In the few years I spent living in Boston and knowing the people I know who've lived there all their life, I can say one thing is certain, that Boston has a love/hate relationship with their sports stars, and while lately, due to Patriots & Red Sox recent success, it's been more the former & less the latter. But I can't think of many athletes who were berated more by any city than Bill Buckner after the 1986 World Series. I mean, I, at 8 years old, felt bad for this guy, even tho his colassal blunder led to the Mets winning the World Series that year, I still felt awful for the guy. But yesterday Bill Buckner returned to Fenway Park to throw out the first pitch on opening day and received a 4 minute standing ovation. That's just terrific. This poor dude has been hiding out in Boise Idaho for years, hanging his head, probably wondering when he can feel good about himself again, and yesterday, after receiving the unamimous & emphatic approval of the fans & media that had decades earlier tried to destroy his life, must have felt... pretty okay.
I can't help but think that had the Red Sox not won a couple championships the past few years that the crowd would not have been quite as jubilant and thus not so welcoming to Buckner. But now I wanna see Steve Bartman tossing out the first pitch at Wrigley, Oooh! or John Rocker on opening day at CitiField next year! That'd be amazing. I'd have to buy some stock in AA batteries.
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