October 25, 1986
Twenty years ago today, the Red Sox looked to be ready to break the curse. Ahead 5-3 with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning and nobody on base, all the Sox needed to do to start the celebration in New England was to get the final out.
With Calvin Schiraldi pitching, Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell, and Ray Knight singled in succession to cut the lead to 5-4 with runners at the corners. The three singles were enough to end Schiraldi’s night, and he was relieved by Bob Stanley.
Stanley promptly threw a wild pitch that tied the score and allowed the winning run to advance into scoring position. Here is text of Vin Scully’s call of the 3-2 pitch to Mookie Wilson:
“Little roller up along first, behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here come Knight and the Mets win it!”
Later:
“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. The Mets are not only alive, they are well, and they will play the Red Sox in game seven tomorrow.”
The Mets would, of course, go on to win the series the next night. New England would have to wait another 18 years to capture a World Series title.
A while back, I posted a video of a Nintendo re-enactment of the sequence to end game six. It’s worth posting again, if for no other reason than to hear Vin Scully make the famous call.
