Sports Nut

The New Buckner

By

Rob:

Baseball is a cruel, cruel game. I thought cruelty was being forced to root for the Kansas City Royals these past 10 years. Hah. Cruelty is what has been inflicted on Byung-Hyun Kim, this poor, downtrodden, 22-year-old Korean kid who barely speaks a word of English.

If the Yankees win this World Series, no one is going to remember that Bob Brenly frittered away a chance to put the Yankees away early in Game 4. No one is going to remember that he pulled Curt Schilling after seven innings and just 88 pitches, forcing Kim to get six outs for the save (something he hadn’t done since July 4). Or that, after laboring through 45 pitches in the eighth and ninth, Kim was sent out to give up the game-winning homer in the 10th.

And most tragic of all, no one will remember that, with the Diamondbacks nursing another two-run lead in Game 5, Brenly called on Kim once again to shut the door—after he had thrown 61 pitches the night before. Kim had thrown 50 pitches in an outing just three times all year—and he got at least two days of rest after each one. I would wager that there wasn’t a pitcher in baseball this season who came into a game after throwing 60 pitches the night before.

But that won’t be remembered. Just as no one remembers that the game was already tied when Bill Buckner let the ball go through his legs, no one will remember the extenuating circumstances that led to Kim giving up two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth-inning, game-tying homers in back-to-back games in the World Series.

Baseball is a cruel game, and baseball fans can be unforgiving. Buckner was run out of Boston on a rail. Mitch Williams, who ruined Curt Schilling’s last shot at a title, received death threats from irate Phillies fans and never pitched for the team again. Donnie Moore committed suicide less than three years after he gave up a last-strike homer to Dave Henderson in the 1986 ALCS.

I’ve been subtly rooting for the Yankees throughout this Series, if only out of pure self-interest. But after watching Kim nearly break down into tears on the mound tonight while his teammates rushed to his side to console him, I can’t help but hope that he ends up with a better fate than the one destiny has carved for him at the moment.

It’s not over. The D-Backs need a pair of wins, but they have their aces going in Games 6 and 7. And they’d better expect Johnson and Schilling to each go the distance, because barring unforeseen circumstances—like a 17-inning game—Kim is done for the year.