A while ago I replayed the 1986 World Series between New York and Boston made famous by Bill Buckner’s infamous error that would have given Boston the victory in six games. Looking back at the box score, I was surprised to learn Buckner’s blunder wasn’t the only error committed by Boston that night— catcher Rich Gedman and right fielder Dwight Evans were both charged with errors, as well. Evans’ throwing error on a Mookie Wilson single in the fifth inning allowed Ray Knight to advance to third base; he later scored on a ground ball double play. New York also made two errors.
In the deciding game, Boston led 3-0 after five innings before New York exploded for 8 runs over the course of the next three innings and won handily, 8-5.
In my replay, I decided a 7-game series just wouldn’t do. I decided to play 40 games!
Not surprisingly, the series was close, with New York winning the series 21 games to 19. After being badly outplayed in the early games of the series, victory was made possible by an improbable run of 10 wins in 12 games which began with a narrow 3-2 win in game sixteen.
Interestingly, if the series had been just seven games, Boston would have dominated, winning in 5 games: 5-0, 6-3, 3-4, 4-2, and 4-1.
Series Stats
1986 New York (N) Batting
| Name | G | AB | RN | R/G |
| Wally Backman | 38 | 39 | 26 | .667 |
| Keith Hernandez | 40 | 44 | 26 | .591 |
| Ray Knight | 40 | 41 | 25 | .610 |
| Lenny Dykstra | 39 | 33 | 21 | .636 |
| Gary Carter | 36 | 37 | 20 | .541 |
| Rafael Santana | 40 | 41 | 14 | .341 |
| Howard Johnson | 20 | 21 | 12 | .571 |
| Darryl Strawberry | 36 | 35 | 10 | .286 |
| Kevin Mitchell | 14 | 15 | 8 | .533 |
| pitcher | 20 | 20 | 3 | .150 |
| Mookie Wilson | 19 | 19 | 3 | .158 |
| Lee Mazilli | 4 | 5 | 2 | .400 |
| Ed Hearn | 4 | 4 | 1 | .250 |
| George Foster | 8 | 8 | 0 | .000 |
| Tim Teufel | 2 | 2 | 0 | .000 |
| TOTALS | 360 | 364 | 171 | .470 |
1986 New York (N) Pitching
| Name | G | GS | CG | W | L | Sv | IP | RN | ER | ERA |
| Bruce Berenyi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Roger McDowell | 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 25 | 3 | 3 | 1.08 |
| Bob Ojeda | 7 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 13 | 9 | 1.69 |
| John Mitchell | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Randy Meyers | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Dwight Gooden | 8 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 59 | 21 | 20 | 3.05 |
| Rick Aguilera | 8 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 51 | 26 | 22 | 3.88 |
| Ron Darling | 8 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 54 | 26 | 26 | 4.33 |
| Sid Fernandez | 8 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 51 | 31 | 28 | 4.94 |
| Doug Sisk | 12 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 11 | 11 | 5.50 |
| Randy Niemann | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 6.00 |
| Rick Anderson | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 7.62 |
| Jessie Orosco | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 25 | 23 | 22 | 7.92 |
| TOTALS | 101 | 40 | 8 | 21 | 19 | 10 | 366 | 177 | 164 | 4.03 |
1986 Boston Batting
| Name | G | AB | RN | R/G |
| Wade Boggs | 39 | 43 | 43 | 1.000 |
| Jim Rice | 40 | 38 | 25 | .658 |
| Tony Armas | 40 | 41 | 24 | .585 |
| Dwight Evans | 39 | 41 | 21 | .512 |
| Bill Buckner | 39 | 40 | 19 | .475 |
| Marty Barrett | 40 | 42 | 15 | .357 |
| Rich Gedman | 39 | 39 | 11 | .282 |
| Ed Romero | 11 | 11 | 6 | .545 |
| Don Baylor | 20 | 16 | 4 | .250 |
| Rey Quinones | 20 | 20 | 4 | .200 |
| Spike Owen | 9 | 10 | 3 | .300 |
| pitcher | 20 | 20 | 2 | .100 |
| Marc Sullivan | 2 | 2 | 0 | .000 |
| Steve Lyons | 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| Dave Stapleton | 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| Mike Greenwell | 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| TOTALS | 361 | 366 | 177 | .484 |
1986 Boston Pitching
| Name | G | GS | CG | W | L | Sv | IP | RN | ER | ERA |
| Calvin Schiraldi | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Sammy Stewart | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 0.64 |
| Mike Brown | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 1.50 |
| Joe Sambito | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 2.25 |
| Oil Can Boyd | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 64 | 26 | 22 | 3.09 |
| Bruce Hurst | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 53 | 20 | 20 | 3.40 |
| Roger Clemens | 9 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 70 | 29 | 27 | 3.47 |
| Steve Crawford | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 4.09 |
| Tom Seaver | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 35 | 17 | 17 | 4.37 |
| Tim Lollar | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4.50 |
| Al Nipper | 6 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 39 | 24 | 22 | 5.08 |
| Jeff Sellers | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 30 | 29 | 24 | 7.20 |
| Bob Stanley | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 8.31 |
| TOTALS | 89 | 40 | 15 | 19 | 21 | 1 | 364 | 171 | 156 | 3.86 |
