DALLAS (AP) The baseball that broke the hearts of Boston Red Sox fans everywhere and turned Bill Buckner into one of the most famous goats in sports history is up for sale.

The ball that rolled through Buckner‘s legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between Boston and the New York Mets will part of an auction Friday in Dallas. Heritage Auctions said the ball is expected to bring in more than $100,000 as the centerpiece of an auction featuring the baseball memorabilia collection of Los Angeles songwriter Seth Swirsky.

”That one ball kind of encapsulates the highest and lowest you can feel in sports at any given moment,” Swirsky said.

Buckner hit .289 with 2,715 hits in 22 years and had more than 100 RBIs in two of his three full seasons with the Red Sox. All of that was overshadowed by his error at Shea Stadium that night when Mookie Wilson‘s grounder rolled through Buckner’s legs, allowing the Mets to cap a two-out rally with a victory in the 10th inning. The Mets went on to win the series and Boston‘s championship drought – dating to 1918 – continued until 2004.

”I think everybody remembers where they were, even if they were a sports fan or not. Everybody seems to remember that. It’s not just a baseball moment. It’s not just a piece of Mets history or Red Sox history but it seems like it was a cultural moment of the ’80s,” said Swirsky, who co-wrote the hit ”Tell It To My Heart” by Taylor Dayne, and has multiple hits with Celine Dion, Olivia Newton-John and Al Green.

After the ball rolled through Buckner’s legs, it was picked up by right field umpire Ed Montague, who put a tiny ”x” near a seam to mark it. Montague then gave the ball to Mets executive Arthur Richman. Wilson signed it to Richman, writing: ”To Arthur, the ball won it for us, Mookie Wilson, 10/25/86.” As the ball made its way around the clubhouse, someone kissed it, leaving a tobacco stain.

Charlie Sheen bought the famous ball for more than $93,000 in 1992. Swirsky purchased it for nearly $64,000 in 2000.

Swirsky offered the ball up on eBay last October for $1 million but got no takers. He said though that the eBay offering – done on a whim after he realized he could close the bidding on Oct. 25, 2011, the 25th anniversary of Buckner’s famous error – made him realize he would be OK with selling his entire collection.

Other offerings from Swirsky in the auction include: Reggie Jackson’s third home run ball from Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, which earned him the title ”Mr. October,” expected to sell for more than $20,000; Babe Ruth’s 136th career home run baseball from 1921, estimated to sell for more than $50,000; and a 1923 letter signed by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis denying reinstatement of ”Shoeless Joe” Jackson, expected to garner more than $20,000.

Also on the block is the Texas Rangers cap Jose Canseco was wearing in 1993 when a ball hit by Cleveland Indian Carlos Martinez bounced off Canseco’s head and then over the outfield wall for an assisted homer. That’s expected to sell for more than $4,000.

Buckner was traded to the Red Sox by the Chicago Cubs in May 1984 and released in July 1987. He rejoined them in 1990 then retired after 22 games. Four years ago, Buckner returned to Fenway Park for the first time since 1997 when he was batting coach with the Chicago White Sox and was cheered for more than four minutes.

Swirsky, who while growing up on Long Island developed a love for the Mets and New York Yankees, said that he remembers watching the 1986 Game 6 with his father. Since buying the ball, he said, he has also made it his mission to stress that Buckner shouldn’t just be remembered for the Game 6 error, reminding people that Buckner had almost as many hits as Lou Gehrig.

”Buckner was a fantastic player and I will only say good things about him,” he said.

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Online:

Heritage Auctions: http://www.ha.com

Seth Swirsky: http://www.seth.com

About 10,000 people and almost as many flying insects remained at Target Field on Tuesday night when Nick Punto pinch-hit for Kevin Youkilis at garbage time for his new team, the Boston Red Sox. If anybody booed in the eighth inning, the cheering drowned them out, and an appreciative Punto lifted his batting helmet in thanks.

“It really caught me off guard more than anything,” Punto said. “I played seven years here. That’s a lot of time. Twins fans showing their appreciation, it really felt good.”

Punto walked and slid hard into second baseman Trevor Plouffe on a force play as the final run scored in Boston’s 11-2 rout. When Punto returned to the dugout, a few dozen fans in the third-base box seats applauded his effort. The angriest had long departed the premises, annoyed with starter Nick Blackburn (who needed only five pitches to give up his first run), the brief cloudburst in the fourth, or the blowout score.

A lot has happened since the Twins patted Punto on the head and sent him on his way after the 2010 season.

Longest-serving ‘piranha’

The longest-serving Twin of the three players then-White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen nicknamed “little piranhas” in 2006 (along with Jason Bartlett and Jason Tyner), Punto hooked on last year with the St. Louis Cardinals, winning the World Series ring that eluded him here. Punto hasn’t received the ring yet and isn’t sure when he’ll get it, but he already knows exactly where he’ll keep it.

“Right there,” he said, pointing to the ring finger on his left hand.

After the season, the Cardinals cut him loose, choosing younger, cheaper backups over a 34-year-old with durability questions. Last year, a sports hernia, a right forearm flexor strain and a strained left oblique forced Punto to the disabled list three times (sound familiar?). He played only 63 games but batted .278, a 40-point improvement over his final season in Minnesota.

Punto made 10 postseason starts at second base and fielded well enough to draw a two-year, $3 million offer from Boston in December as a utility infielder, an upgrade from his $750,000 salary with St. Louis.

Most of you probably remember that Punto’s play here infuriated some people. His headfirst slides into first base and occasionally foolhardy base-running enraged the same subset of folks who routinely bash manager Ron Gardenhire. I liked Punto, but sometimes he even tested my patience. His base-running gaffe in the 2009 playoffs led off this harsh piece that drew more reader comments than anything I’ve ever done for MinnPost.

Scouts love his versatility

Here’s the thing: Scouts love Punto’s versatility, slick glove, smarts and hustle. A National League scout who played in the majors once told me that Punto’s knack for diving and snagging ground balls, rather than flopping for show, gave him the same above-average range as someone a step quicker.

But he’s not, and probably never should have been, an everyday player. Today, scouts use a 150 at-bat benchmark for backups – enough to be productive, but not enough to expose their flaws. Punto, they say, fits that category.

That’s not how Gardenhire used him, thanks to the Twins’ abysmal record of producing middle infielders and third basemen. The Twins haven’t signed and developed an everyday shortstop since Pat Meares held the position from 1993 to 1998. Cristian Guzman (Yankees) and Jason Bartlett (San Diego) arrived in trades, as did Punto (Philadelphia). The last homegrown second baseman: Luis Rivas, who left after the 2004 season. At third, the Twins ran through a succession of stopgaps between Corey Koskie in 2004 and Danny Valencia in 2010.

Punto’s breakout 2006 season, where he batted .290 with spectacular glove work at third, deluded the Twins into thinking he could be a regular. Except for a .284 resurgence in 2008, he never hit close to that again. In the end, too many injuries and too big a paycheck (he made $4 million each in his last two seasons here) prompted the Twins to let him go – a sensible decision at the time.

Maybe we didn’t appreciate what we had. Matt Tolbert, the next Punto, hit .198 and now plays in the Cubs system. Every ball Valencia waves at, and every double play that goes unturned, makes old Nicky look better and better.

At home in Boston

Boston, he likes. Punto found a house with a yard for his two children and two dogs in a leafy neighborhood in Chestnut Hill, Mass., not far from Boston College. So far he’s batting .267, mainly backing up Youkilis at third. He had three hits and three RBI in his first start April 8 in Detroit.

When Punto sits, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said, “He’s into the game, very observant. He’s with his teammates. He’ll talk about pitcher’s pitches. He’s with [hitting coach] Dave Magadan a lot, talking about what they see. He’s a good guy on the team, a really good guy. I’m glad we got him.”

Joining the Sox allowed Punto to complete an odd trifecta of playing before the toughest fans in baseball (Philadelphia), the smartest (St. Louis) and the most panicky (Boston). Already, Punto experienced the season-long Armageddon that is Red Sox-Yankees baseball. A two-game pounding by the Evil Empire last weekend, topped with a blown nine-run lead on Saturday, brought a monsoon of boos for Valentine over Boston’s 4-10 start.

Knowing my Boston friends, expect Wednesday night’s bullpen fiasco that turned a 7-1 laugher into a 7-6 squeaker to overshadow the three-game sweep of the Twins. In Red Sox Nation, catastrophe trumps achievement.

“I think in Boston, it’s historical, passed down through the generations,” Punto said. “You love the Red Sox, and that’s how it’s going to be. They’re definitely going to love to cheer you when you’re doing well, and if you’re doing bad, it’s going to get bad. That’s how it was in Philadelphia. They can go from booing to cheering you really quick, because they’re so emotionally involved.”

“We’ve got a good group of guys here. It’s going to get better. As a group, we’re not playing good baseball, but we’re still having fun together. It’s still early, and we’ll have a really good season when we start playing good baseball.”

The Boston Red Sox make final preparations for the 2012 season; one that the team and their fans help diminishes the bad memory of last season’s September collapse. The team has made several significant moves this off-season; the most dramatic of which was severing ties with two-time World Series winning manager Terry Francona and bringing in the services of former New York Mets manager and ESPN analyst, Bobby Valentine. In a strange twist of fate, it is now Francona that occupies the role of baseball analyst for ESPN; replacing the departed Valentine.

When a team begins to fail in meeting front office and fan expectations, they must go in an opposite direction to shake up the roster and regain their players’ competitive edge. Valentine is just that, an outspoken manager, but one that is solid strategically. Valentine’s prior success with the Texas Rangers and New York Mets speak to that.

Make no mistake, Valentine is no Terry Francona; neither in style or approach. Francona is a winning manager with two World Series titles, but some of his veteran players began to drown out his voice. Valentine is far more likely to not only maintain the players’ attention, but also occasionally irritate his team as he did with Carl Crawford. Back as an analyst with ESPN, the free-speaking Valentine criticized the speedy outfielder’s batting stance and how it may be contributing to his struggles at the plate. It took several weeks after Valentine’s hire for him and Crawford to speak; hinting that the player’s memory of the criticism still resonated.

The hiring of Valentine was a dramatic move by the Red Sox front office to send a clear message to the team and its fans that the atmosphere in the clubhouse was going to change. With ownership’s full support, Valentine will have free reign to set the tone in his locker room as he sees fit; and will not shy away from public statements that will likely get a rise from fans and opponents like. In fact, the first order of business was the elimination of beer in the clubhouse; something that was abused by several players and to blame for the late season struggles of the team.

The new skipper’s willingness to get into name calling against the New Yankees is another example of his outspoken nature. While occasional trading of barbs through the media helps to fuel a sports rivalry, Terry Francona always positioned his comments with a level of respect for his opponents; while also not being one to call out a player, which was an endearing quality of his during his tenure in Boston.

Being brash and in command at all times does not always end with positive results. At times, a manager needs to handle matters in-house. During the span of his eight year managerial tenure, Francona had many opportunities to deal with some of baseball’s biggest egos; including Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez. Through it all Francona mostly kept internal strife within the walls of the clubhouse and always deflected external inquiries on player issues as they arose. His ability to handle some of the sport’s biggest egos while winning two championships was a testament to his approach.

Bobby Valentine does bring another element to his approach that differs form his predecessor. The new Red Sox skipper has introduced more skill drills to practices; another deviation from the prior regime. While bunting and fielding drills appear to be of minor consequence; in professional sports it can be difficult to get multi-millionaires to put in the extra effort. Through this spring, Valentine has succeeded in getting the players to put in the extra work and no dissention seems to be emanating from t he clubhouse.

Granted that every team eventually faces the need to move on from one leader to another; that a manager’s voice will eventually be shut out by the players and a change is needed. There are few candidates that could have been considered that offer such a strong contrast in personality and style than Valentine and Francona.

For the benefit of Red Sox fans everywhere, here is hoping that the desired result is achieved and Boston will regain their standing as a team to contend with and the unfortunate outcome of the 2011 season can move far in the distance. There is little doubt that the talent on the field will help make this season a relative success in Boston, but the change in manager will not change the health and depth of the roster; which is something that this team will be faced with. In a highly competitive American League, Boston will find it more difficult to make the playoffs this year than last. Teams like Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Texas Rangers are loaded with talent; and division rivals New York and Tampa Bay bring back solid rosters for another playoff run.

A move was necessary; and as much as I respected Terry Francona as manager, it was clear that it is easier to change one man than 25. I do not have complete confidence that the 2012 season will be as successful as most Red Sox hope, but the team has talent to content. Regardless of this season outcome, there will be no lack of attention drawn to this team; from the play on the field to the man in the dugout. If nothing else, 2012 will be entertaining.

Scott Duhaime is a life-long Boston Red Sox fan with a career statistics/analytics background. His passion for baseball and his quantitative skills translate into a deep analysis of player statistical contributions both to their respective teams and the sport in general.

Sources:

Yahoo! Sports: Boston Red Sox Home Page

FORT MYERS, Fla, – When he took over the Boston Red Sox manager’s job, Bobby Valentine inherited an elite pitcher whose work ethic had always been unquestioned – until lately.

Judging from Valentine’s comments Saturday, the Josh Beckett he has seen resembles the bulldog of the past.

“Josh is as professional about going about his job as any player I’ve been around,” Valentine said after Beckett had gone five innings to get the win in Boston’s 7-4 win over Baltimore.

“He has a lot of time away from his job, and his mind goes away from baseball. I’m not telling you (media) anything you don’t already know. But when he’s dealing with baseball, he’s a pro’s pro.”

Beckett had been known as a fierce worker and competitor, first with Florida and then with the Red Sox. The controversy surrounding clubhouse behavior, which Beckett and his teammates consider wildly overblown, led to questions about whether the intensity is still there.

Valentine treats that as a non-issue. His comments about the slow pace of Beckett’s pitching, made when Valentine was an ESPN analyst – and considered to have the potential to cause a rift between him and Beckett – also seem like long-ago news.

In Boston’s Grapefruit League game Saturday, Beckett delivered the club’s longest start to date.

He allowed one run and two hits in five innings with two strikeouts. His ERA this spring is 1.29.

After throwing 59 pitches, Beckett said he would like to get to 100 by the end of spring training, but feels he’s right on schedule. His preference is to get 22 to 25 innings of spring work under his belt, and he’s on track there, too.

Kelly Shoppach caught Beckett for the first time. After working almost exclusively with now-retired Jason Varitek, Beckett said he’ll throw to “whoever they put back there.”

“They make out the lineup. I’m sure they’re trying to see different guys,” Beckett said.

Valentine does not prefer assigning personal catchers to pitchers, and he does not seem to see the need here.

“Josh will shake off anybody. He did that with Varitek, but you can shake off a catcher and still be with the guy,” Valentine said.

Like all Red Sox pitchers, Beckett is also working on a better pickoff move. Before the game, Valentine said he felt that aspect had been downplayed by the Red Sox coaching staff in the past.

“Today, he was amazing. He threw over three times, with three different moves, and quick-pitched the hitter – that’s having a plan,” Valentine said.

“(Holding runners) is always something I’ve taken pride in, but getting the guy at the plate is the first priority. Nothing will change that,” Beckett said.

“But a lot of things go into stolen bases, and pitching is part of that. (Valentine) definitely wants to change our time (to first base).”

Baltimore’s starting shortstop Saturday was 19-year-old Manny Machado, who said he was an 11-year-old Marlins fans when Beckett led Florida to the 2003 World Series title.

“That just means I’m getting old,” Beckett said.

“He couldn’t have been a Beckett fan, because he took some pretty good swings today against me.”

The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees has gotten quiet in the last few years.

There may have been just a little bit too much respect overall between the two teams, and the Red Sox side has seemed a little too respectful. The hatred between the two team’s fan bases has remained intact, but the animosity between the two teams seems almost non-existent.

That’s not a good thing. Rancor between the Red Sox and the Yankees helps give baseball a lot of its character. While the Red Sox have some weaknesses going into the 2012 season – the starting pitching, the bullpen and shortstop – they are not going to concede anything to the Yankees this time around and they will play with more of an edge.

Bobby Valentine will demand it. Valentine knows that it is his job not to like the Yankees and he has plenty of experience at that vocation. Valentine was manager of the New York Mets while the Yankees won four World Championships in five years. His Mets were beaten in one of those World Series confrontations (2000) with the Yankees.

It seemed like former Red Sox manager Terry Francona went out of his way to take the hate out of the battle between New York and Boston. In the last few years, it didn’t seem like he had the personal animus for the Yankees that Red Sox fans have in their blood. That point was driven home recently when Francona, in his capacity as ESPN color analyst on its baseball broadcasts, ventured into the Yankees lockerroom.

There was nothing uncomfortable about this process for Francona. In fact, the Yankees welcomed him. He hugged Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. They hugged him back. He hugged other players like Mark Teixeira and Bill Hall and Yankee coach Tony Pena as well. When he embraced Rivera, he told him that he hoped he did really well, something that he could not say when he was manager of the Red Sox.

He seemed a bit too chummy with his former rivals. No doubt that Francona took a mature and reasoned attitude in the dugout with him when battling the Yankees, but in doing so he may have taken much of the emotion out of it. That may have kept incidents between the two teams to a minimum, but it didn’t necessarily help his team.

Valentine will not be a day at the beach for the Red Sox players. He has a pushy, edgy personality and he is very opinionated. If you get on the wrong side of Valentine, it will be next to impossible to turn him back around. But he will not take the Yankees for granted. He will carry a gallon of gasoline with him and he won’t hesitate to pour it on the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry and then light the match.

Welcome back to the hatred.

Reference:

New York Post – Former Red Sox manager gets hugs from Yankees

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/francona_gets_hugs_from_yankees_G9iePklLdjAGfcPpRm1AXK?utm_campaign=OutbrainA&utm_source=OutbrainArticlepages&obref=obinsource

FORT MYERS —
Many Boston Red Sox fans are unfamiliar with the name Pedro Ciriaco.

Even more Sox supporters could potentially be butchering the pronunciation of his last name, which is Dominican.

But after two weeks of spring training games he may never forget, Ciriaco (pronounced Sear-E-Ah-Co) is making a name for himself in Boston’s clubhouse and around the organization.

The infielder has hit safely in eight of the 10 games he has played in for the Red Sox this spring. He leads the team in runs, stolen bases, batting average and on-base percentage and is tied for the team lead in RBIs.

He continued his tear on Thursday as he ripped a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning after Boston had loaded the bases. He finished the game 2-for-2 after entering as a pinch runner in the fifth.

Boston lost to the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals 9-6 in front of 9,313 fans at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers.

“I feel pretty good,” Ciriaco said. “I’m seeing the ball very good. I feel like I have been working hard.”

Ciriaco blasted a walkoff two-run home run to left field on Monday to send Boston to a 5-3 victory over Miami at JetBlue Park.

One day later, Ciriaco scored the winning run as Boston defeated the New York Yankees 1-0, drawing postgame celebratory praise from his teammates who made the trip to Tampa.

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said he was “very impressed” with Ciriaco after Monday’s walkoff home run and jokingly referred to Ciriaco as the “secret weapon” after Tuesday’s victory.

“He’s stolen bases when he’s been asked to steal, he’s made the plays defensively, he’s bunted extremely well for base hits,” Valentine said Monday. “There’s nothing else he can do to impress people. He’s had like one bad at-bat since he’s been here. … He’s pretty good.”

Ciriaco is a non-roster invitee to Boston’s major-league camp after being signed to a minor-league contract on Jan. 3.

The 26-year-old spent part of seven seasons in the minor leagues with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Pittsburgh Pirates. He was a late-season call-up for the Pirates during the 2010 and 2011 seasons but has just 39 big-league at-bats.

He is a career .270 hitter in the minor leagues and has eclipsed the .300 mark in just one of his seven seasons.

The right-handed batter spent this winter playing for Toros del Este, a Dominican Winter League team based in La Romana.

The Toros won the league championship and Ciriaco is thrilled that he elected to stay active this winter and play in the Dominican League.

“The Dominican League is a hard league,” Ciriaco said. “It keeps you playing the whole year. The more you play, the more you learn the right way. Last year, I had guys like Miguel Tejada on my team. It helps a lot (to learn from them).”

Since he played winter ball, Ciriaco had only three weeks of rest to get ready for spring training. Despite getting much less rest than many of his teammates, he insisted that his body is not at all fatigued.

While the start to his spring has been impressive, he still appears to be a longshot to make the big-league club as Boston appears to be set with its middle infield.

Ciriaco is making sure not to waste the time he is spending in big league camp, however, as he is taking every opportunity he can to learn from Boston’s veterans.

“There’s so many great names that we have,” Ciriaco said. “I learn every day from some very good guys.”