Jul 13 2008 09:34 PM
Gary Hart drops out of the presidential race.
Congressional hearing goes hard after Iran-Contra figure General Richard Secord
Israel looking to make peace with Jordan.
Plot revealed to kill Noriega.
And in sports, the Mets revisit October in May and beat the Sox, 2-0.
A HINT OF OCTOBER ON A SPRING NIGHT
By CRAIG WOLFF
Published: May 8, 1987
No one saw Bill Buckner inch closer to the baseline, nor did he bring his legs together when Mookie Wilson came to bat. And he did not, in a stray moment, walk to that section of dirt deep in the corner of the infield and offer a small prayer for the one that got away.
Still, Buckner did seize the moment. First chance he got, the first baseman went up close to Wilson and said, ''Mookie, what do you say you hit me some groundballs?''
The Boston Red Sox came back to Shea Stadium last night for the first time since those fateful, wild nights last October to play a game for charity with the Mets. Apparently, the Red Sox suffered no seizures. Wade Boggs returned to the same dugout bench where last he cried, and not a whimper was heard. Marty Barrett, the man who made the last out of the World Series, said the Red Sox had ''gotten rid of that bad feeling one month after the end of the season.'' 'A Little Weird'
Still, to feel no pangs at all - it did not seem possible. ''Well, there is something a little weird about it,'' said Buckner. ''There's still all the noise here, the planes and the fans and the press.''
It was a rather odd circumstance for two participants in the World Series one year to meet the following year in May. But this was all planned some time ago. They played an exhibition last year in September at Fenway Park with great excitement attached to the game because both teams were in first place and the script was already building.
The Mets won that one and they won last night, 2-0, in a game that lacked any special fever, despite the feeling of nostalgia that seemed to run through the stands. There were 32,247 fans in the park and the proceeds went to the New York City Amateur Baseball Foundation and Boston's Jimmy Fund for leukemia research.
Both teams have been struggling. The Red Sox came in as a sub-.500 team, in fourth place in the American League East. The Mets were in third in the National League East. And both teams had spent a good part of the season without some main players. The Red Sox had played without Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, who has arm trouble, and Rich Gedman, their No. 1 catcher who just re-signed with them a week ago. The Mets, of course, had been missing Dwight Gooden and Roger McDowell.
On that level anyway, the Mets did take care of some business last night. Gooden and McDowell each threw before the game. And when the teams were introduced, coming out to the baselines, World Series style, Gooden appeared with ''the rest of the world champion New York Mets,'' as the announcer put it. In a sense, this was Gooden's first truly public appearance since ending a month of treatment for drug use. But there was no discernible reaction from the crowd. Cone Is Sharp
The Mets got strong work last night from David Cone, the young pitcher who has been having trouble filling a spot in the rotation. He pitched seven innings and gave up three hits. Randy Myers pitched the last two with no problems. But then, most of the players seemed to want to get this done quickly. Many swung at the first pitches and the game was over in 2 hours 7 minutes, the only runs coming from Lee Mazzilli, who scored on a grounder by Rafael Santana in the second and a single by Santana in the fifth.
Clearly, the night was reserved for humor, mostly self-deprecating and mostly from Buckner. He committed the error on the groundball hit by Wilson that passed through his legs in the 10th inning of the sixth game of the Series, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run and the Mets to complete an astounding comeback.
He was asked beforehand if he thought the crowd would give him a standing ovation. ''They'd better,'' he said. In fact, the fans gave Buckner two standing ovations, and when they watched a tape on the large screen of Jesse Orosco striking out Barrett for the final out of the Series - something that happens every night here - they roared. The Red Sox could be seen watching the tape from their dugout.
