Barrett looks back at baseball career: Former Red Sox star remembers 1986 World Series

Former Red Sox star remembers 1986 World Series

Marty Barrett may not be known as Mr. October, but chances are good his name will pop up during this year's World Series -- that is, if a player gets hot.

Barrett, who grew up in Las Vegas and played parts of 10 Major League Baseball seasons -- all but a dozen games with the Boston Red Sox -- rode an incredible hot streak during the 1986 playoffs.

A former high school state MVP who led Rancho High to its last state baseball title in 1976, Barrett hit .400 with a Major League record 24 hits in 14 postseason games for the Red Sox -- who won the American League pennant, but lost the World Series, both in dramatic fashion.

Barrett, a lifetime .278 hitter and stellar second baseman, hit .367 (11-for-30) with five RBIs against the then-California Angels en route to American League Championship Series MVP honors. The Red Sox rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to win.

Barrett was even better in the World Series, hitting .433 (13-30) with four RBIs against the New York Mets, tying baseball's all-time World Series record for hits in a seven-game series with Lou Brock and Bobby Richardson.

Had Boston not blown the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, in which the Red Sox squandered a 5-3, 10th-inning lead -- capped off by the infamous error by Bill Buckner on a grounder through his legs at first base -- Barrett may have been named World Series MVP as well.

Despite the painful end to that year's playoffs, Barrett -- who now lives in Summerlin with his family and, at 45, still looks like he could play for the Sox -- said those series remain the highlights of his career.

"There's no question. It doesn't compare to anything else," he said. "I was on fire in the ALCS and World Series. I couldn't have picked a more perfect time. I broke Thurman Munson's record (for postseason hits).

"I was in a groove. To be able to time it at that part of the year was amazing. I never thought I could achieve those heights when I was younger. I was very fortunate."

Barrett, who still follows the Red Sox, came up big in the ill-fated Game Six. He drove in a run to give Boston a 2-0 lead early on, scored a run to put the Red Sox ahead, 3-2, and then drove in another run to give Boston a 5-3 lead in the 10th.

"When we scored those two runs, I thought we had it. I thought we were going to win it," Barrett said.

Boston got two quick outs in the bottom of the 10th before giving up a string of bloop hits, and then reliever Bob Stanley threw a wild pitch, with two strikes, to let the tying run score.

Buckner then booted a routine ground ball to first to let the winning run score in a play that will live in infamy.

The Red Sox also squandered a 3-0 lead in the seventh game.

"When I see that (Buckner) highlight, I mostly think back to we had that Series and we let it get away," Barrett said. "All I know is I was so bummed out they had tied it. I thought the wild pitch was the biggest key to that inning.

"It happens in baseball all the time, where a team scores three runs with two outs, but this was in the World Series."

Barrett, who said he'd love to see the Red Sox win the World Series "for the city of Boston," said he still keeps in touch with former Red Sox teammates Roger Clemens, Dwight Evans, Bruce Hurst and Jim Rice, among others, golfing with all of them in Las Vegas.

Barrett, who was an all-American at Mesa (Ariz.) Junior College and played a season at Arizona State before starting his pro career with the Red Sox, played a few more seasons after 1986, but he tore the ACL in his right knee in 1989 and never regained his prior form. He played a dozen games for the San Diego Padres in 1991 before retiring.

"I hung out another 2 1/2 years (after the knee injury), but I never really got back to where I was," he said.

Barrett, who scored the winning run in the longest game in pro baseball history -- a 3-2 win by Pawtucket (R.I) over Rochester (N.Y.) in 33 innings in a game that also featured Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs -- returned home to play for the Triple-A Las Vegas Stars while rehabbing his knee and, after retiring as a player, served as coach for the Stars for three years.

He aspired to be a big league manager and took over as manager of the Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Quakes in 1995, but quickly decided he'd rather watch his kids grow up.

He and Robin, his high school sweetheart and wife of 23 years, have three children -- Eric, who graduated from Durango; Kyle, a freshman at Palo Verde who wrestles and plays football; and Katy, a senior at Palo Verde who is one of the top girls golfers in the state.

Barrett's hobbies include building custom homes through his LRM Development Company, but he spends most of his spare time playing golf. He has a 3-handicap and is a member at Red Rock Country Club.

With all three of his children nearing adult age, he's pondering a return to baseball in the near future, or possibly a foray into politics, in part, to give his son Kyle, an aspiring politician, some pointers.

"I might want to get back into ball or I might run for county commissioner in a couple years," Barrett said. "I don't know."

Barrett is always happy to give back to the community he was raised in. He lent his name to the Marty Barrett Little League in North Las Vegas shortly after the 1986 World Series, helping to revive youth baseball in the area, and donated the van he won as ALCS MVP to the Candlelighters for Childhood Cancer of Southern Nevada.

He helped Faith Lutheran find a golf course to support its teams and still raises money for youth sports through his nonprofit organization, Baseball Big and Little.

"I like to give back," he said.

Barrett, known as a throwback type of ballplayer during his career, said baseball has changed for the worse.

"I think the last really good decade was the 80s. In the 90s, it got real corporate, and the players got corporate attitudes," he said. "There's just a different feel for it now. Everyone has to have their private boxes and private planes. We were making good money, but nothing like they do today. It's just a different era.

"Before, you had to have a great career to never work again after baseball, but now, after a few years, you're set. I think players sometimes lose their motivation and I think the fans feel that, and that's when it lost its pop. Hopefully, they'll do something about it. Hopefully they'll make it more competitive, like the NFL."


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