Sunday, September 2, 2007

The Good Bucky.

Last night, J & I are watching the game, and I said "Hey, who's pitching?" He replied: "Buck Holtz." I thought, huh, you don't hear the name Buck too often (unless you know George Costanza's porn star name: Buck Naked). Later, I figured out that the kid's name was actually Clay Buchholz, and he was a 23 year old rookie, making his second MLB start for the Sox, because Wakefield being hurt messed up the rotation a bit.

So, the kid looked good. By the fourth inning, J was saying, but not saying, he was on his way to a no hitter. See, J is a bit superstitious when it comes to baseball. He firmly believes Don Orsillo (Sox announcer) ruined Schilling's no hitter earlier this season by simply announcing he was on his way to a no hitter. So, every time Orsillo or Remy would make note of the zeros on the board, J nearly had a conniption fit at the tv.

He fell asleep in the 8th, and I took over the worrying. They showed a clip of the last Sox pitcher to get a no hitter, Derek (Even though you're a headcase I still miss you since you went Left) Lowe, and I thought, this can't be good for Bucky. Then, they showed a clip from the '67 dream team, who apparently the '07 Sox are being compared to, and a fabulous catch by Yaz in the ninth to keep the pitcher's (whose name I can't remember) no hitter alive. Then lost on the next batter. I wanted to turn the tv off at that point, fearing the worst, but I left it on and woke J up for the last batter.

And he did it! Bucky got the no hitter, on a called strike that seemed to take forever to call. Jason Varitek picked him up (what I wouldn't give to have been Clay Buchholz for that moment) and the team swarmed the field, nearly crushing the kid to death. You could tell he was crying, and so was I. Then you could hear Josh Beckett say, "You just did something Curt Schilling couldn't even do!"

So, there you have it. The first Red Sox Rookie to get a no hitter. And I'm still calling him Bucky. But the good Bucky, unlike the other one, who is known to all Sox fans as Bucky Fucking Dent.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh yay! A Sox reference that I understand!

I watched a documentary about the Red Sox a couple of weeks ago and I giggled when they said that when Bucky Dent was in Boston, they would put his name on the scoreboard as Bucky F. Dent.