Around the Horn

It's been 20 years since the New York beat the Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series and Bill Buckner's life was ruined by what seemed like a harmless grounder. Tonight the Mets and Red Sox meet at Fenway Park in interleague action. And tonight the Red Sox faithful will salute the the team that nearly ended the curse and broke their hearts. Unfortunately Bill Buckner won't be there so that the fans can somewhat make it up to him for treating like garbage over the years. Buckner was one of the better offensive and defensive players during his career, but he's only remembered because of that fateful misplay of Mookie Wilson's grounder in game 6. Buckner has a prior commitment with his son and said he would have loved to have been there. You wonder if that's true. As many pundits have pointed out, this salute probably would not have been possible without the Red Sox winning it all in 2004. Winning heals a lot of old wounds.

One of the most amazing things is that the game 6 starter, Rogers Clemens, will be on the mound tonight when the Houston Astros face the Detroit Tigers. Manager John McNamara will also be missing the festivities due to failing health. Rich Gedman and Bob Stanley are both coaches in other organizations and won't be able to attend.

After tonight's match up of rookies Alay Soler and Jon Lester, the veterans go at it. Pedro Martinez makes his return to Fenway against Josh Beckett tomorrow night. The series ends with a great match up Thursday night with Tom Glavine, who grew up a Red Sox fan, going against Curt Schilling.

A couple of milestones were reached over the weekend. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 549th career home run to pass Mike Schmidt for 11th place on the all-time list. Considering that he is only 36, one can only imagine how many more Jr. would have had by now if not for injuries. He needs 14 more to catch Reggie Jackson.

Mike Mussina picked up his 2500th career strikeout against Florida to become the 28th pitcher to reach that plateau.