1986 Red Sox or 2011 Rangers?

[dbadefense1990]

After these last couple of days, there is one simple question to address: whose World Series ending was more painful? 1986 Red Sox or 2011 Rangers? Straight-out question.

[tohasbo]

Both are painful. However, I say the Rangers collapse is more painful.

[GriffinM6]

Both are painful. However, I say the Rangers collapse is more painful.

Same, how do you blow a 2 run lead in 2 straight innings, then lose the next game? Terrible, just terrible.

[NJTank]

2011 Rangers by far. You can look at the 7th Inning tonight and the Rangers looked like all their eyes were watery.

[dbadefense1990]

It's hard to decide. Both teams were within 1 strike of winning it all, twice. But there are some differences:

1. While Texas blew leads in two separate innings, the Red Sox did it in one whole inning.

2. The 1st blown chance for the Rangers was with runners on for St. Louis. The first time the Red Sox had it, no one was on base for the Mets. Hell, even Shea Stadium displayed "Congratulations Red Sox, 1986 world champions" on their scoreboard, right before the disaster ensued.

3. The Cardinals homered on their final at bat. The Mets had the Bucker error on their final at bat.

4. While the Rangers were more spread out in losing, the Red Sox lost it on their last two pitches (wild pitch by Bob Stanley to tie the game then the Mookie Wilson-Bill Buckner play).

5. Both basketball teams of the losing cities won the NBA championship earlier that year (1986 Celtics and 2011 Mavericks). Oddly enough, both of those NBA Final series they won were the last two to begin in the month of May.

[AndrewPF]

Both are painful. However, I say the Rangers collapse is more painful.

Same, how do you blow a 2 run lead in 2 straight innings, then lose the next game? Terrible, just terrible.

[tee1441]

Still can't believe what happened in game 6. Blowing 2 run leads in 2 straight innings is unbelievable.

[knnhrvy16]

I wasn't around in '86, so I can't really speak for the Sox in that series, but I will say that this is the most painful ending to a Series I've ever seen in my lifetime. It just flat out sucked to watch that team slowly deflate. I can't say I've ever seen anything like that in baseball during my lifetime.

What sucks the most, though? You know this is going to go down as one of the greatest World Series in recent memory, so it's going to be brought up and talked about again, and again, and again, and again...

[Cujo]

These last two games were the Rangers' "Wide Right".

Now onto becoming the Buffalo Bills of baseball!

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I mean this in the best way, but no one cares about the Rangers. The 86 Red Sox were the heat and soul of a tortured city dirty water Jim Rice Ted Williams Carlton Fisk Mike Greenwell Carl Yasztremski Bambino Curse RED SOX, whereas the Rangers are a team that, until recently, was best known for being the team Nolan Ryan and Rafael Palmerio played for.

[Quillz]

I mean this in the best way, but no one cares about the Rangers. The 86 Red Sox were the heat and soul of a tortured city dirty water Jim Rice Ted Williams Carlton Fisk Mike Greenwell Carl Yasztremski Bambino Curse RED SOX, whereas the Rangers are a team that, until recently, was best known for being the team Nolan Ryan and Rafael Palmerio played for.

I'm sure people in Dallas care about the Rangers. Frankly, I don't care about the Red Sox at all.

Anyway, the '86 Red Sox blew just one opportunity, the Rangers blew two. On top of some other questionable decisions. Definitely more painful, in my opinion.

But, look on the bright side. The Rangers won two straight pennants, both times doing so as sort of a dark horse team. They lost in five the first attempt and seven the second attempt. They made a great effort and shouldn't have any shame. As Ron Washington pointed out, while both teams performed very well, someone had to lose.

[aci]

The goat for the Rangers definitely isn't a player... sure, there were errors and the bullpen sucked, but 95% of the Rangers losing game 6 was Ron Washington's 'turrible' managing.

[Quillz]

The goat for the Rangers definitely isn't a player... sure, there were errors and the bullpen sucked, but 95% of the Rangers losing game 6 was Ron Washington's 'turrible' managing.

I agree. He should have kept Feliz in when they regained a two-run lead. He was a very good closer all season long, and odds are, things would have ended up working in their favor. Why he went to one of his weaker relievers is beyond me.

Or why they intentionally walked the 0-for-4 Pujols, but pitched to the red-hot Berkman. The Rangers had many good chances to win that game and just couldn't take advantage of any of them.

Real shame, too. Game 6 would have been a great way for the Rangers to win, with Napoli's pick off at third and Hamilton coming through with a homer at just the right time.

[aci]

Ugh wtf... delayed double-post?

[cmm]

Both losses were extremely painful. Maybe the '86 Red Sox get some bonus heartache points since they blew a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning of game 7, while the Rangers "only" blew a 2-0 lead in the first of their game 7. Baseball-Reference says that at one point the Red Sox had an 88% chance of winning game 7 and allowing Bill Buckner to laugh it off.

1986 World Series pbp

[Quillz]

It seems that both the 1986 and 2011 World Series were eerily familiar in some ways. In both cases, the NL champion had home-field. The Red Sox had a 2-0 lead going home. The Rangers had a split going home. Both the Red Sox and Rangers had Game 6 leads that were dramatically blown. And in both cases, the following Game 7 felt somewhat anti-climatic, with both teams ultimately losing.

I guess I can understand why some fell the '86 collapse is still the biggest ever, because the Red Sox had gone so long since their last championship, but on the other hand, put it in perspective. At least the Red Sox HAD some championships, the Rangers had zero coming into this World Series, and it really seemed that after Game 5, they were going to finally get their first. But they didn't. Brutally. In that regard, and considering how Game 6 actually went down, I'd say the '11 Rangers were a bigger heartbreak.

[infrared41]

The Mets had the Bucker error on their final at bat.

The "Buckner error" was hardly the only reason Boston lost that game. Even if he makes the play, the game is still tied and the Red Sox still hacked up a lead and blew it. Who knows what would have happened had Buckner made the play, but to blame him for the loss is just not paying attention to all the stuff that got the game to that point.

[Cujo]

I'm pretty sure if we give this a year or two to settle, the bigger choke will belong to Boston-Bucker.

Texas' problem was that they couldn't close the deal. In the end, St. Louis EARNED wins in Games 6 & 7.

The Red Sox booted Game 6 to the Mets on an error -- An ERROR. Really, that says it all.

[infrared41]

I'm pretty sure if we give this a year or two to settle, the bigger choke will belong to Boston-Bucker.

Texas' problem was that they couldn't close the deal. In the end, St. Louis EARNED wins in Games 6 & 7.

The Red Sox booted Game 6 to the Mets on an error -- An ERROR. Really, that says it all.

Except that's not what cost Boston that game. It just sealed the deal. Buckner's error didn't allow three runs to score and it didn't happen with the Red Sox one strike away from winning.

[Quillz]

The Rangers may not have actually lost Game 6 on an error, but they did contribute two of five total errors, both of which led to runs, IIRC. Obviously, they lost Game 6 due to the walk-off homer, but in reality, they had lost long before that.