Bill "Between The Legs" Buckner made a (rightfully) triumphant return to the Fens yesterday to throw out the first pitch. This wasn't his first time back at Fenway since the horrific trainwreck of an error in 1986 (he played again for the Sox in 1987 and 1990) -- but it was really the first chance the Sox faithful had the opportunity to directly respond to him and to that incident in a post-championship world. And despite the fact that the PA announcer seemed terrified there would be boos (he introduced Buckner saying, "Won't you please welcome him back to Boston, and let him know he is welcome always?")... there was nothing but love for Billy Buck.

Buckner was even more nervous than the Fenway PA announcer about his return:

Buckner rejected the original offer to throw out the first pitch but was persuaded to change his mind by Sox executive Dick Bresciani.

"He told me he would think about it," Bresciani said. "But when I didn't hear from him for three or four days, I called him back and talked to him. He really didn't know what to expect from the media and other people, but I convinced him that Johnny Pesky has dealt with it for 60 years (Pesky was blamed for costing the Red Sox the 1946 Series) and even jokes about it himself."

There's a great article on That Ball (you know, the one that rattled along between Buckner's legs) here - complete with video of The Incident and pictures of the ball. It also details a little story about Mike Lowell's encounter with The Ball:

I was doing an interview with Vin Scully on the field at Dodger Stadium in 2003. The Florida Marlins were taking batting practice. After the interview, Mike Lowell, the Marlins third baseman, asked me what I was holding. I said "remember when the ball went through Buckner's legs in the '86 Series -- this is the ball". Stunned, Lowell asked to hold it and called his teammates around him. This was the "big play" when they were young kids. It was fun to hear them talk about it.

For the not-so-faint of heart, there's also an article at the same website with photos of a bottle of champagne that was in the Red Sox locker room that fateful day of the sixth game of the 1986 World Series. I choose to believe it was Jim Rice who requested the champagne be "cranberry blush" flavored.

Here's video of Buckner's introduction and first pitch - plus his appearance in the booth on NESN with Remy and Orsillo during the 6th inning. This video has the entire intro/first pitch plus the first few minutes of Buck in the booth - and the remaining part of his booth stint on-air is after the jump!

video courtesy of NESN
video courtesy of NESN

Hat tip to tx for the link to the article about The Ball.