Between the Seams | Bill Buckner feted in Fenway return

BOSTON — The ceremony was about 2007. The moment was about 1986.

The Red Sox got their World Series rings Tuesday at Fenway Park, part of a pregame ceremony with much of the same thrills and frills that made the 2005 event so memorable.

It was in that context of two titles in four years that one of the oldest wounds in Red Sox history was finally closed. Once all the rings were handed out, and all the other Boston sports champions had taken their seats near third base and both teams had been introduced, a figure emerged from The Wall.

For the first time in 11 years, Bill Buckner appeared on the field at Fenway. For the first time in 22 years, Buckner found peace there.

In 1986, a World Series ball rolled through Buckner's legs, and the world seemed to close in on the first baseman. He became the poster boy for crushing defeat, embarrassing failure and for the Curse of the Bambino.

Only recently did Buckner let the demons go. Tuesday afternoon, they were forever buried underneath an avalanche of applause as Buckner threw out the ceremonial first pitch to former 1986 teammate Dwight Evans.

"I appreciate all the thought," a tearful Buckner said in a news conference after the ceremony. "That's the most important thing. The thought behind it. It was hard to do for me. I really had to forgive the — not the fans of Boston, per se — but I would have to say in my heart, I had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family through. So I've done that, I'm over that.

"Some of it is unjustly directed my way and some of it in general, where do you draw the line? Is it OK to disrupt people's lives over a baseball game? I'm pretty tough mentally, but the hardest part was my family, my kids. They still have to deal with it. That made me a little bitter. I'm over that."

Buckner's error on Mookie Wilson's ground ball to first was the infamous conclusion to Game 6 of the 1986 Series against the Mets at Shea Stadium. Leading 5-3 in the 10th inning, and one strike from ending a 68-year title drought, the Red Sox blew the game, with Buckner's error — the last of a series of Sox miscues that inning — allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run. The Mets won Game 7 two nights later, and Buckner's legacy was forged.

Buckner returned to the Red Sox in 1987 and 1990 as a player, but the constant reminders about Game 6 drove Buckner all the way to Idaho. He had not been to Fenway since 1997, and nearly wasn't there Tuesday.

"The Red Sox have been great all along, nothing against them," Buckner said. "I didn't think I was going to. I made up my mind I wasn't going to come. Then I prayed about it a little bit and here I am and I'm glad I came.

"As a team, we went into [the 1986 Series] feeling we could win. We thought we had the best team, but we didn't win."