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Bill Buckner Got Over It

Jim Davis/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

Several years after the 1986 World Series, in a hospitality suite at a postseason event, Bobby Valentine introduced a friend to Frank Cashen. To Cashen, who had built the Mets team that thwarted the Boston Red Sox in that memorable series, Valentine’s guest was a legend.

“Oh, wow, Bill Buckner!” Cashen exclaimed to the man, according to Valentine, the former major league manager. “You’re my favorite all-time Red Sox player!”

Valentine, a confidant of Buckner’s until the day he died, on Monday at age 69, was mortified. How did Buckner respond?