If silence is golden, then Fenway park was a 24-karat rotting dump 25 years
ago today. When Bucky Dent's home run hit the screen above the Green
Monster on Oct. 2, 1978 you could hear a pin — or a tear — drop.
It looked like 60 years of torture was going to be enough. The Red Sox had
not won a World Series since Babe Ruth guided them to a title in 1918, and
they had lost Game 7s in the World Series on three occasions since: 1946,
1967 and 1975. But that season was going to be different. A powerhouse
lineup that included Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn and Carl Yastrzemski
was going to skip past the Yankees in a one-game playoff, then march through
the postseason and bring Boston fans what they'd been craving for six
decades.
Nursing a 2-0 lead with two on in the seventh inning, Mike Torrez pitched to
5-foot-9 Bucky Dent, who'd hit four home runs in 122 previous games that
season.
And then this:
"Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it! It's a home run! A three-run
homer by Bucky Dent! And the Yankees now lead by a score of 3-2!"
- Yankees announcer Bill White
Here's to 25 years of kicking Red Sox fans in the gut.
And 25 years later to the day, the Sox blow it again. Surprise, surprise.
Posted by Stephen Silver at October 2, 2003 10:17 AM