On the same tape on which I found the 1986 ALCS clip from yesterday’s post, I discovered an old Sox special, hosted by a young John Dennis, that aired the night before Game One of the ’86 Series. Most of the special is corny, holy-god-we-haven’t-been-here-in-over-a-decade kinda stuff, like a visit to a plant that makes Red Sox souvenirs, man-on-the-street bits in which citizens are asked various Sox trivia questions, and, yes, a local psychic offering his predictions (FWIW, the bum had Sox in six).
But the special closed with a cool 1986 montage set to Queen’s “A Kind of Magic” — an ’80s tune if ever one existed. I ripped it for your enjoyment, and wanted to point out a couple of highlights:
1) It’s sometimes easy to forget that Tom Seaver was a member of the ’86 Red Sox, albeit only for a couple months. The brief shot at 1:09 is here to remind us.
2) Tucked amongst all this feel-good stuff at 1:03 is a young Roger Clemens being dragged off the field by Jim Rice and Don Baylor, his meathooks pointing menacingly at someone offscreen, who we can only assume to be an umpire, player for the opposing team, or perhaps an innocent bystander who disagreed with Rocket’s thoughts on Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell.”
3) It wouldn’t be an ’80s Red Sox montage without some silly-ass baserunning from Psycho Steve Lyons, which can be found at 1:15.
4) Check the very ’80s anchorman previewing that evening’s newscast at the tail-end.
5) The one-man drama that was Dave Henderson in Game Five of the ALCS (Oh my god, he knocked that ball over the wall! Holy crap, he just hit a home run!), whittled down to a mere 10 seconds (1:44-1:54)
6) Did we mention the special was hosted by a young John Dennis? Because it was. “Bruce Hurst versus Ron Darling tomorrow night, game number one. Good night, everyone.”
7) 2:18: SPIKE!
Back to the future for our next post. I promise.
