Bill Buckner
William Joseph Buckner (December 14, 1949 – May 27, 2019) was an American first baseman and left fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams from 1969 through 1990, most notably the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. Beginning his career as an outfielder with the Dodgers, Buckner helped the team to the 1974 pennant with a .314 batting average, but a serious ankle injury the next year led to his trade to the Cubs before the 1977 season. The Cubs moved him to first base, and he won the National League (NL) batting title with a .324 mark in 1980. He was named to the All-Star team the following year as he led the major leagues in doubles. After setting a major league record for first basemen with 159 assists in 1982, Buckner surpassed that total with 161 in 1983 while again leading the NL in doubles. Feuds with team management over a loss of playing time resulted in him being traded to the Red Sox in the middle of the 1984 season.
For the Major League Baseball pitcher, see Billy Buckner.Bill Buckner
.289
2,715
174
1,208
During the 1985 season, Buckner started all 162 games and shattered his own record with 184 assists. Toward the end of the 1986 season, he was hobbled by leg injuries and struggled throughout the playoffs. His tenth-inning error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets remains one of the most memorable plays in baseball history; it was long considered part of a curse on the Red Sox that kept them from winning the World Series,[1][2] and led to years of fan anger and public mockery that Buckner handled graciously before being embraced by Red Sox fans again after their 2004 World Series victory.
After spending his last few seasons with the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and Red Sox, Buckner became the 21st player in major league history to play in four decades. He ended his career with 2,715 hits and 498 doubles, having batted over .300 seven times with three seasons of 100 runs batted in (RBI). Buckner led his league in assists four times, with his 1985 mark remaining the American League (AL) record. He retired with the fourth-most assists by a first baseman (1,351) in major league history despite not playing the position regularly until he was 27 years old. After retiring as a player, Buckner became a real estate developer in Idaho. He coached a number of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams before leaving baseball in 2014.
Early years[edit]
Buckner was born in Vallejo, California, and grew up in nearby American Canyon. He and his brothers Bob and Jim, and Jim's twin sister Jan, were raised by their parents, Leonard and Marie Katherine Buckner; his father died in 1966, when Bill was a teenager. His mother was a stenographer for the California Highway Patrol.[3][4]
He graduated from Napa High School in 1968 after playing on the school's baseball and football teams. While playing football, he was a two-time All-State receiver and also achieved All-America honors twice.[5][6]
As a baseball player at Napa High School, Buckner hit .667 in 1967 and .529 in 1968 under coach Dale Fisher. As a football player, Buckner is still in the Napa record lists for reception yards in a season (579), career reception yards (963), and career receptions (61). At first, Buckner contemplated attending Stanford or USC, but he eventually chose professional baseball instead.[7][4]
Buckner was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second round of the 1968 Major League Baseball draft; his friend Bobby Valentine was the Dodgers' first-round pick. Upon signing with the Dodgers, Buckner was assigned to the Ogden Dodgers of the Pioneer League. He also briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, USC and Arizona State University. He became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity while a farmhand with the Dodgers, and roomed with Valentine while attending USC after his first professional season.[8]
Career[edit]
Minor leagues (1968–1970)[edit]
At age 18, Buckner made his professional debut playing with the Ogden Dodgers of the Rookie Pioneer league in 1968, hitting .344 with 4 home runs and 44 RBI in 64 games. He was teammates with Valentine and Steve Garvey, who also were playing in their first professional seasons. The manager at Ogden was Tommy Lasorda.[9][10]
In 1969, Buckner played with four Dodger teams, as he advanced quickly in the Dodgers' farm system. He hit .350 with 6 home runs and 36 RBI in 46 games with the Dodgers team in the Arizona Instructional League. He then batted .307 with 7 home runs and 50 RBI with the Class AA Albuquerque Dodgers, and .315 with 2 home runs and 27 RBI in 36 games with the Class AAA Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League. While at Spokane, Buckner's manager was once again Lasorda.[9] Buckner was called up to the Dodgers late in the season at age 19, popping up to second base as a pinch hitter for Jim Brewer in the 9th inning of a 4–3 road loss to the San Francisco Giants on September 21 in his only appearance.[11]
Buckner spent April 1970 with the Dodgers, picking up his first hit in a 5–2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on April 8, but after batting .121 with no home runs or RBI, he was returned to Triple-A Spokane, where he played 111 games under Lasorda after he was given leave to complete finals at USC. He hit .335 with 3 home runs and 74 RBI, playing alongside Garvey, Valentine, Davey Lopes, Tom Paciorek, Bill Russell, Charlie Hough, and Doyle Alexander, among others. Buckner played most of the 1970 season with a broken jaw and with his jaw wired shut. Spokane finished 94–52, and Buckner was again called up to the Dodgers in September.[12][8] He batted .257 in the final month, with 4 RBI and 5 runs scored.
Los Angeles Dodgers (1971–1976)[edit]
Buckner earned a starting job with the Dodgers in 1971 as their opening-day right fielder, and hit his first career home run off Don Wilson of the Houston Astros on April 6, providing the only scoring in a 2–0 road win. Buckner also played some first base with the Dodgers, making 87 starts at first in 1973. However, when Steve Garvey emerged as a Gold Glove first baseman and the National League's Most Valuable Player the following season, Buckner was shifted to left field permanently. Buckner played a supporting role in a baseball milestone on April 8, 1974. Playing left field, he climbed the fence in an attempt to catch Hank Aaron's record 715th home run. He also played in his first World Series that year, which the Dodgers lost to the Oakland Athletics in five games; Buckner hit .250 in the Series, including a home run off Catfish Hunter in Game 3, a 3–2 road loss.[13]
In his Dodgers career, Buckner batted .289 with 38 home runs and 277 runs batted in in 773 games.[14]
Post-playing career[edit]
After Buckner retired from baseball, he moved his family to Idaho where he invested in real estate in the Boise area. One of the housing subdivisions that 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, which was in business from 2006 to 2008.
On April 8, 2008, Buckner threw out the first pitch to former teammate Dwight Evans at the Red Sox home opener as they unfurled their 2007 World Series championship banner. He received a two-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."[31]
On January 4, 2011, Buckner was named the manager of the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am League.[32][33] The Rox posted a 51–42 record in 2011, but after the season, the Rox dropped the professional format to join the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. In December, Buckner became the hitting instructor for the Boise Hawks for the 2012 season. The Hawks were the Chicago Cubs affiliate in the Class A-Short Season Northwest League.[34][35] Buckner announced his retirement from baseball on March 3, 2014.[36] Buckner was inducted into the Napa High School Hall Of Fame in 1997[37][38] and the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2010.[39]
Buckner was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2008.[40]
References in popular culture[edit]
In the 1974 episode of the TV series Emergency! entitled “Nagging Suspicion,” Buckner is mentioned as “batting .300” by one of the fire fighters reading the newspaper. The series is set in Los Angeles and at the time Buckner was playing for the Dodgers. Charlie Sheen purchased the "Buckner Ball" at auction in 1992 for $93,000, and for a long time, it resided in the collection of songwriter and Mets fan Seth Swirsky, who refers to it as the "Mookie Ball".[46] The ball was on loan for a time from Swirsky to the Mets to display in their Hall of Fame and Museum, and it was among the most popular artifacts for fans to see. On May 3, 2012, Swirsky sold the ball through Heritage Auctions for $418,250.[47][48][49]
Buckner made a cameo appearance at the beginning of the sports parody film The Comebacks and was featured in an episode of the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm.[50] He also made a cameo appearance in the pilot episode of the short-lived sitcom Inside Schwartz, advising the title character to "just let it go". In 1995, Buckner appeared along with Michael Jordan, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr. in a commercial for the shoemaker Nike in which Spike Lee, in character as Mars Blackmon, compares Jordan's baseball skills to Musial, Mays, Griffey and Buckner. The punch line is a visual reference to Buckner's 1986 World Series error.[51] His famous 1986 World Series miscue is also referenced in the films Celtic Pride, Rounders,[52] and Fever Pitch. The play is also referenced in an episode of The Simpsons titled "Brother's Little Helper"[53] and in the musical Johnny Baseball.[54] On October 23, 2008, during former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony in House hearings on the economic crisis of 2008, Representative John Yarmuth referred to Greenspan as one of "three Bill Buckners".[55] Buckner and Mookie Wilson appeared in an MLB Network commercial for the 2016 postseason, "Catching Up", marking the 30th anniversary of the 1986 World Series and their roles in it.[56]
Buckner is mentioned in The Areas of My Expertise in a series of New England sports references. In the book, John Hodgman describes a (fictional) radio personality and recounts the premonition she had regarding Buckner's infamous error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.[57]
The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, in Boston, is colloquially referred to by locals as the Bill Buckner Bridge because traffic goes between the "legs" of the bridge, like Buckner's 1986 World Series fielding error.[58][59] The nickname is now spoken fondly, since Buckner and Sox fans thought fondly of each other after the 2004 World Series win.
In the season 2, episode 16 episode of Boston Legal, Tom Selleck's fiancé needs to be reminded of a tragedy to break out of uncontrolled laughter. The first time this has to be done he reminds her that Bambi's mother was shot. The second time Selleck simply says, "Bill Buckner."