Bucky Dent’s famous home run was replayed — and his phone blew up

When life , as it typically does, a replay of a classic sporting event might get your attention for a second or five — long enough to smile — before you move on with your day.

When we’re fighting a pandemic? Such television programming can feel essential.

With no live sports occurring, and with many of us bunkered down at home (major thank you to those out on the front lines), the replays reduce our isolation. They provide us with a common topic on social media. And they give a warm glow to the participants of those games who, in better times, can carry on without even knowing that their shining moment is airing somewhere.

“This is a tough time for everybody,” Bucky Dent told The Post on Thursday, in a telephone conversation. “To be able to watch baseball, even the other classic games being played, takes your mind off what’s going on for a while.”

Dent said that his phone blew up on Saturday, when the MLB Network replayed the game that forever changed his life. The light-hitting shortstop’s three-run, seventh-inning homer over Fenway Park’s Green Monster, against Mike Torrez, catapulted the Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Red Sox in the American League East tiebreaker on Oct. 2, 1978.

“I got a lot of calls,” agreed Goose Gossage, who recorded the final eight outs for the save. “A lot of fans, a lot of family even called. Still to this day, I have not watched this whole game.”

Gossage added that Saturday marked the most of that game he had ever watched, although he quipped, “I’m still afraid it’s not gonna turn out the right way.”

The details of such games serve as nourishment for us. As Gossage faced down his fellow future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski in the bottom of the ninth, with Red Sox on first and third and two outs, Dent admitted with a laugh, “I was hoping Yastrzemski wouldn’t hit it to me”; he got his wish, as Yaz popped out to third baseman Graig Nettles to end the thriller. And Gossage, who battled through jams in the eighth and ninth, loves telling of his postgame conversation with his catcher Thurman Munson.

“It was total chaos,” Gossage said of the tiny visitors’ clubhouse at Fenway. “We went into the training room, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god!’ I’m getting ice on my shoulder.

“Thurman says, ‘Where’d you get those (last few) pitches? Those pitches had another foot on them, at least!’

“I said, ‘I relaxed.’

“He said, ‘What the hell took you so long?!”

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Ironically, and correctly, Dent recalled of that contest, “It was one of those games where the whole world seemed to shut down. A one-game playoff. Two great towns. It was just one of those historic games that you don’t forget. It’s etched in your memory. People don’t forget what they were doing.”

With the world shut down for real now, at a time we certainly won’t forget, these games register once again. Even if, despite Goose’s fears, we know the ending ahead of time.

— This week’s Pop Quiz Question came from Doug Kelly, communications director of the Football Bowl Association: Clint Eastwood’s character on the TV show “Rawhide” shares a last name with one of the best current closers in baseball. Name the character and the closer.

— Strat-O-Matic, the company responsible for simulated games for all of the major North American sports that I for one loved as a youngster, , what was supposed to be Opening Day. You can follow the action at the company’s website or on its social media accounts.

— Your Pop Quiz Answer is Rowdy Yates and Kirby Yates (Padres). If you have a tidbit that connects baseball with popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@btc365-futebol.com.