Game Six, RBI Baseball Style

April 10, 2006 5:53 PM

It should have been an easy out...

"If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words. But more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game Six of the 1986 World Series." At the bottom of the 10th inning in Shay Stadium, with the Red Sox one out away from winning the World Series, the scoreboard flashed, "Congratulations Red Sox, 1986 World Series Champions!" Moments later, the Sox' Bill Buckner would let the ball go between his legs, allowing the Mets to win 6-5 and tie the series. Tonight, hours away from opening day at Fenway Park in Boston, take a moment to relive one of the most painful experiences in Sox history, Bucker and all, completely reenacted with Nintendo's old RBI Baseball.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow (44 comments total)

I did not even open the link, but Buckner did NOT lose that game. . .they had two strikes and no on and were up a bunch of runs.

I am an old Buckner fan and I get offended any time anyone brings this up. He had a great career and it's not fair that people tie this game to him, ignoring his accomplishments.
posted by Danf at 6:09 PM on April 10, 2006

That was fantastic!

Amazing post. Thank you.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:09 PM on April 10, 2006

Shea Stadium
posted by brevator at 6:10 PM on April 10, 2006

[Not a baseball person] I just watched this-- I always thought that Buckner allowed the Mets to win the game. But according to this retelling (which is AWESOME by the way, thanks!!) -- it would have just gone to another inning, right? So it's not like if Buckner got it right the Sox would have won?
posted by neustile at 6:11 PM on April 10, 2006

This topic has been done to death. That said...

...the RBI baseball reconstruction was awesome! Particularly mad-capped props go to the "Miller-Lite Player of the Game" interlude. Really, really well done.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:11 PM on April 10, 2006

Wow, the person who did the RBI recreation is my hero. Great post, thanks. Makes me wish I still had an NES
posted by saraswati at 6:16 PM on April 10, 2006

That was fun. Great post.
posted by CRM114 at 6:20 PM on April 10, 2006

I don't even watch hockey.
posted by Balisong at 6:23 PM on April 10, 2006

That got me undepressed! GO METS!
posted by ParisParamus at 6:34 PM on April 10, 2006

Amazing post - the recreation was FANTASTIC.
posted by aberrant at 6:35 PM on April 10, 2006

Balisong: Living near Denver you don't have the opportunity to see real baseball either.

This copyrighted telecast is presented by authority of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball and may not be reproduced or retransmitted in any form, and the accounts and descriptions may not be disseminated, without the express written consent of Commissioner.

And that video is exactly what Bud was afraid was going to happen.
posted by ?! at 6:39 PM on April 10, 2006

This was what the internets were invented for.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:44 PM on April 10, 2006

I can't do it. As much as I like the idea, I can't watch it as a RBI baseball recreation. I'm just not that strong.
posted by .kobayashi. at 6:45 PM on April 10, 2006

Dude, they won it like, a year ago. It's time to grow up and get over the whole 'curse' thing.

Awesome recreation. I hope someone starts recreating other sports in NES games. Like, say, a beach volleyball game.
posted by graventy at 6:51 PM on April 10, 2006

Is it anything like televised Judo? cause that's the only sport I watch.
posted by Balisong at 6:57 PM on April 10, 2006

Great post! Although as a long-suffering Boston fan, it triggered my case of ptsd again. The horror of it all!

Now am so wishing to see a recreation game 6 1975, the Carlton Fisk moment.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:59 PM on April 10, 2006

This is the sort of thing I come to Mefi for.

I'm really curious how they put that together.
posted by drezdn at 7:00 PM on April 10, 2006

neustile said: "...according to this retelling (which is AWESOME by the way, thanks!!) -- it would have just gone to another inning, right? So it's not like if Buckner got it right the Sox would have won?"

True, but they wouldn't have lost. On a routine ground ball nonetheless. Buckner did blow it, there's no 2 ways about it. Does he deserve to be treated the way he has? Hell no. But he did blow the oppurtunity to win the game.

Aside from that, the video was awesome! Thanks.
posted by jahmoon at 7:06 PM on April 10, 2006

I agree, Mr. Crash. It's moments like this that make me really thankful for google video and youtube.
posted by absalom at 7:07 PM on April 10, 2006

Fucking Nintendo McNamara leaves fucking Schiraldi in there too long... again.

grumble, grumble.

Great post, though.
posted by psmealey at 7:07 PM on April 10, 2006

Makes me wish I still had an NES

How can I play RBI on my computer?

And what Paris said.
posted by eddydamascene at 7:09 PM on April 10, 2006

Cool link, thanks!

Among other things, that was an excellent 10-pitch at-bat by Mookie Wilson. He fouled off four pitches after the count was 2-2; a strike on any of those pitches would've lost the World Series.

If Buckner had made the play, the game would've gone to the 11th tied 5-5, and who knows what would've happened. And there's plenty of blame to spread around. The Red Sox had three errors in the game (the Mets had two). They left 14 men on base. The Red Sox manager left a pitcher in too long in Game Six with a 3-2 series lead and he gave up some big hits (hmmm...sounds familiar). The wild pitch allowed the tying run. It was only Game 6, and they still had a chance to win the Series in Game 7 (where they blew a 3-0 lead).

That's all true, but the bottom line is Buckner's error cost them the game, and the Series. Their thinking had already gone from "we're going to win the World Series" to "we've still got a chance." It should've been a routine play, and if he'd made it, they still could've won (or could've lost). His error was the exact moment that they blew their win. It was psychologically devastating, and they didn't recover from it. (The same thing happened to the Giants when they blew a 5-run lead in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, and to the Cubs when they blew a 3-0 lead in Game 6 of the 2002 NLCS.)

Couterpoint: Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Bill Buckner
posted by kirkaracha at 7:13 PM on April 10, 2006

Ahhhh.....

One of the greatest plays in baseball. ;)

Let's Go METS!
posted by caddis at 7:22 PM on April 10, 2006

Nobody can beat me with the Cards in RBI. Nobody. I wish you could play head to head online RBI, I'd show you all what V.Coleman, O.Smith and J.Clark can do!
posted by loquax at 7:30 PM on April 10, 2006

I'll never forget that night, a friends bachelor party in Little Italy, watching the game (sort of) on the TV in the bar, our party drinking shots with Tom Benson (owner of the NO Saints) and then a midnight ride to a Long Island nightclub (major Mets territory), where we walk in with Mookie coming to bat, man that place went nuts. Partied for hours then drove home, picked up a girl hitchhiker at 4am, who wound up giving me a BJ in the car. What a great memory.

I watched the whole clip waiting to see how they were going to have the ball go through his legs...but it didn't! It just sort of landed in front of first base...stupid nit in an otherwise awesome recreation.

I had that game I think...gotta go find it, maybe I'll do the Aaron 'Fucking' Boone home run game to share with my Sox fan buds.
posted by sfts2 at 7:50 PM on April 10, 2006

But Stts2, did anyone get into a hot tub naked?
posted by drezdn at 7:54 PM on April 10, 2006

Ha! Well done.

Which brings me to my recent Carton Fisk spotting ...

6am, December 26th, Delta airlines waiting area, Boston's Logan International Airport, waiting for a flight from Boston to West Palm Beach Florida, the place is basically empty... as we are very early...

I spot Fisk, facing me, several (empty) waiting room rows away,
I think... "Hey, that's Carton Fisk, ... isn't it? "

-looks like Fisk, shortish athletic bulid, approx right age,
-6am and he is chomping gum like a 12 year old.
-used to live in New Hampsire, (didnt he?) going to FLA
-we catch eyes and he coughs/scowls/glares at me - Bingo!

They call the boarding rows,
Fisk stands, and with GREAT difficulty,
Uses his rolling suitcase as a cane,
Both knees..... gone.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:58 PM on April 10, 2006

The best thing watching this NES recreation was the on-screen gameplay was every bit as interesting as the real thing!
posted by Nelson at 8:27 PM on April 10, 2006

Man, what a terrible recreation. First off, Mookie Wilson is listed at the bottom of the screen as the #6 hitter, when anyone and everyone knows he was seventh in the Mets order. Secondly, the final box score says the Mets got 13 hits to Boston's 9 - again, sheer falacy. As we all remember, the Red Sox managed only EIGHT hits to the Mets' thirteen. Finally, if they expect us to believe that any self-respecting RBI Baseball player would leave Backman in the lineup when Tim Teufel is sitting right there... well, apparently they're even dumber than I already suspected.

Worst. Nintendo-based Reenactment of a Famous MLB Playoff Game. Ever.
posted by Simon! at 8:31 PM on April 10, 2006

Doesn't the wild pitch/passed ball that tied it up give Buckner a little slack? I'd forgotten about it until I watched the re-enactment.
posted by glycolized at 8:38 PM on April 10, 2006

Buckner ruined the Red Sox chances as much as Steve Bartman ruined the Cubs chances. That is, not at all.

I liked this but I wanted it to play out alot faster.
posted by fenriq at 8:38 PM on April 10, 2006

Boston's forgiven Buckner. In fact we've named a bridge in his honor. (see the fifth paragraph)

The sixth game of the 1986 World Series wasn't even the best post-season Game 6 that year.
posted by TimeFactor at 9:09 PM on April 10, 2006

I am also not a fan of baseball, but that NES RBI recreation was awesome. Good editing and timing. It even had me starting to doze off just like I used to on weekends when my dad would watch baseball with his bros and drink beer.

The only thing that was missing was having bizarre dreams or waking moments of bewildered panic when dad and his buds would leap up to cheer and/or scream at the TV.

Baseball fanatics (and players) will hate me for this, but it reminded me that baseball seems to be less about the game itself and more about some kind of nebulous, foggy background narration of comforting Americana - as though it'd be just as good having a Howard Cosell calling an erudite yet well-tempered play-by-play on a box of puppies.
posted by loquacious at 9:33 PM on April 10, 2006

Reversing the Curse
posted by caddis at 10:21 PM on April 10, 2006

The use of Vin Scully's play calling made that reenactment great. I shudder to think that my children will watch videos of baseball history as ruined by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.
posted by kyleg at 10:27 PM on April 10, 2006

i really wish Boston fans would stop friggin whining. multiple teams have won numerous titles. shut yer yap.
posted by gnutron at 10:31 PM on April 10, 2006

Buckner ruined the Red Sox chances as much as Steve Bartman ruined the Cubs chances. That is, not at all.

Not sure how you can make that statement, or even compare the two. Buckner shouldn't have been the goat, but he certainly shoulders some of the blame.

Baseball fanatics (and players) will hate me for this...

I wouldn't hate you, just tell you you're wrong. It is about the game, although for the casual fan, maybe not (though you could say that about a great many things).

multiple teams have won numerous titles.
posted by gnutron

Such amazing insight. Do tell more.
posted by justgary at 10:41 PM on April 10, 2006

i really wish Boston fans would stop friggin whining.

No matter how awesome this thing is, I can't watch it. It's too painful. Yes, the Sox won in 2004, but 1986 is still too hard to watch.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a good friend who's a Mets fan, and who cites the devastating impact of Strawberry and Gooden's fall from grace as the reason for "how fucked up" he is. It sucks when your idols turn out to be jerks.
posted by ibmcginty at 6:32 AM on April 11, 2006

i really wish Boston fans would stop friggin whining.

No matter how awesome this thing is, I can't watch it. It's too painful. Yes, the Sox won in 2004, but 1986 is still too hard to watch.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a good friend who's a Mets fan, and who cites the devastating impact of Strawberry and Gooden's fall from grace as the reason for "how fucked up" he is. It sucks when your idols turn out to be jerks.
posted by ibmcginty at 6:32 AM on April 11, 2006

i really wish Boston fans would stop friggin whining.

No matter how awesome this thing is, I can't watch it. It's too painful. Yes, the Sox won in 2004, but 1986 is still too hard to watch.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a good friend who's a Mets fan, and who cites the devastating impact of Strawberry and Gooden's fall from grace as the reason for "how fucked up" he is. It sucks when your idols turn out to be jerks.
posted by ibmcginty at 6:32 AM on April 11, 2006

FWIW, the video was made by this dude.
posted by ParsonWreck at 6:51 AM on April 11, 2006

I wish you could play head to head online RBI

You can! How can I play RBI against someone over the Internet?
posted by eddydamascene at 7:20 AM on April 11, 2006

The moment that Buckner missed the ball is the moment the Red Sox lost hope. It's the difference between when winning is possible and when it's not. Here's another way of putting it:

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago..."

-- William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust
posted by kirkaracha at 10:01 AM on April 11, 2006

A Nintendo recreation of the Civil War is a good idea, kirkaracha. Let me know when you're done.
posted by surplus at 3:04 AM on April 12, 2006