Mookie / Buckner

[Brooklyn]

A friend and I were recently discussing whether Mookie would have beaten the ball out, and we agreed at the very least it would have been close. this is based on our memoires and lore, I'm not sure if I've ever seen really good footage to convince me one way or the other, and if I have, it has certainly been many years.

Does anyone have a link to a good still shot, or preferably to a video that it from a good enough angle to show if he really would have beaten it out?

thanks in advance

[KCGHOST]

If the pitcher did his job of covering the base it would not have been particularly close.

[SiddFinch1]

I pulled out the tape- I think he would have beat it out, but it really would have been close

Plus even if he wouldnt have- keep in mind the game was tied. We would have won it eventually:gt

[VIBaseball]

I remember talking to Mookie once at an in-store appearance. The first point he made about the play was to state his emphatic view that he would have beaten the ball out.

So that would have meant runners on 1st and 3rd for Howard Johnson, who'd pinch-hit for Kevin Elster in the 9th and remained in the game at shortstop.

[Mattingly]

Didn't Ray Knight score from 2B on that E3? One thing that I remember from that play, which I'd watched originally, then saw a replay:

Buckner's biggest mistake wasn't letting the ball get past him. To me, his biggest mistake was staring in bug-eyed amazement at it, rather than chasing it down.

It seems like a dramatic moment that's Hollywood-scripted that a guy makes an error in such a poor moment then freezes in stunned silence, but in everyday baseball, if a ball gets past a guy, I want to see him chase it down. Even if it's a blooper and he has no idea where it landed, I want to see him turn 360 degrees until he finds the ball.

I'm not sure if Buckner would've thrown out Knight at home had he chased the ball (the position of the catcher at the time would've also have been highly important), but he could at least have tried.

[BadKarma]

The sad part about all of this to me is that most people ever remember Buckner for this gaffe, not the long, great career that he had prior to that.

[Mattingly]

The sad part about all of this to me is that most people ever remember Buckner for this gaffe, not the long, great career that he had prior to that.
Even sadder is the fact that he's been tagged with his name being synonymous as a World Series goat. Had Calvin Schiraldi been able to throw strikes (2-strike count, 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th with a lead seems like a good opportunity, I'd say), the game would've been over a long time ago.

Then there was the failure to win Game 7 ...

[brooklynboy]

That gaffe could keep a qualified candidate out of the HOF....

Amazin......Simply Amazin!!