God help me, I just analyzed Dave Stapleton’s 1986 game log. As you say, he substituted at first base 24 times; six of those appearances were as a defensive replacement for Don Baylor, on occasions when Buckner DH’d and Baylor played first.
Eighteen times, Stapleton replaced Buckner. But most of those had motivations other than defense. Nine or ten of the games were Boston blowouts where it was just a matter of resting your regulars; other Boston players came out of those games as well. Four or five of the games were situations where Boston was tied or behind and Stapleton pinch-ran for Buckner and then remained in the game. At no time during the regular season did McNamara have a consistent policy of getting Buckner out of the game just to get a better glove on the field.
There may be something to the Celebration Theory; Boston clinched the AL East with a 12-3 blowout over Toronto on September 28, and McNamara left all nine starters, including pitcher Oil Can Boyd, in the game until the very end.
Indeed, but with some ambiguity. Stapleton replaced Buckner in all four Boston wins, but two of them were blowouts, and in one, Stapleton entered as a pinch-runner with Boston behind. Then in Game Seven, he replaced Buckner with Boston leading 3-0 in the bottom of the third inning, which leads me to wonder whether Buckner sustained some minor injury. (That’s awfully early for a defensive replacement.)
Finally, in the World Series, we cross a threshold–in Game One, Stapleton replaces Buckner with Boston leading 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning–clearly and unambiguously, to get a better glove on the field in a close game. Then again in Game Two. And again in Game Five. And then not in Game Six.
I’ve never lived anywhere near Chicago (although I have been there several times and think it is a wonderful town) as most kids that grew up in the early 80s, we had WGN on cable and coming home from school I would watch the Cubbies as they always played in the daytime (no lights!) and listen to Harry Caray. I still remember Empire Furniture (588-2300, Empire!!!). I got to appreciate Buckner from those days.
For that reason, the Cubbies have always been my second favorite team behind the Pirates.
I’ve discovered via this thread that Bill Buckner was a mediocre baseball player, at best. A career 100 OPS+ and a .321 OBP. A first baseman and sometime corner outfielder who only managed 174 home runs in over 10,000 plate appearances. A 22 year career which resulted in only 15 WAR and just one All-Star game. In my memory, he was a better player than all that.
Thanks fr the detailed examination. It just makes it all the more puzzling that Stapleton was on the team. After a really solid rookie year in 1980 (at the age of 26, so he just peaked then) Stapleton was a regular utility guy in 1981 and was Boston’s regular first baseman in 1982 and 1983 but he was not very good, pretty much a placeholder until they found someone better, and in 1984 Buckner was the someone better and Stapleton hit the pine. He then rode the pine for basically three full years in Boston.
I can’t really understand why Stapleton was on the team. I can’t think of a comparable example of a team carrying a guy for almost three entire seasons who really didn’t serve any purpose. Stapleton barely played; just 13 games in 1984, 30 in 1984 and 39 in 1986 and he hardly ever started, and he was the kind of guy who really wasn’t a useful bench player. It’s just weird that you’d expend a roster spot on a guy you never use for THREE YEARS. He did have a significant injury in 1984, which cost him a few months, but I cannot find evidence he was injured after that. He just… was there.
I don’t think that is a fair characterization. Buckner was not a Hall of Famer to be sure, and he was probably overrated in his time, but 15 WAR, even over 22 seasons, is after all a contribution. The great majority of players won’t contribute that much.
It is probably fair to say Buckner is the “worst” player who ever got 2700 hits, but that is a hell of a club to be the worst player in.
Yeah, in my memory, too. Looking at Baseball Reference, I see that, in 1980, when he won the NL batting crown, his WAR was only 1.5. Sabermetrics clearly aren’t Buckner’s friend.
Buckner is 66th in total hits on the all-time list, and (to my surprise) 11th all-time among first basemen. That’s largely because he had an exceptionally long career (playing in 22 seasons) but it’s still not too shabby.
It’s mind blowing that in 1980, Buckner won the batting title and struck out a grand total of 18 times. Meanwhile, in the AL, George Brett hit .390 and only whiffed 22 times.
Buckner is definitely not a hall of famer. But again, for 22 years he was good-to-okay (even good enough to be an All Star once) and yet everyone just talks about one error he made once. That’s what I find is weird/sad.
I mean, his career was four times as long as the average for a player (5.6 years). He couldn’t have been that bad. By my count, only 35 players in Major League history had longer careers (the record is 27 years, shared by Nolan Ryan and Cap Anson; Cap retired in 1897). So that alone seems fairly exceptional to me.
Buckner rarely struck out (see my point earlier about never striking out three times in a game), but he also didn’t get many bases on balls (which is why his OBP was only .321). Baseball Reference shows that, over the course of 162 games, Buckner would have only struck out an average of 29 times, but he also would have ony walked 29 times.
Plus, he also averaged only 11 home runs per 162 games. Billy Buck didn’t deliver much on any of the the Three True Outcomes.
You should not be entirely trusting of defensive WAR from before the days that they had actual firsthand zone charts. There is just no way in hell Buckner wasn’t more valuable than that.
Buckner had the lowest OBP (.353) of any batting title winner in the modern era. WAR clearly doesn’t reward first basemen who excel at hitting singles and not much else. He had first class moustache, though. One of the best in MLB history.
That 1986 Red Sox team was odd on so many levels. The 85 Sox won only 81 games, and Don Baylor was the only major change in 86. The middle of the order were all players on their downside, the bench was rarely used and ineffective, and the bullpen was full of has beens and never weres. (Quick, anyone remember Steve Crawford?). Everything had to break well for them to win, and until the World Series it did.
Another forgotten thing about Game 6: even if Buckner fielded the last play cleanly, Mookie Wilson probably beats it out. As this brief but fun interview points out, Stanley should have been covering first but screwed up. It would have been a race by Buckner and Mookie to first, and the speedy Wilson probably wins that race. (BTW, does anyone know why having a runner on second forced Buckner to play deep?)
I also remember Buckner best from his Cubs days. I saw a lot of games in Wrigley in the late seventies and can also attest that he was well loved by the fans.
I’m kind of amused by the title of the OP, which refers to him as a “Red Sox player.” He played nearly 800 games with the Dodgers and close to 1000 with the Cubs, only 526 with Boston. His best years were long before he came to Boston, too. He had 9.6 WAR with LA, 8.7 with Chicago, and negative 1.4 with Boston. It’s a little like if Reggie Jackson died and someone started an OP with “Angels DH Reggie Jackson dead at…” I mean, I know why; it’s that error. As others have pointed out, it’s unfair. In a just world the OP would have read “Former first baseman Bill Buckner dead at…”
Of course, without the error it’s doubtful there would’ve been a thread. So I guess there’s that…
Well, it may be that they’ve underrated him, but as Blank Slate points out his OBP in 1980 (the year you’re referring to) was quite pedestrian that year despite the batting title. Know how many unintentional walks he drew that season, in 615 plate appearances? Nineteen. Nineteen walks! Mike Trout gets nineteen walks in a week. (Well, not literally.) Buckner’s offensive WAR that year was calculated at 2.1, which is better than 1.5 but also nothing to write home about. --He did hit 40 doubles, but it was a less than stellar offensive season given that he was a batting champion.
As for defense, I dunno. Worth pointing out is that the Cubs used Larry Biittner at first base a lot in 1980, meaning that Buckner played 54 games in the outfield. I’d imagine that brought down the defensive WAR some. Then again, though it’s obviously been many years, I don’t recall him being a particularly good defensive 1B. Manny Trillo, who played second in those days, was exceptional at making plays to his left, and it always seemed to me that the Cubs kept Trillo shaded way more toward first base than the second basemen on other teams. I don’t know how b-reference calculates defensive stats from the seventies and eighties, but I can easily believe that he was a noticeably worse than average fielder by the time he got to the Cubs.
I can picture Buckner batting and he ‘choked up’ on the bat. A lot of players did in those days. I never really thought about it, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a hitter doing it. Are there any MLB players who regularly choke up these days?