Bill Buckner Moment

The year was 1967. I was on the junior varsity basketball team of our high school. The game was tight as both teams were trading points fast and furious. At one moment in the game the players were crowded at one end of the court - all except me. They missed a shot and one of my teammates grabbed the rebound. He spotted me down at the other end of the court alone and threw the ball to me.  I caught the ball and turned to make a can't-miss, easy lay-up. Even now, nearly 52 years later, I can still remember the cheers of the crowd as they anticipated my adding to our team's lead. Did I mention I had a can't-miss shot?

I missed. Not only did I miss but for some inexplicable reason I also fell down after tossing the ball up to the net. The cheers of the crowd quickly turned to moans and even laughter. It was not unlike what happened in the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox when the Sox's first baseman Bill Buckner flubbed a simple ground ball that would have allowed his team to win the game and the Series. (The Mets won the next game and the Series.) I can only imagine the inner anguish Buckner felt and perhaps feels to this day on some level from messing up on national television. At least my flub happened at some unimportant junior varsity game that probably no one but me remembers.

I suppose we all have our Bill Buckner - or should I say "Dan Walsch"? - moments. We find ourselves facing a task that we have achieved thousands of times in the past and unexpectly mess it up. This certainly happens in efforts to communicate. We misuse words, mispronounce or forget a friend's name or blank on a key fact that we had previously memorized. No question these times can be embarrassing or, depending upon the circumstances, costly. The best thing to do is own the error. Do not attempt to make excuses. Correct the mistake and move forward. The error - even a silly one - does not harm one's credibility. Not taking responsibility for it does.