Eric
08-20-2006, 10:14 PM
Here's an article about collector and forum member Seth Swirsky and the infamous Buckner Ball
The Buckner Ball
After getting by Buckner, it eventually was snared by fan who grew up
on LI
BY STEVE ZIPAY
Newsday Staff Writer
August 16, 2006
Bill Buckner flubbed it. Ed Montague didn't.
Montague, the rightfield umpire who picked up what many consider the
most famous baseball in Mets history on an October night at Shea
Stadium 20 years ago, started a journey that has come almost full
circle. Today, the treasured, tobacco-stained horsehide is firmly in
the hands of a worthy caretaker: a devoted Mets fan who grew up in
Great Neck.
"That ball and the one that Reggie hit for his third home run of the
game in the 1977 World Series are two of my favorite pieces," said Seth
Swirsky, 46, a songwriter, author and memorabilia collector now living
in Beverly Hills. "When you think of it, I guess it's kind of cool that
they both ended up with a guy from Long Island."
To be sure, the ball that left Red Sox reliever Bob Stanley's hand
toward batter Mookie Wilson in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986
World Series has had a circuitous route for two decades.
When the ball scooted under first baseman Buckner's glove and Ray
Knight scored the winning run, it was pocketed by Montague, who
inscribed it with a small "X" near a seam to identify it. He then gave
the ball to Arthur Richman, the Mets' traveling secretary. "He thought
I would appreciate having it more than he would," Richman wrote in an
authentication letter in May 1992.
In the crazed clubhouse after the game, Richman presented the ball to
Wilson and the jubilant centerfielder autographed it: "To Arthur. The
ball won it for us. Mookie Wilson 10/25/86".
Players passed it around and kissed it; some tobacco stains remain.
Richman held the memento until 1992, when actor Charlie Sheen submitted
an $85,000 bid by telephone during a live auction of sports memorabilia
conducted by Leland's at the Southgate Tower Hotel in Manhattan. That
far surpassed the expected price of about $10,000. With the Leland's
premium, Sheen paid $93,500 for the ball.
Enter Swirsky, an aspiring songwriter working in Manhattan in 1986. "My
first Mets game was Game 4 of the World Series in 1969. I was 9," he
recalled in a telephone interview this week. "Then I kind of drifted
away in the '70s, fell in love with the Islanders in the early '80s,
then got excited about the Mets again in 1984, '85, with Gooden and
Hernandez and Carter and Dykstra, and I thought, this is not that
different than in 1969. I could still love the Mets. I watched Game 6
dumbfounded like everyone else."
Eventually his songwriting talents paid off. He wrote two pop hits for
Taylor Dayne, a Long Island singer, and other performers, and began
acquiring memorabilia in 1995, including a baseball signed by the
Beatles on the day of their concert at Shea in August 1965. When Sheen
put his collection up for auction in 2000, Swirsky bid $63,500 for the
ball.
Swirsky will fly here with the "Mookie ball" for the 1986 Mets reunion
Saturday. He and Wilson have exchanged letters and they met in a radio
studio in 2003. Swirsky met Buckner for only the first time about two
weeks ago at Wrigley Field, but didn't mention the baseball that has
haunted the former player. "I just couldn't bring it up to him,"
Swirsky said.
Could there be some New York magic left in the ball? Swirsky thinks so.
In the 2003 ALCS, when the Yankees were down 4-0 in Game 7 and on the
brink of playoff elimination by the Red Sox, he and his son were
watching the broadcast. The youngster had counted the Yankees out. "I
went downstairs and brought out the 'Mookie ball' and another signed by
Babe Ruth and three members of the Yankees' Murderers' Row in 1927 and
put them next to the TV," Swirsky said. "The game starts to turn a
little, and then up comes Aaron Boone and we all know what happened.
I'm saying this with a wink, but I'm convinced that it was kind of a
Red Sox 'curse' moment."
The Buckner Ball
After getting by Buckner, it eventually was snared by fan who grew up
on LI
BY STEVE ZIPAY
Newsday Staff Writer
August 16, 2006
Bill Buckner flubbed it. Ed Montague didn't.
Montague, the rightfield umpire who picked up what many consider the
most famous baseball in Mets history on an October night at Shea
Stadium 20 years ago, started a journey that has come almost full
circle. Today, the treasured, tobacco-stained horsehide is firmly in
the hands of a worthy caretaker: a devoted Mets fan who grew up in
Great Neck.
"That ball and the one that Reggie hit for his third home run of the
game in the 1977 World Series are two of my favorite pieces," said Seth
Swirsky, 46, a songwriter, author and memorabilia collector now living
in Beverly Hills. "When you think of it, I guess it's kind of cool that
they both ended up with a guy from Long Island."
To be sure, the ball that left Red Sox reliever Bob Stanley's hand
toward batter Mookie Wilson in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986
World Series has had a circuitous route for two decades.
When the ball scooted under first baseman Buckner's glove and Ray
Knight scored the winning run, it was pocketed by Montague, who
inscribed it with a small "X" near a seam to identify it. He then gave
the ball to Arthur Richman, the Mets' traveling secretary. "He thought
I would appreciate having it more than he would," Richman wrote in an
authentication letter in May 1992.
In the crazed clubhouse after the game, Richman presented the ball to
Wilson and the jubilant centerfielder autographed it: "To Arthur. The
ball won it for us. Mookie Wilson 10/25/86".
Players passed it around and kissed it; some tobacco stains remain.
Richman held the memento until 1992, when actor Charlie Sheen submitted
an $85,000 bid by telephone during a live auction of sports memorabilia
conducted by Leland's at the Southgate Tower Hotel in Manhattan. That
far surpassed the expected price of about $10,000. With the Leland's
premium, Sheen paid $93,500 for the ball.
Enter Swirsky, an aspiring songwriter working in Manhattan in 1986. "My
first Mets game was Game 4 of the World Series in 1969. I was 9," he
recalled in a telephone interview this week. "Then I kind of drifted
away in the '70s, fell in love with the Islanders in the early '80s,
then got excited about the Mets again in 1984, '85, with Gooden and
Hernandez and Carter and Dykstra, and I thought, this is not that
different than in 1969. I could still love the Mets. I watched Game 6
dumbfounded like everyone else."
Eventually his songwriting talents paid off. He wrote two pop hits for
Taylor Dayne, a Long Island singer, and other performers, and began
acquiring memorabilia in 1995, including a baseball signed by the
Beatles on the day of their concert at Shea in August 1965. When Sheen
put his collection up for auction in 2000, Swirsky bid $63,500 for the
ball.
Swirsky will fly here with the "Mookie ball" for the 1986 Mets reunion
Saturday. He and Wilson have exchanged letters and they met in a radio
studio in 2003. Swirsky met Buckner for only the first time about two
weeks ago at Wrigley Field, but didn't mention the baseball that has
haunted the former player. "I just couldn't bring it up to him,"
Swirsky said.
Could there be some New York magic left in the ball? Swirsky thinks so.
In the 2003 ALCS, when the Yankees were down 4-0 in Game 7 and on the
brink of playoff elimination by the Red Sox, he and his son were
watching the broadcast. The youngster had counted the Yankees out. "I
went downstairs and brought out the 'Mookie ball' and another signed by
Babe Ruth and three members of the Yankees' Murderers' Row in 1927 and
put them next to the TV," Swirsky said. "The game starts to turn a
little, and then up comes Aaron Boone and we all know what happened.
I'm saying this with a wink, but I'm convinced that it was kind of a
Red Sox 'curse' moment."