger said he just had enough,” McNamara said at the time. “He also developed a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand.”

Yesterday, McNamara said about Clemens’s exit: “To this day, he won’t talk about it. But that was the truth then, and it’s the truth today.”

Then McNamara contrasted Clemens’s departure with the Schilling game on Sunday night, which McNamara watched on television at his home in Brentwood, Tenn., near Nashville.

“I saw Schilling pitch the other night with blood running down his sanitary, and he was still out there,” McNamara said by telephone, using an old-school reference for players’ socks. Given his condition, McNamara added, it would have been reasonable for Schilling, pitching with sutures in his right ankle to keep a torn tendon sheath in place, to leave after allowing only an unearned run in six innings.

“I don’t mean to demean Clemens,” McNamara said. “He’s had an outstanding career and been a great pitcher. But on that night, he was very disappointing, not only to me but to his teammates."

Posted: Fri - October 29, 2004 at 09:31 PM      

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