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Didja Ever Notice: Nifty 50

Part of a continuing, neverending series, related to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

Nineteen dollars and 95 cents provides you the ability to purchase 50 archived newspaper articles within a 30-day span at NewsLibrary.com.

Guess what I used it to find?

Shocker, as Billy Wagner might say, that I purchased 41 articles published on October 26, 1986.

You may recall that I've done this with newspaper databases before, but I found the archives at NewsLibrary to have a little more variety to them. I was able to span the Boston Globe, get my curiosity satisfied by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and breeze through the Torrance (Calif.) Breeze among others.

They fill 77 pages of 12-point Times New Roman type in my word processor, and without indented paragraphs, they're going to be a pain in the arse to sift through. But I've begun to peruse. Here are some of my favorite sentences.

"Bill Buckner has bone spurs on his ankles, an Achilles stretched like linguini and feet as sore as beat cop's. On the Red Sox, he almost looks quick."
-- Steve Kelley, Seattle Times

"If Bill Buckner were a car, he'd be in a junkyard. If he were an airplane, you couldn't give away a ticket on him. He's practically playing from a stretcher. And he's the most compelling figure of the 83rd World Series."
-- Edwin Pope, Knight-Ridder News Services

"If the Red Sox don't come back to win this World Series, manager John McNamara might want to move to another town."
-- Ian Thomsen, Boston Globe

"The moon suddenly fell out of the sky and landed on the Red Sox' heads. Ker-plunk! Ka-boom! Ouch and double ouch!"
-- Leigh Montville, Boston Globe

"The ledgers are balanced. The miracles are even. Appropriately, so are The games. "
-- Tom Jackson, Sacramento Bee

"Now the miracle is on the other foot."
-- Tom Boswell, Washington Post

"Bob Stanley sat in his locker in Boston's cramped clubhouse and took it. Calvin Schiraldi, a few cell blocks away, sat and took it. Bill Buckner hobbled over to his crawlspace and took it.
The questions came from all sides. It was a genuine media mugging."
-- Mark Kreidler, San Diego Union Tribune

"From 200 miles away, you could practically feel New England quaking with fear, grief and disbelief. The Boston Red Sox were one out away from their first World Series championship since 1918 early this morning, and the New York Mets rose up like the ghosts of Denied Christmases past and extended big-league baseball's most extraordinary postseason by one more game."
-- Barry Lorge, San Diego Union Tribune

"There is a seventh game scheduled today.
The winner should be the team that plays baseball the way it oughta be played."
-- Steve Kelley (again), Seattle Times

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