I have been a baseball fan my entire life. My dad was a minor league pitcher (lefty) and I played Little League, Babe Ruth, High School and even college baseball. I loved every second of it. I can’t get enough baseball.

Of course living in Chicago I have the privilege of seeing two good teams (Cubs and White Sox) every night of the week on TV. Yesterday, however, I enjoyed the KC Royals home opener in front of a big screen at a local pup here in Kansas City watching the game with some friends I work with at Youthfront. I don’t care who is playing… I’ll watch it.

I was a Mets fan growing up. When you grow up in NY you pick the Yankees or the Mets. I chose the Mets and can vividly remember the 1986 World Series in which the Mets beat the Red Sox continuing the curse of the Bambino.

The Mets were great that year. They won 108 games during the regular season and won their division by 21.5 games. They beat the Astros 4 games to 2 in the NLCS and then went on to “trickle” past the Sox in 7 games in the World Series.

Of course, probably more note worthy than the Mets winning the series was the error by Red Sox first baseman named Bill Buckner. The error ultimately led to the Mets extending the series to seven games and then going on to beat the Sox.

At the time of the error I was thrilled that the ball had trickled past Buckner. Some years later, however, I hated that about the Series. As I got older I realized I would rather see my team loose (after all it is only a game for grown-ups) than see any human being endure what Bill Buckner had to endure.

For years Buckner has been shunned from the City of Boston (and not the Dwight Schrute shun on Andy kind off shun either) and has been the target of mean-spirited jokes, literally had people try to take his life and some report he even tried to take his own life –all because of an error that some say lost the series for the Sox. True baseball fans know however, that there was an error before the error. But as it is in life, you remember the last one not the one before the one that really matters…

Ahhhhh. But the beauty of baseball and the grace and reverence on which the very game stands prevailed on Tuesday at Fenway Park in Boston as Bill Bucker, the very one that made the error, was redeemed by the city of Boston. For 20 years people have shown hatred, disgust and absolute distain for the man. However, 2 championships later, yesterday Boston redeemed Bill Buckner and welcomed him back. Here is the clip…