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Billy passed the third grade, eventually
“Billy passed the third grade. Oh, what a glorious day.
“Oh, passin’ third grade. The Billy Foley way.”
My younger brother started singing that song to me soon after he first saw the 1995 movie “Billy Madison.” The song was originally about Madison, played by Adam Sandler, but my brother substitutes our last name because it took me two tries to pass the third grade.
He introduced the song on to two of my younger cousins, Jeremy and Tye D’Arcy, who find it hilarious that I had to repeat the third grade a couple of decades before they were born.
Oh sure, I think it is funny now. You have probably heard me even joke about it. I graduated from Butte High School in 1993. I would have graduated in 1992, I say, if third grade wasn’t so hard.
In 1983, however, it was not even remotely funny. It stung me for years. I probably did not find any humor in it until I heard my brother alter the Billy Madison song.
For the record, the final report card I received from third grade at the Blaine School in June of 1983 said that I was “promoted” to fourth grade. My mom, on the other hand, decided I would repeat the grade the next school year.
That also happened to be the year the Blaine closed, and all of us former Mustangs had to take a bus across the Butte hill to become Kennedy Crusaders.
Looking back, the move was an obvious one. I should have been held back in second grade. Maybe even the first grade.
It wasn’t that I was dumb. I just really, really hated school. For me, it was like going to prison every day for six and a half hours.
When I started first grade, I had this unexplainable need to be perfect in school. I thought I had to get a score of 100 percent on every paper and every test, and that was stressful.
Eventually, I snapped and stopped caring at all. I can remember the exact time I reached the breaking point, too. It was during a math test in first grade. I got the first five or six problems right, but I could not figure out the next one. I started to panic, and then I started to cry.
My good buddy Brian Lobb was sitting to my right, so I asked him what the answer was. Instead of sharing his answer, though, Brian made an exaggerated shifted in his seat and covered his paper with his left elbow.
After a few minutes of panic, I thought to myself, “Screw it, the answer is 11.”
The answer was not 11, but I didn’t care. I just made up numbers to write down for the rest of the test and turned it in. I did that for the rest of the year. I would beat everybody in the class to finish the time tests. But if I got any problems correct, it was pure luck.
I would just write a bunch of numbers on the paper, turn it in and then take a nap at my desk. I did that until I Mrs. Betty Lester, my teacher the second time around third grade, changed my life.
Mrs. Lester showed me that school did not have to be so serious. You could learn and have fun in her class.
To this day, I count my blessings that I was held back in third grade. If I would have advanced to fourth grade for the 1983-84 school year, I never would have been in her class. I honestly owe everything I am today to Mrs. Lester.
In the summer of 1983, though, there was absolutely nothing good that I could see about being held back. Or, as classmate Bill Grant said a few times, “Ha, ha, Foley flunked.”
Outside of my family, not many people knew I was repeating third grade, and I wanted to keep it that way. I was going to put off that realization until the last possible second.
I did not even tell my good friend Chris Campbell. Chris and I became friends in kindergarten, and we lived close enough together that we could walk to each other’s house in just a few minutes.
We would spend tons of time together in the summer. In the summer of 1983, we must have played 100 baseball games against each other. That was back when kids played one-on-one baseball games, complete with ghost runners and super-short home runs, in their tiny, uneven yards.
I was always the Red Sox, and Chris was the Mariners. Our record was about .500, even though Chris could never hit my fastball. Well, he couldn’t hit it until it started to get dark. Then he could not miss.
After our marathon games, we would usually bug our parents until they agreed to let us have a sleepover in one of our yards. We would stare at the stars, hit golf balls over the tops of the houses down below Chris’ house, and throw stuff at passing cars.
We must have spent thousands of hours together that summer, and I never once told Chris that I was repeating the third grade. I just could not do it.
On the first day of school, I caught the bus going up Main Street where it intersected with Buffalo Street. I sat in a seat by myself until Chris got on at the next stop at O’Neill Street.
I did not say anything. It was as if I was a prisoner being bussed from my trial to spend the rest of my life in a maximum-security prison.
Chris, though, was optimistic. He started talking about how we were going to have a great year in school. He said that, hopefully, we get the same teacher. That way, he said, we could sit next to each other.
He talked like that for blocks as the bus made its way through Walkerville and down to our new school. He kept up his optimistic talk on the playground as we mingled with a bunch of kids we never saw before, waiting for the dreaded bell.
When the bell rang, Cathy Bury, the super-nice playground monitor we all called by her first name, told us where each grade was supposed to line up before making our way into the school.
First grade here. Second grade here. Third grade over there, and fourth grade right there.
Chris looked at me like I had two heads as gingerly made my way to the third-grade line.
“What are you doing?” he said. “We’re in fourth grade.”
I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes and shook my head to say “no.”
Being a grade behind Chris did not really affect our friendship much. We still played a hundred baseball games each summer. We still slept in our yards together. We still bonked cars.
We are still good friends. We still live close to each other. I know that if I ever need something, Chris will be by my side in a heartbeat. He knows that I will do the same for him.
I don’t’ know why I could never tell him that I was being held back over all that time we spent together in the summer of 1983. I knew he was too good of a friend to ever tease me about it.
Most of my worry was unfounded because not many kids teased me. That is probably because of the school change. The kids who did know me were just worried about adjusting to their new school.
Or maybe they felt sorry for me.
That is not the case with Jeremy and Tye, though. Every time I see them; they still start singing that song.
“Billy passed the third grade. Oh, what a glorious day.
“Oh, passin’ third grade. The Billy Foley way.”
— Bill Foley, who will someday get revenge on Jeremy and Tye, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
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McGree, DeShaw win BC Invite
Butte Central sophomore Beau McGree and Butte High junior Kate DeShaw claimed medalist honors Monday as the Maroons and Bulldogs opened the golf season with the Butte Central Invitational.
McGree carded a 5-over-par 75 at the Highland View Golf Course to top the boys’ field. Daniel Verrellen of Gallatin placed second at 77, while BC senior Will McGree placed third at 79. Dylan Burger and Reid Larson of East Helena tied for fourth at 80.
Gallatin won the team title at 323. BC took second at 325, followed by East Helena at 330. Central’s Connor Kachmarik tied for 12th at 84. BC’s Kelton Berger tied for 17th at 87. Butte High JV player Lane Lisac also carded an 87 to lead the Bulldogs.
DeShaw shot a 78 to run away with the girls’ title. Teammate Keeley Johnston placed second at 92. She was followed by Bulldog Sage Leber at 94. Ella McCullough of Helena Capital placed fourth at 96.
Eight grader Mya McGree, BC’s lone girl player, tied for 13th at 103.
Gallatin won the team title at 393. Capital was second at 400. No other teams had enough girls for a team score.
Butte High will send their full varsity squads to the Old Works in Anaconda for a tournament hosted by the Bulldogs on Tuesday. BC will also compete in that tournament.
Click the link below for complete results from the BC Invitational.
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Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week: Sports officials
This week’s Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week are our area sports officials.
We all love to cheer on our sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews as they take the playing field or court. Without the officials, however, that would not be possible. Without the refs, as they say, it would just be recess.
These hard-working men and women study the rules of their sports, and they often work through injuries to make sure the games can go on in a safe-and-fair manner.
We are experiencing a severe shortage of officials in all sports around the nation. So now is the time for you to step up to the plate and get involved. Click here for information on how you can join your local officiating pool and make sure the games continue to go on.
For the third year, Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty, is teaming up with the ButteCast to honor the finest student-athletes from the Mining City to encourage more children to get up, get out and try all kinds of sports and activities.
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Podcast No. 284: Deb Dinius
When people say things like “Butte tough” or “Anaconda strong,” they are talking about folks like Deb Dinius.
Deb is the manager at Crazee Carol’s Casino and Mill Bar in Butte. She has also been the driving force around so many fundraisers and medical benefits in Butte for the last couple of decades. She has organized or helped organize so many events that she cannot even count how many she has worked on this year alone, and she will kick your butt if you try to praise her for her work.
Deb’s latest endeavor has her helping raise money for the victims of the Owl Bar shooting in Anaconda. On the morning of Aug. 1, Nancy Kelley, Daniel Baillie, David Leach and Tony Palm were shot to death inside the storied Anaconda establishment.
When someone in Butte or Anaconda is hurting, the people get together to show that the community can still rise, even in heartache. Deb usually can be found in the middle of that rising.
Two fundraisers are currently set up for the Owl Bar victims. The first is this Saturday, Aug. 16. Crazee Carol’s Casino and Mill Bar is taking part in a nationwide challenge to donate bar sales from that day to the families of the shooting victims.
All sales from the bar on Saturday will be sent to Anaconda. Metals Sports Bar & Grill has a similar special set for Saturday, and other establishments in town, across the state and around the country are joining in.
Another fundraiser will be held Saturday, Aug. 23 at 4 p.m. at the Happy Endings Casino in Anaconda. The parking lot party will include live music by The Genuine Article Band. It will include raffles, a 50/50 drawing and auction items.
If you would like to donate items for the auction, you can bring them to Deb and the crew at Crazee Carol’s. They have tax information available for all donations.
If you cannot make either fundraiser, you can still pitch in. A fund has been set up at the First Montana Bank in Anaconda. Send a check made out to the “Owl Bar Victims Memorial Fund” to 1121 E. Park Ave., Anaconda MT, 59711.
Listen in to this episode to hear why this fundraiser is so very important to Deb. Listen to how you can get involved and help Deb show that the people of Butte have Anaconda’s back.
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Butte’s Charlie Osborne hits hole-in-one on par-4 No. 2 at Old Works
Charlie Osborne thought he lost his ball.
Then he thought his friends were goofing with him after he hit a tee shot on hole No. 2 at the Old Works Golf Course during a July 30 round in Anaconda.
As it turns out, though, Osborne defied the odds and the golf gods with a hole-in-one on a par 4. Some estimate the odds of such a feat are 6 million to 1. Or even greater.
“It only takes a guy 68 years,” Osborne said. “I’ve never had my name in the sports page. I told my wife, ‘I’m going to get my name in the sports page for one time in my life.’”
Osborn used his driver for the ace on the hole that was playing 263 yards. He was playing with Tom Pomroy, Sherwood Wolstein and Greg DeWitt, and none in the foursome saw the ball go in the hole.
“We didn’t see it, so it was pretty uneventful,” Osborne said. “We thought we lost my ball.”
Osborne said Pomroy putted out before Wolstein finished on the hole. When he picked his ball out, he said, “There’s two balls in here.”
“I asked Pomroy why he didn’t say anything,” Osborne said, “and he said, ‘It isn’t mine.’”
The shot is believed to be the first hole-in-one at the Old Works since the course opened for play in 1997.
The ace was the second for Osborne, who said he has been playing golf off and on since he was in grade school. He hit an ace on a par 3 hole in California a couple of years ago.
Of course, that seems like nothing compared to his latest ace.
“It’s the rarest shot in golf,” Osborne said of the ace on the par 4. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime shot, if anything.”
In top photo, from left, Charlie Osborne, Sherwood Woolstein, Tom Pomroy and Greg DeWitt celebrate Osborne’s rare ace. Above, Osborne shows off his hole-in-one certificate from the Old Works. -
Leave it all on the field one last time
Briane Toone does not have a lot of regrets about playing football.
Well, at least he should not have many qualms after an outstanding career for the Butte High Bulldogs and Montana Grizzlies. He was a state champion and a national champion.
Toone was not a Bulldog for very long, but he is one who certainly cemented his place in history. He moved to the Mining City during the winter of his junior year, and he earned second-team All-State honors at linebacker as a senior. That year, he helped Butte High’s football team win the 1991 Class AA State championship.
I still say he should have been named first-team All-State. Standing out on one of the best high school defenses Montana has ever seen was not an easy thing to do, and Toone did that week after week.
The coaches at the University of Montana clearly agreed.
Toone, a Hamilton native who played at Mount Shasta High School in California before moving to Butte, left everything he had on the field every game for the Bulldogs.
Then he took his talents to Missoula, where he started on two Grizzly teams that advanced to the NCAA I-AA National Championship Game in Huntington, West Virginia. He and Randy Riley, a fellow member of that 1991 Bulldog championship team, combined to force Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington into an intentional grounding in the end zone in the second half of the 1995 game.
That safety proved to be the difference as the Grizzlies beat Marshall, 22-20.
A year later, Toone was a star on the Grizzly defensive line as Montana took a 14-0 record into the title game. This time, NFL Hall of Famer receiver Randy Moss and the Marshall Thunder Herd beat the Grizzlies, 49-29.
Toone parlayed his education at the University of Montana into a successful career after football. He is the owner and president of the Jewelry Design Center, which is based in Spokane but has a new location in Missoula.
He has been married to Butte High classmate Beth Murry for nearly 30 years.
So, you figure he must have been able to walk away from the game of football without looking back. Well, not exactly.
Judging by how Toone behaved as he watched the Butte High Bulldogs win the 2012 Class AA State title at Naranche Stadium would lead us to believe otherwise.
Everybody remembers the 46-yard field goal by Jake Dennehy as time expired as Butte High beat Bozeman, 38-36, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. My most vivid memory of that night, however, is Brian Toone.
A large group of players from the 1991 team — the last Bulldog squad to win a title before that night — were in town to cheer on the current Bulldogs. Many of those guys tried to watch the game from the sideline, but they were booted back to the stands by school officials.
Believe it or not, some of those guys were clearly celebrating during their program reunion party. Nobody, though, was keeping Toone off the field. He was not there to fraternize with his old teammates. Brian Toone was there to watch the Bulldogs win.
He just had that look in his eyes that he was not going to be denied. It was the look opposing offensive players probably knew all too well.
Toone, who was close to 100 pounds lighter than when he played his last game with the Grizzlies, fit into his letter jacket, and he walked up and down the sidelines following every play. He was yelling to encourage the Bulldog players to play their best. He yelled more than most of the Bulldog coaches.
He was clapping and cheering from the opening kickoff until Dennehy’s kick cleared the crossbar. Most of the 2012 Bulldogs noticed Toone, but they had no clue who that intense fan in the old letterman’s jacket was.
They just knew he really wanted them to win.
Toone was so intense that I thought there was at least a 25 percent chance that he was going to run out onto the field an make a tackle. It was clearly killing Toone, who was 38 at the time, to not be on the field. It was killing him to be so close to the action and not be able to do anything about it.
Remember, this is a guy who won the championship as a senior.
The 2025-26 school year is about to begin. For me, it will be my last as a parent of a Butte High Bulldog athlete. As fall sports practice begins, my advice to my son and everyone in his class — at Butte High, Butte Central or any school around the country — is to look at Brian Toone.
Do not just look at the titles and postseason honors. Do not just look at the highlights from that safety in the 1995 championship game.
Look at the passion he showed for his high school team 21 years after he last put on that purple-and-white uniform. Toone shows us that, even if you win it all, you just might want to go back and do it again. If you leave the field with regret, you might not ever get over it.
The sports seasons and the school year will go by quickly. Before we know it, you will be graduating. Most of you will not continue your athletic careers in college, either. Only about 7 percent of high school athletes are lucky enough to do that.
This will be the last school year when people you never met pay to watch you play. It will be the last year that you will get the chance to play for your school and your hometown. This will be the last school year when you will have a chance do something about it when the game is on the line for your hometown team.
Believe it or not, there will be a time when you look back and wish you were still in high school. You will wish that you were back out there under those Friday night lights. You will miss game days. You will miss the practices and the halftime speeches.
You will miss having your coaches work so hard to push you to be your very best.
Before you know it, you will be getting notices about your 10-year high school reunion. It will be like a blink of an eye before the Bulldog football players of today become the Silver B’s of tomorrow.
It will go by so criminally fast.
Some memories will always make you happy. Others will haunt you for decades, and those will be the ones you will want to go back and change. But, if Uncle Rico taught us anything, it is that there is no going back in time.
The time to change that is now, and this is your last chance to have no regrets.
Now go enjoy the moment.
— Bill Foley, who can throw a football over them mountains, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
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Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week: Boyle’s Buddies
Boyle’s Buddies are this week’s Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week.
The honor comes after the group of Special Olympic basketball players honored Casey Boyle and Kyle Burgman with the playing of the Boyle’s Buddies Game Sunday at East Middle School.
The game marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of the two Butte friends.
The White team beat the Red team, 59-43, though several players switched back and forth between teams during the game. All players play for the Butte Eagles during the Special Olympics.
Throughout the game, the players showcased some spirited competition and incredible sportsmanship that truly honored their former teacher and coach, Casey Boyle.
Boyle’s Buddies players are Zach Stenson, Dalan Dagen, Kallie Robbins, Josh Mota, Bryce “Smiley” Bailey, Joe Gibson, Jalen “Hollywood” Foley, D.J. Macumber, Tristan Grogan and Krystina Segna. They are coached by John Stenson.
J.T. and Hunter Boyle also played with the Special Olympians to honor their late uncle.
Then, several players from the game competed in the Burgman/Boyle Classic alumni game.
For the third year, Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty, is teaming up with the ButteCast to honor the finest student-athletes from the Mining City to encourage more children to get up, get out and try all kinds of sports and activities.
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Podcast No. 283: Jack Hocking
If you watch or play sports in the Mining City, you probably know Jack Hocking. We call him the Hockinator.
Even if you did not know his name, you probably recognize him as an official of so many sports. Jack umpires baseball and softball, and he officiates basketball and football. He even officiated lacrosse for a bit.
Jack also works as an announcer at hockey games in Butte from time to time, and he runs the Muzik Your Way DJ service, so you have probably seen him in action at a game, wedding or party.
Jack started umpiring baseball when he was still playing Little League himself. He even went to a school in Florida to try to become a Major League ump. However, he suffered a serious injury during the camp, and was not selected to move on.
He could have gone back and tried again, but life kind started to happen, so he stuck around Butte.
Jack will conclude his 33rd season as an umpire Aug. 16 when he works the inaugural Montana East-West Shrine Baseball Game at Butte’s 3 Legends Stadium.
You might not always agree with the call he makes, but I can assure you that nobody works harder than Jack at learning his craft. He works at all of his sports year-round.
As an official who works so many games, Jack also knows firsthand how the shortage of sports officials is hurting the games. So, Jack is on a quest to recruit more officials.
He is even offering to pay the initial yearly Montana Official Association dues to the first two new football officials who contact him. Anyone interested in joining Butte’s football officiating pool can simply go to the first study club meeting, which will be held at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Butte Civic Center upstairs conference room.
Then, you can learn that officiating sports isn’t as frightening as you think. In fact, as I can tell you from my experience officiating basketball with Jack and so many other great men and women, officiating is really fun. It is a great way to see the games, and it is an even better way to meet some new friends.
Seriously, the officials are not the stuffed shirts you think they are.
Hopefully, you will give it a shot and see what I mean.
Listen in to this episode to hear that Jack is also one heck of a bowler. He once bowled an 837 series, and has rolled a handful of perfect games. Listen in to hear how Jack got into umpiring in the first place. Listen as he talks about how much he studies to make sure he is making the best call possible.
Listen in to hear that officiating just might be something you want to try.
Today’s episode is presented by Casagranda’s Steakhouse. Eat where the locals eat.
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Podcast No. 282: Peggy Boyle
There is simply no question that Peggy Boyle is one tough woman.
In addition to raising four highly-competitive boys, Peggy was one of the 15 Salazar siblings who grew up in a small house on West Granite Street.
She attended McKinley Elementary and West Junior High before graduating from Butte High School in 1976. Peggy married Bernie Boyle on Aug. 10, 1979. After the birth of their first son, Dan, Peggy graduated from Montana Tech with a degree in occupation safety and health in 1982.
So, there is not a lot you can throw at Peggy that she cannot handle.
That quiet strength that she exhibits is one of the key factors in the Boyle and Burgman families working together to create something good out of a horrific tragedy.
Sunday, Aug. 10, will mark Peggy and Bernie’s 46th wedding anniversary. It will also mark the 10th anniversary of the worst day of their lives.
Just after midnight on Aug. 10, 2015, their son Casey and his best friend Kyle Burgman were killed in an automobile accident where East Park Street meets Sheilds Avenue. Casey, a former Butte Central Maroon, and Kyle, a former Butte High Bulldog, were both just 28 years old. Both were very well-known and beloved in the community, and the tragedy shook the Mining City to its core.
The Burgman and Boyle families did something amazing after the tragedy. On the first anniversary of the accident, they held the first Burgman/Boyle Classic alumni basketball game. That included the Boyle’s Buddies Special Olympics game, a perfect tribute to Casey, who was an adored special education teacher at Butte High School.
They also launched the Burgman/Boyle Scholarship that has helped so many Butte High and Butte Central graduates attend college. The annual Burgman/Boyle cribbage tournament, which was held on Sunday, helps raise money for the scholarship.
The Boyle’s Buddies game has continued on because those Special Olympians will never let it fade away, but the alumni game ended as some of the players got older. It will return this Sunday as both games will be played to mark the 10th anniversary.
Action will kick off at with the Boyle’s Buddies game at 4 p.m. at East Middle School. The alumni game will follow at about 5, and scholarships will be presented during halftime of that game.
Peggy, the director of Butte Central’s Laverne Combo Thanksgiving Dinner, also worked hard on a project to make the 10th anniversary a little more special. The families are raffling off a playhouse/she-shed. Tickets are $25, and they can be bought at the Knights of Columbus and the Butte Depot, among other places.
The drawing for the shed, which is fully insulated and wired for power, will be held during the games. The shed is currently on display outside Dickey’s Barbecue Pit at 2800 Harrison Ave.
Listen in to this episode as Peggy talks about growing up with 14 siblings. Listen as she talks about how Bernie kind of struggled at making a good first — and second — impression. Listen as she talks about raising those four boys and how she dealt with the unimaginable tragedy.
Listen to hear why the Burgman and Boyle families work so hard to make sure the names of Kyle and Casey are never forgotten.
Today’s episode of the ButteCast is presented by Thriftway Super Stops. Download the TLC app and start saving today.
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Through thick, thin and bad trades, you stick with your team
In the 1980s, nobody was a bigger San Francisco 49ers fan than my cousin Scott McLaughlin.
If you ran into him on the golf course in those days, there was a better-than-average chance that you would see Scott wearing a 49ers hat, a 49ers T-shirt, 49ers shorts and 49ers socks. That is not a joke, either. We can only assume he saved his “I’m a Niner” body paint and wig set for game days.
Like most 49ers fans back then, Scott’s favorite player was Joe Montana, the quarterback who led the team to four Super Bowl titles in the 1980s. By the time we got into the 1990s, the team was moving on to Steve Young at quarterback.
Montana missed the entire 1991 season with an injury, and he only played one game during the 1992 campaign. Still, Scott was holding out hope that Montana would return the 49ers to greatness when he came back healthy.
Unfortunately for Scott, the 49ers did not see it that way. They traded Montana to the Kansas City Chiefs on April 20, 1993, and it broke my cousin’s heart.
It also pissed him off.
Scott said goodbye to the 49ers and followed Montana to Chiefs Nation. When I saw him on the golf course that summer, his wardrobe was much different. He was wearing a Chiefs hat, a Chiefs T-Shirt and Chiefs shorts.
I am not too sure about the socks, and assumed his “I’m a Chief” body paint and wig set was on order.
While I believe Scott was back on board with Young and the 49ers by the time they won the Super Bowl again in January of 1995, I had to admire him for following his favorite player.
In those days, switching favorite teams was seen as one of the worst things a guy could do. You stuck with your team through thick and thin, and you never — EVER — wanted to be labeled as a “front runner.”
Switching teams — and switching them so openly — was a very brave move by Scott, who took tons of grief from people like me.
I nearly followed Scott’s lead and switched baseball teams after the Boston Red Sox traded Rafeal Devers to the San Francisco Giants this past Father’s Day. That trade broke my heart, and it really pissed me off.
Raffy is my favorite baseball player, and that is not just because he helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2018. It is not even because he saved his best games for the Yankees.
Instead, he is my favorite player for a moment during Red Sox batting practice before the third game of the 2019 season in Seattle.
My son, Grady, was 11 at the time, and the two of us drove the 600 or so miles to Seattle to watch the defending World Series champions play two games at the newly-named T-Mobile Park. We watched the second and third games of the season.
After watching Mitch Moreland blast a pinch-hit three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning as the Red Sox overcame a 6-1 deficit for a 7-6 victory on Friday, March 20, we went to watch the teams play again that Saturday.
I bought Grady a new Red Sox hoodie at a shop outside the park, and we made our way down toward the fence on the third base line. Grady had a ball and a Sharpie in his mitt, hopping to snag an autograph.
As we were 25 or 30 rows up from the field, Grady said, “Dad, he’s pointing to me.”
Before I could even ask who was pointing at him, I saw Raffy, who was fielding balls at third base, launch a throw. Then, Raffy put his hands on his head and winced a bit, as if he was just then realizing that he threw a missel to an 11-year-old boy who may or may not be able to catch.
Somehow, Grady got his ball and Sharpie out of his mitt in time to catch the ball above his left shoulder. The force of the throw forced Grady’s hand back as far as his arm could reach.
The hundreds of Red Sox fans there applauded Grady, and Raffy pointed at him with his glove hand. Then, he nodded, as if to tell the kid, “Nice catch.”
Later in that game, a fan asked Grady, “Are you the boy who made that catch?”
The Red Sox lost that game, 6-5. They lost the next day, too, dropping the series 3-1 to the Mariners. But that did not matter. Thanks to Raffy, the boy had a memory that will last a lifetime.
So did his dad.
Over the years, Raffy became Boston’s best hitter. He wasn’t the best third baseman, but he could always hit. He always hit big in the clutch, too.
When the Red Sox signed Raffy to an 11-year, $331 million contract in January of 2023, I figured I would get to watch Raffy play for my team for the next decade.
That was a saving grace for a Red Sox fan who was still peeved that the team traded Mookie Betts to the Dodgers in January of 2020. Piece by piece, the Red Sox dismantled that great team of 2018 because owner John Henry wanted to save money.
The worst part is how Henry and Co. get rid of players. Henry owns The Boston Globe, and he uses that as a propaganda arm to slam players on their way out of town. I figure he does that to deflect criticism from himself.
They did it with Nomar Garciaparra in 2004. They did it to manager Terry “Tito” Francona after the 2011 season. They did it to Johnny Damon. They did it to Betts.
With Mookie, the line was that he did not want to play in Boston, so the fans were angry at the player instead of the owner who is using his revenue from the Red Sox to finance his other interests.
Mookie said he wanted to play in Boston. He just did not want to have to take a discount to do it.
Most of the horrible moves the Red Sox made were to save money. Henry says he wants to win, but he wants to do it like the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays, who have never won a World Series.
Money is why they traded Raffy. You will never convince me otherwise. The move saved Henry around $250 million.
The propaganda machine says Raffy was a bad teammate, even though the Netflix documentary about the 2024 team seems to show the opposite. Story after story pushed that narrative. The team-owned radio announcer said he was a bad teammate.
So, Red Sox fans were mad at Raffy. Good riddance to the diva slugger, they said.
Maybe those stories are true, this time. Maybe Raffy isn’t the best teammate. But I am skeptical because it is the same playbook. I also saw the look on Raffy’s face when my son made that catch.
After the trade, I have followed every Red Sox game. I check out the box scores and read the stories. I read the trade rumors.
But I had a hard time watching any games, and I really thought hard about switching teams. This one, I thought, might be the final straw.
I thought about buying a Cincinnati Reds hat because Tito, who will forever be my favorite manager, is skippering that team. But, thanks to a certain wannabe dictator, I can never wear a red hat.
I added a Giants hat to my cart on a shopping website, but I couldn’t pull the trigger.
Through thick, thin, bad trades and a horrible owner, I must stick with my team. After all, I somehow stayed with the Chicago Bears after they traded Jim McMahon to San Diego in August of 1989. No trade could ever break my heart more than that one, and no team owner was worse than Michael McCaskey.
So, I still wear my Red Sox hat. I will still cheer for the Old Towne team because that is the team I picked as a free agent fan sometime in the 1970s. I picked the Red Sox because they are my dad’s team, too.
The team has been hot as can be since July 1, and I will be them rooting on, hoping they win a World Series before they trade Jarren Durran and turn the propaganda machine toward slandering the character of another one of my favorite players.
But, for now, I’m going to leave my “I’m a Red Sock” body paint and wig set in the closet.
— Bill Foley, who is still heartbroken about that Jim McMahon trade, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
The ButteCast with Bill Foley 