Redemption Song

The great part about sports is that you have the chance to redeem yourself. Even though countless mental and physical errors will happen during a game usually the player has a chance to make it up later in the game. This was never more fitting then in last night's Brewers Mets game.
In the top of the sixth inning the Brewers rookie Casey McGehee made an error that made
Bill Buckner sleep easy. Buckner made an error in the 1986 World Series that has haunted him for years. Casey McGehee dropped a routine infield popup that would have ended the inning and the next play the Mets scored two runs to make it a 3-2 game. It just so happened in the bottom of the inning Casey McGehee got a chance to undo his gaffe in the top half of the inning. McGehee stepped up with the bases loaded and corked his first career grand slam. After going into the dugout you saw him curse into his helmet with lots of emotion and showed his competitive spirit. Just as feel good as this story is, it is just as heart breaking thinking of Buckner who also made his error against the Mets.
I was born in 1989, three years after the error Buckner made in the World Series and I know the reference. Red Sox nation never will forget the error in game six that may have cost the Red Sox the World Series that would have broken the "Curse of the Bambino". It takes a long time to gain hero status in sports but it takes no time to be a goat. Buckner played in the Majors for 20 years. He was a career .289 hitter and led the NL in 1980 with a .324 average. He put together one of his best seasons in 1986 and was a main reason the Red Sox were in the playoffs with his great September. He started the rally in the ninth inning in the Championship Series to get to the World Series. Buckner was a staple of this World Series bound team.
In the last inning of every game, manager John McNamara would pull Buckner for Dale Stapleton for defensive purposes. Buckner had very bad knees he was battling that effected his fielding. It just so happened in this extra inning game McNamara decided not to pull Buckner. After being one strike away from winning the World Series the wheels started coming off. Consective hits and wild pitches led to a tie game and then eventually to the "error heard round the world" by Buckner. The fact is though as much as there is redemption in McGehee case many times there isn't like in the tragic story of Buckner. After this Buckner recieved death threats and had bouts with depression over one stupid play.
Finally, I think many times in sports we like to put the blame on one person when many times it is because of many mistakes. Had manager John McNamara taken Buckner out like usual or if the pitcher would have not given up three straight hits the Red Sox would have won the World Series. Or in the Cubs situation if you could field a routine ball to the shortstop the name Steve Bartman wouldn't mean anything. I think sports fans need to understand mistakes happen and that we should learn to drop things and not let one mistake linger.

But that's just my TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS...