From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the pitcher who currently plays for the
Arizona Diamondbacks, see
Billy Buckner.
William Joseph "Bill" Buckner (born December
14, 1949) is a former Major League Baseball player for
the Los
Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, California Angels and Kansas City
Royals. His playing career lasted over twenty years and he
accumulated over 2,700 career hits. However, despite his productive
career, he has gained infamy for his crucial fielding error during
Game Six of the 1986 World Series, a play that has
since been prominently entrenched into American sports lore.
Career
Buckner was born in Vallejo, California, United States. He graduated from Napa High
School. He was the second player chosen by the Los Angeles
Dodgers in the 1968 June Draft (after his friend Bobby Valentine
was selected first). Before entering MLB, Buckner briefly attended
the University of Southern
California, where he never played sports. While at Southern
California he became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. 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.
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).
As a 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.
After a serious ankle injury in the early 70's while playing for
the Dodgers, which affected him for much of his career, Buckner
never was the same type of base runner. In the remaining years of
his career, Buckner endured extensive daily therapy and icing of
his ankle in order to maintain his high level of playing standards
for another decade and a half.
Originally promoted to the majors as an outfielder, he moved to
first base when he joined the Cubs to take pressure off his ankles.
At that position, he played 1,555 regular season games and made
only 128 errors in 13,901 chances. Despite his ankle problems, he
managed to post respectable stolen-base numbers in 1981 (15) and
1982 (12) with the Cubs and 1985 (18) with the Red Sox.
1986 World
Series
Buckner was a key member of the team in 1986. He hit 8 home runs
that September, with 22 RBIs and a .340 average, missing three
games. He drove in over 100 runs for the season. In Game 5 of the
Championship
Series when the Red Sox faced elimination, he singled to start
their ninth inning rally, which was capped off by Dave Henderson's
famous home
run.
On October 25, 1986, the Boston Red Sox faced the New York Mets in
Game 6 of the World Series. Boston led the
best-of-7 series 3 games to 2, and had a two-run lead with two outs
in the bottom of the tenth inning. Instead of defensive replacement Dave Stapleton
playing 1B for Buckner and his hurting knees (the 1986 post-season
pattern for Red Sox when leading in the last inning), Boston
manager John McNamara had Buckner take the field in the bottom of
that tenth inning. Subsequently, New York came back to tie the game
with three straight singles off Calvin Schiraldi and a wild pitch by
pitcher Bob Stanley.
Mookie Wilson
fouled off several pitches before hitting a ground ball to Buckner
at first base. The ball rolled under Buckner's glove, through his
legs, and into right field, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run, forcing
a seventh game, which the Mets won. The error capped off a very
poor Game 6 performance; Buckner went 0-for-5, with runners on base
in all five at-bats.
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. He lent his
name to and was a minority owner of a local car dealership, Bill
Buckner Motors in Emmett, Idaho, which was in business from
2006 to 2008.[1]
The "Buckner Ball" was later auctioned for $93,000. The high
bidder was Charlie
Sheen. The ball is now in the collection of songwriter Seth Swirsky, who
refers to it as the "Mookie Ball." Buckner and Mookie Wilson have
become business partners to some extent, attending autograph shows
together and signing copies of a photo of the 1986 play that linked
the two players.
Buckner also played a supporting role in another baseball
milestone. As left fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Buckner
climbed the fence in an attempt to catch Hank Aaron's 715th home run on April 8,
1974. Thirty-four years to the date later, on April 8, 2008, Bill
Buckner threw out the first pitch to former teammate Dwight Evans
at the Boston Red Sox home opener against the Detroit Tigers, as
they unfurled their 2007 World Series Championship
Banner. He received a 4 minute standing ovation from the sell-out
crowd. After the game, when asked if he had any second thoughts
about appearing at the game, he said, "I really had to forgive, not
the fans of Boston, per se, but I would have to say in my heart I
had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family
through. So, you know, I've done that and I'm over that."[2]
References in popular
culture
- Boston poet John Hodgen wrote a poem titled "Forgiving
Buckner." The poem begins, "The world is always rolling between our
legs..." [3]
- In Boston, the Zakim Bunker
Hill Bridge has acquired the nickname "The Bill Buckner Bridge"
because cars pass unimpeded through the bridge's Y-shaped
"legs."[4][5]
- In the film Rounders, Matt Damon's character,
Michael McDermott, references Buckner when he returns to an
underground poker game where he had lost $30,000 at the beginning
of the film. In his voice over, McDermott says, "I feel like
Buckner walking into Shea." [6]
- In the film Fever Pitch, Jimmy Fallon's
character uses Buckner's error as one of the examples of the "Curse of
the Bambino" to his new girlfriend (Drew Barrymore), but can't explain it,
and can only blurt out the name, "Buckner!" as his friends all moan
at the memory. Later, having lost her, he sits alone in his
apartment, replaying the error over and over again on his VCR. His
friends, worried about him, break into his apartment, and see it,
and one yells, referencing the videotape of the game, "I thought
you took that away from him!" He takes it out of the VCR, and asks
Fallon's character if he has any more videos of Red Sox disasters:
"Where's your stash?"
- On October 23, 2008, during former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's
testimony in House hearings on the Economic crisis of 2008, Rep. John Yarmuth (D.Ky)
referred to Greenspan as one of "three Bill Buckners."[7]
- A commercial for KGB revolves around a man's inability to
remember Bill Buckner's name.
See also
Quotes
"Bill Buckner was more than just a great player. He was a
champion warrior."
References
External
links
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