Weber Talks Sports Radio #2: WE HAVE A GAME SEVEN

The host, Jason Webber, discusses the events of the 1986 World Series game between the Red Sox and Mets. The Mets were on the verge of elimination but managed to come back and tie the game in the 10th inning, ultimately winning the game due to an error by Bill Buckner. The host predicts that the Mets will win the next game and the World Series. Alright, good morning everybody and welcome back to the Webber Talks Sports Radio Show. I am your host, Jason Webber, and today I'm going to briefly talk about the events that just transpired early, early last night between the Red Sox and Mets in the decisive, or so we thought, game six of the 1986 World Series. I mean, this game was huge. The Mets were just on the verge of elimination at home at Shea, and they just had the best regular season record in their franchise's history, so losing this World Series at home after being favored to win in the first place probably would have been a bad look and just very embarrassing for the franchise as a whole. And as for the Red Sox, they were just one strike away from breaking the curse of the Bambino, because of course when you sell off the greatest player the game's ever seen for just $100,000, your franchise is going to be pretty cursed since then. And I mean, as for the Mets, they've only been around since 62, and they're one for two on championships as of today. They won one in 69 against the Orioles in five games, and then they went back four years later, they got to the Athletics in seven games and took them all the way to seven games, but they lost it. And as for the Red Sox, they've been around since 1901, they were originally the Boston Americans for a couple years, 1901-07, and including this year, they've been pretty successful as a franchise as a whole, I mean, they've gotten nine AL pennants to their name, five World Series, they're looking for their sixth, they could have had it last night, but as I'm going to get to in a bit, I'm just going to break down the game for you, they didn't get it last night, they just didn't have it, but yeah, we're going to get to that. And just how even these teams really got there, the Mets, they just, like I said earlier, they just won 108 regular season games, they won their division by a very large margin, they won it by 21 and a half games, like there was nobody stopping this team. You got Doc Gooden, you got Strawberry, you got Keith Hernandez, you got Gary Carter, you got a stacked lineup, really good rotation, there was nothing stopping this team in the regular season, and it even showed in the playoffs, they beat the Astros in six games to get to this spot in the World Series, and they're looking for their second title, which we never know what's going to happen tonight, but we'll see. And as for the Sox, they're no slouches themselves, they won 95 games in their regular season, they just won their division by 5 and a half games, they get to the playoffs, they beat the Angels in seven games to get to their first World Series since 75, since they used Strzemski at bat, that we all, well maybe not all of us, but some of us know how that one ended, and the Red Sox are looking for their first title since 1918, but we got to see how that one ends up for tonight. As for last night's spectacle, in very short ways of calling it, that's really where I get to go for it right now, I mean, let's see, the pitching matchup, it was Roger Clemens versus Bobby Ojeda, it's a very level matchup, I would say, I mean, Clemens lit them up in the first game that he had against them, and I believe that was game two, might have been game one, but he lit them up, the Red Sox won that one very convincingly, and as for Ojeda, he got a run pretty early in that game, and he was able to pull it through in this one though, but I'm going to get to that in a second, I mean, just for the scoring plays, the top of the first, Boggs got the leadoff hit in the first, he drove in Dwight Evans' double to center, made it 1-0 Sox after one very quiet second inning, and he got all the top of the third, Spike Owen, Wade Boggs, Marty Barrett, all three singles out to the outfield, they bring in Spike Owen on that run, Boston goes up by two. Clemens and Ojeda got through the fourth though without really any trouble, Clemens though, at the bottom of the fifth, he was starting to really struggle, he walked there with Strawberry, Strawberry swiped second base, as we've seen him do time and time again throughout the playoffs, he was just a base stealer, Ray Knight singled him in from home, he singled up straight at the middle, Mookie Wilson gets on, he singled the right field, Danny Heap drives him in on a ground ball, double play, Clemens got out of the inning after that unscathed, kept the run deficit, not the run deficit, he kept it as a 2-2 tie game, jumps to the seventh inning, Bobby Ojeda got pulled after the sixth inning, he had a pretty good start out there, eight hits, two earned runs, two walks, three strikeouts, Roger McDowell comes in for him, Marty Barrett walked, Jim Rice reached on an E-5 unfortunately, and then Marty Barrett advanced to third and later scored on that ground out by Dwight Evans, Rich Gedman singled two left fielder, Mookie Wilson, who, he actually threw out Jim Rice trying to score, so that was a very, very nice play, very crucial to the game, and the inning was over after that, where what could have been a Red Sox 4-2 lead, ends up only being a 3-2 lead, which thankfully for the Mets, they really needed that, as in the bottom of the eighth, Cal Mischiraldi replaced Roger Clemens after seven innings, Clemens' line, he gave up four hits, three runs, one earned, two walks, eight strikeouts, and then after Clemens' replacement, Lee Mazzilli had singled to right field, Monique Dykstra reaching the fielder's choice, Wally Backman bunted to advance both of the runners, and then Gary Carter hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring on Lee Mazzilli, tying the game at three. Now like I said earlier, the Red Sox didn't get that fourth run right then and there, if they did, they would be up by one, going into the ninth, and then they could have closed out the series then and there, but the ninth inning was very quiet for both sides, nobody scores, and the game heads to extras, which is where all the fun begins. In this tenth inning, Rick Aguilera on his second inning of relief for the Mets, he gave up a leadoff home run to David Henderson, giving the Red Sox that 4-3 lead that they could have had two innings prior, but later on in the inning, Wade Boggs had doubled in Spike Owen after Calvin Shorley struck out swinging, and Marty Barrett had singled to center field to bring in Wade Boggs, giving the Red Sox that 5-3 lead, three outs away from their first World Championship since 1975, or no, excuse me, 1918, got my numbers wrong, anyway. To the bottom of the inning, where Calvin Shorley gets on, back on the mound, he gets Wally Backman and Keith Hernandez to fly out, both to left and center field, respectively, making the Red Sox just three strikes away from that World Series that they've been desperately looking for for many decades at this point. Mets weren't backing down, though, as Gary Carter singled in to left, Kevin Mitchell singled to center field, Ray Knight had singled to center field to drive in Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell advances to third, and Red Sox managers, he's like, no, we're not doing that. He pulls Shorley after all that mess that just happened, he's like, I can't have you blowing this game right now. So he brings in Bob Stanley to pitch to Mookie Wilson, and this at-bat goes on for several minutes, I mean, there's so many foul tips, he gets Wilson into a full count, but before the full count even happens, Stanley uncorks a wild pitch that goes all the way to the backstop, Mitchell scores the tying run, Ray Knight advances all the way to second base, and as the at-bat goes on, three pitches later, Mookie Wilson grounds a ball to first base, and what looked like an easy play, I mean, hell, you'd think a kindergartner could have made this play, but it didn't happen. The ball just goes right through Bill Buckner's legs, and Ray Knight scored, and the Mets won the game. I mean, just as a general reaction, Shea Stadium went crazy, for one. Just as any team's fanbase would after a game like that happens, I mean, if you watch your team win like that, you thought you were dead, you guys thought you were sitting ducks, you thought this game was over 20 minutes ago, maybe even, but they rallied, they came back, I mean, they were favorites in the series to begin with, but they just went down to underdogs real quick, real fast, and I personally cannot believe it. I think this game should have been over right then and there, once that bottom of the tenth inning really started, you saw Backman get out, you saw Hernandez fly out, just the morals of the team, they kind of just fell apart, or so we thought, they looked a little down and out, but then you realize the stakes, again, it's the World Series, you can't just give up right then and there, you're only down two runs, it's not the end of the world, you can win that game, and that's what this Mets team just did. And with that being said, and with the comeback that we just saw, there's no way that I would go against picking this team to win the whole thing, it is night and day with that. If you're going against the Mets tomorrow night, you're crazy, I'm sorry. If I had to put out a prediction, obviously from what I just said and with everything that went on last night at Che, the Mets are going into this game and they're winning their second World Series, and it's just too easy of a call. There's no way you're going to go against that team, and I hope everybody tunes in to watch that game because I'm going to put out an episode tomorrow, make sure that you tune into that, and come back, if I was wrong, call it in, just be like, hey, AJ, you were wrong, Red Sox killed them, they won the game, they won their World Series, first one since the Stone Age, since the first World War, like, oh, good for them. But if the Mets pull this one out tomorrow night, I want it booked on here that I called it first. Thank you for always listening, and I'll see you on the next one. Take it easy, everybody.