Made one error that cost the Red Sox the 1986 World Series. I understand the Mets are in mourning.
No, his error didn’t cost the Sox the Series - that’s about the most unfair thing you can say about Buckner. So many other things had to go wrong both before and after that play for the Sox to lose the Series: bad pitching by Schiraldi and Stanley, and then the Sox blew a three run lead in Game 7. Buckner wasn’t even responsible for losing the game, much less the Series.
Blaming Buckner for costing the Red Sox the Series is like blaming Steve Bartman for costing the Cubs the NLCS. It was but one error out of many different things - many things that had to work together to combine together for the loss. By the time Buckner made his error, the score had already been tied, too. It’s not like if he fielded the ball right, the Sox get a guaranteed championship.
And no matter what, I don’t think it’s fair to judge an athlete’s entire 22-season career based off of something that happens in 0.22 seconds.
Today on the radio he was described as though that error was his most well known thing. I am familiar with that error, it was pretty sloppy, but I remember him as the guy with the moustache that was on the Cubs team when I was young.
My favorite Buckner memory was the inside the park home run he hit for Boston at the end of his career in 1990. I think he should have retired immediately after that at bat so he could say he and Ted Williams both finished their careers with a home run.
Buckner was a very good player who unfortunately is best-remembered for one error that happened in one game during a 22 year MLB career. He was the NL batting champion in 1980 and played in the All-Star game the following year. He was a fast runner early in his career before having to get ankle surgery, twice getting in the top ten of base steals. He twice led the MLB in doubles. Career batting average of .289, OBP of .322 and a slugging percentage of .408. As I said, a very good player. After moving to first base, in 1,555 regular season games he only made 128 errors with 13,901 chances, so he wasn’t at all prone to errors.
Yet he’s best remembered for one mistake. How strange.
Right. That’s how I remember Buckner. A good, solid defensive player with a good bat. Hustled his ass off every play. A solid player.
I remember the error as an unfortunate one-time incident in an otherwise great career. I’m surprised that most other people only remember him for the error. And like others have said, why isn’t the blame on the Sox bullpen for completely choking when they had the game in hand?
As Buckner had played for the Cubs during his peak years, the Chicago TV stations talked about him quite a bit yesterday. One of the sportscasters (on WGN, I think) noted that, over the course of his 22-year career, Buckner never struck out three times in a single game.
As UltraVires noted, he was a really solid player.
Godspeed, Mr. Buckner.
Since I’m from Chicago, although not a Cubs fan, I remember Buckner mostly for the 7+ seasons he played for the Cubs, during which he was not only a consistently productive (albeit not powerful) hitter, but insanely popular with the fans. Chicago absolutely loved Billy Buck.
Finally, in 1984, the Cubs decided to go with Leon Durham at first, and Buckner struggled with limited playing time and productivity, and the Cubs traded him to Boston. I thought, since he was 34 and had notoriously bad legs, that he was just about at the end of the line. But no, he rejuvenated himself in Boston, until the Unfortunate Incident.
Fun fact about Buckner: he led the league in assists by a first baseman four times. The reason, of course, is that with his bad legs he had to toss the ball to the pitcher on any grounder that was more than three feet from first base. But alas, the assist that he didn’t get in the 1986 World Series that was so memorable.
You make an interesting point about Buckner’s asszist totals that reminds me of something.
During their careers, Buckner was not regarded as an especially good first baseman. A competitor (and former teammate) of his, Steve Garvey, was; in fact, Garvey won four Gold Gloves. (He once went an en tire season without making a single error; he is the only first baseman to ever do that while playing full time.)
However, for a long time, baseball analytics held that Buckner was an excellent first baseman, while Garvey was an extraordinarily dreadful one. Indeed, Fangraphs and BBRef still say this. But as several folks have pointed out, that’s a failure of the methodology. First basemen are heavily judged, statistically, on how many assists they make, on the assumption that a putout for a first baseman doesn’t really mean anything. Buckner made a lot of assists because, as you point out, he would absolutely refuse to make the putout himself if he fielded a ground ball; he made very sure that his pitcher teammates knew they had to get over there to cover the bag every single time.
Garvey, conversely, didn’t trust his own arm, but was quite mobile, so his approach was to make every putout he possibly could on his own. The difference in assists had nothing at all to do with their effectiveness as fielders.
I really wish someone more knowledgeable had started this thread. Oh well.
He started out as a Dodger when I was a kid in LA. I remember that my best friend’s older sister had a huge crush on him. He’s one of the first baseball players I recall being aware of. He was always gracious about The Play and even did a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode making fun of it.
Also often overlooked is the fact that, throughout the season, Sox manager John McNamara routinely replaced Buckner at first with Dave Stapleton for late-inning defense. The rumor at the time was that McNamara wanted Buckner on the field for the “celebration” that never took place.
Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley definitely got off easy. Schiraldi got 2 quick outs with a 2 run lead in the bottom of the 10th, then gives up 3 singles in a row. Then Stanley comes in and his wild pitch was every bit as damning as Buckner’s error, possibly even more so. But it was Buckner’s error that ended the game, so he gets piled on. And listen, no sugar coating, it was a bad error. But it wasn’t the only mistake and it’s not worth tarnishing an otherwise very fine career.
Same here. Weird thing is, I guess I must have been 11 at the time of that World Series, but for years after, I remembered that play as him being on the Cubs and happening sometime during the 1984 season, perhaps during the games against San Diego (which he wouldn’t have been there for, anyway). Really weird how my memory got scrambled, and that’s how much I thought of him as a Cub, I guess. (And I guess how much I associated heartbreaks like that with the Cubs.) Must have been some time in late high school or even college that the memories straightened themselves out.
What’s somewhat odd is that for someone with bad legs (he had some surgery in the mid-70s–I understand he was regarded as a speedy guy at one time, but that’s before my time), he led the Red Sox in stolen bases by a margin in 1985 (18 vs 10 for runner-up Jackie Gutierrez. ETA: Sorry. Steve “Psycho” Lyons had 12.) He slowed down in '86 with 6 vs Marty Barrett’s 15, but those numbers don’t seem like ones from somebody who has very limited running ability–at least not on the teams he played with. (OK, the league leaders in those days were in the 70+ stolen base range, but for his team, one year he led them, the next year he came second.)
When he made that error, Mike Torrez, who gave up that homer to Bucky Bleeping Dent in 1978, shouted “I’m off the hook!”
Buckner was a smart, alert player who was on base a lot, and would pick on a pitcher who wasn’t paying enough attention to him.
Buckner was a smart, alert player who was on base a lot, and would pick on a pitcher who wasn’t paying enough attention to him.
Stapleton only played 29 games at first base in 1986; from what I can see, 24 were replacing Buckner (maybe someone else too, but it had to be mostly Buckner) so it wasn’t exactly routine, but it picked up in the playoffs; Stapleton replaceed Buckner twice in the ALCS and in all of Boston’s three wins in the World Series.
It is odd, really, that Stapleton was on the team at all; carrying a guy just to occasionally spell off your old first baseman is just a weird thing. Stapleton couldn’t hit, and had no other use. Stapleton is the only baseball player I can think of who is best remembered for not playing in a game.
McNamara, in the only firsthand comment I can find, said he left Buckner in because Buckner was “the best first baseman I had.” That of course just invites the question as to why Stapleton’s primary job was to replace Bill Buckner on defense. McNamara’s management of Game 6 just baffles me; the first mistake, of course, is the fact that he left Schiraldi in, when Schiraldi had been pitching since the eighth and many fresh relievers were available.
I suspect he’d have made a similar comment, Schiraldi was the best pitcher available. Schiraldi had a fine season. But in Game 5, 2 nights earlier, Bruce Hurst pitched a complete game. So yeah, the bullpen was fresh. Stanley had been regularly used as a closer, so I can’t imagine why he didn’t start the 10th inning. And it’s not like Schiraldi cruised through the 8th and 9th, he did give up the tying run in the 8th. So I agree, McNamara gets off the hook pretty easily, too.