Bill Buckner
Encyclopedia : B : BI : BIL : Bill Buckner
William Joseph "Bill" Buckner (born December 14, 1949 in Vallejo, California) is a former Major League Baseball player who, despite an impressive 20-year career, is mostly remembered for the ground ball that rolled between his legs in Game Six of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets.
Career
Buckner played his first major league game in 1969 with the Los Angeles Dodgers (at the age of 19) and his last game in 1990 (at the age of 40) with the Boston Red Sox. He won the National League batting title in 1980 with the Chicago Cubs. He was an All-Star in 1981. Buckner was the first major league player to wear Nike high-top baseball cleats professionally, preceding by a number of years the waves of major leaguers wearing high-tops starting in 1989, and in fact he was wearing such a pair when he committed his 1986 World Series error.
For his entire career, "Billy Buck" was known as one of the more consistent contact hitters in the major leagues: in 2,517 games, Buckner accumulated 2,715 hits and only 453 strikeouts. He led the league four times in most at bats per strike out (1980, 1982, 1985, 1986), and four times placed second in the category (1979, 1981, 1983, 1987). For his career he averaged 20.7 AB/K (compared to 18.5 for Joe DiMaggio, 10.9 for Ted Williams, 42.7 for Nellie Fox, 44.9 for Lloyd Waner and 46.3 for Tris Speaker).
As a younger player he was a speedy baserunner who twice finished in the top-ten in the league in stolen bases. He twice led the league in doubles.
Originally promoted to the majors as an outfielder, he moved to first base when he joined the Cubs. At that position, he played 1,555 regular season games and made only 128 errors in 13,901 chances, but he will always be remembered for one error he made in the World Series...
1986 World Series
On October 25, 1986, with the Boston Red Sox leading the New York Mets 3-2 in Game 6 of the best-of-7 series, the game was tied in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Red Sox had taken a two-run lead in the top of the tenth, but the Mets had come back to tie on a wild pitch by pitcher Bob Stanley. Mookie Wilson of the Mets fouled off several pitches before hitting a ground ball to Buckner at first base. The ball took a deadening bounce on the dirt and rolled under Buckner's glove, through his legs, and into right field, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run from second base. It capped an astonishing comeback for the Mets, though it did not (as is often misremembered) end the World Series. The Met victory, in fact, forced a seventh game, which was played two nights later and won by the Mets.Some observers of the game believe that even if Buckner had cleanly fielded the ball, he still would have been unable to prevent Wilson from reaching first base. Wilson was a very fast runner, while Buckner had lost a large part of his mobility because of a long history of ankle injuries; it is possible that Wilson would have beaten Buckner to first base, which would have extended the inning. (It did not help that Buckner went 0-for-5 with runners on in all five at-bats in that game, being the only player to do so until the Yankees' Hideki Matsui in the 2005 ALDS.)
Although many factors can be cited as to why the Red Sox lost the 1986 World Series, Buckner's error remains the popular focus of the blame. Moreover, the mistake was added to the lore of the Curse of the Bambino.
Buckner has denied any lingering bitterness over the 1986 Series fiasco, pointing out that he was a key member of the team that year. He hit 8 home runs that September, with 22 RBIs and a .340 average, missing only three games. He drove in over 100 runs for the season.
Retirement and legacy
After Buckner retired from professional baseball he moved his family to Boise, Idaho, where he invested in real estate: one of the housing subdivisions which he developed is named Fenway Park.The "Buckner Ball" was later auctioned for $93,000. The high bidder was Charlie Sheen. The ball is now in the collection of Seth Swirsky, who refers to it as the "Mookie Ball."
Buckner also played a supporting role in another of baseball's milestones, as the Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder seen climbing the fence in an attempt to catch Hank Aaron's 715th home run on April 8, 1974.
According to some Red Sox players, following their victory in the 2004 World Series, Bill Buckner was one of the first persons called by members of the team.
"The Bill Buckner Bridge" is also a nickname given to the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge on which cars pass through the bridge's Y-shaped "legs."
Boston poet John Hodges wrote a poem titled Forgiving Buckner. The poem starts out, The world is always rolling between our legs..., a clear reference to Buckner's error.
Boston band Slide named their debut album Forgiving Buckner.
In The Simpsons episode, Brother's Little Helper, Bart gives Homer a book, titled Chicken Soup for the Loser, which, according to Bart, inspired Buckner to open a chain of laundromats.
In Kingdom Hospital, Stephen King's adaptation of Lars von Trier's Danish miniseries about a haunted city hospital, an entire episode was devoted to a baseball player based on Buckner. In Episode 9, "Butter Fingers," everyone at the hospital is rooting for the "New England Robins" to beat the Dallas team in the World Series. The Robins, according to the show, had not won a series since 1918. They remember how back in 1987, the Robins were only one strikeout from winning the Series. But then first baseman Earl Candleman dropped an easy fly ball, and Dallas scored runs and beat the Robins. Champagne had been set up in the Robins' locker room for victory, as it had been in the Red Sox's in 1986. Candleman is the stand-in for Buckner, who for years afterward has baseballs thrown at him for his error. After the Robins lose again in 2003, he tries to kill himself with a gun and ends up at the Kingdom Hospital. Through a manipulation of time, however, the shamed Candleman is sent back to 1987, where he catches the ball this time, and the Robins win.
On Ally McBeal (which takes place in Boston), when Ally was having one of her manic spells, she rattled off a long list of incidents leading to tragedies in her life. One of them was "ground ball towards first base."
Quotes
"Bill Buckner was more than just a great player. He was a champion warrior." -Ray Knight"Bill Buckner will always be remembered for his error in the World Series, but unfortunately that is all he will be remembered for." -Benny Greenstein
External links
- [The Top 10 Boston Sports Stories]
- [See a video and the actual ball that went through Buckner's legs on Seth.com]
- [Baseball-Reference.com] - career statistics and analysis
- [Video of the ball going through Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series]
- [1986 World Series Game 6 Re-Enacted in RBI Baseball] - A popular viral video depicting Buckner's infamous error using RBI Baseball for video and Vin Scully's original play-by-play for audio.
- [The Sporting News' Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments: E-3]
|- style="text-align: center;"
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.