Remembering the Joy and Heartbreak of the 1986 Boston Red Sox

This year we are going to relive the 1986 season game by game. Each day we will tell the story of how the day’s game went, reflect on some of the ups and downs of the season, and revel in the joys and cry at the heartbreak. 1986 was one of the most memorable seasons in Red Sox Nation because it was the embodiment of what the Curse of the Bambino truly meant, and for so long it felt like the last true chance we would ever have of breaking through as Red Sox fans. That is, until a group of idiots arrived to redeem us all!

As the sun rose on the 1986 season, there was not a lot of optimism that the Red Sox would be anything more than the middle-of-the-road ballclub they had been for nearly a decade. The team had not made the playoffs since the 1975 season, and they were coming off a mediocre 81–81 1985 campaign in which they finished fifth in the American League East, eighteen and a half games behind the Toronto Blue Jays.

Offensively, there were a number of things that management felt they could build upon going into spring training. They scored the third most runs in all of baseball and hit the fifth most home runs, and they had the highest team batting average at .282, thanks in large part to their future Hall of Fame third baseman, Wade Boggs, and his career-high .368 average. Boggs led the team in hits with an incredible 240, while Dwight Evans led the team in homers with 29, followed by Jim Rice with 27. Bill Buckner had a team-leading 110 runs batted in, and Dwight Evans scored 110 runs.

While the offense was a positive, the pitching staff, on the other hand, was not as awe-inspiring. They were in the middle of the pack in team ERA at 4.08 and tenth in runs allowed. Oil Can Boyd led the team in wins with a 15–13 record. Steve Crawford led the team with 12 saves, followed by Bob Stanley with 10. One of the biggest questions for the team coming into the ’86 season was how their young second-year starter from the University of Texas would bounce back from a rotator cuff injury that he suffered in June, derailing his season.

With spring training wrapping up in Florida, John McNamara was hoping that his second year as the skipper in Boston would bring positive results. The team was returning most of their key impact players from the previous year, as well as a few additions that were made in the offseason. The infield returned with Bill Buckner at first, Marty Barrett at second, Glenn Hoffman at short, and All-Star Wade Boggs at third. Fellow All-Star Rich Gedman would handle most of the catching duties, and thanks to a trade with the hated Yankees, Don Baylor was scheduled to be the everyday DH. In the outfield, the Sox had tried-and-true veterans at the corners with Jim Rice in left and Dwight Evans in right. Roaming the Fens between them was a combination of the powerful Tony Armas and the young Steve Lyons. The rotation was anchored by a quartet of returning starters: Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd, Bruce Hurst, Al Nipper, and Roger Clemens. Veteran Mike Brown completed the rotation to start the season. The bullpen was anchored by right-handers Bob Stanley, Steve Crawford, and Sammy Stewart, with veteran Joe Sambito handling the left-handed duties.

The team would begin the ’86 campaign on the road with a “lovely” early April trip to the Great Lakes area, with a pair of three-game series against the Tigers in Detroit and the White Sox in Chicago.

Stay tuned as we begin our day-by-day journey through the memorable 1986 Red Sox season.

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