Bill Buckner’s Career- Stained by One Ground Ball

Had catcher Rich Gedman of the Boston Red Sox caught an inside pitch thrown by reliever Bob Stanley, then Bill Buckner might be the focus of a debate that centered only on whether or not he was Hall of Fame worthy. Unfortunately for Bill Buckner, Gedman failed to corral a catchable ball that was ruled a wild pitch, and the Mets’ Mookie Wilson proceeded to hit the bouncing ball that made it into right field through Bill Buckner’s legs, extending the 1986 World Series to a seventh game that Boston lost.. Many Red Sox rooters forget that had Bill Buckner fielded that ball and gotten Wilson out, the game would still have been tied and continued on. They also forget that in Game Seven two days later the Red Sox blew a 3-0 lead. But they haven’t forgotten Bill Buckner.

To be remembered for that one moment is the inescapable fate of Bill Buckner, but let’s put that one play aside and look at his total body of work. Bill Buckner player 22 Major League Baseball seasons with the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, Angels, and Royals before finally retiring at the age of 40, as a lifetime .289 hitter. Bill Buckner batted over .300 on seven different occasions with his 1980 average of .324 as his best season. Always one of the toughest men in the league to fan, Bill Buckner never struck out more than 40 times in one year. He won a batting title with his 1980 average, led his league in doubles twice, and Bill Buckner knocked in over 100 runs three times. His career total of 2,715 hits is more than many players that are in the Hall of Fame ever accrued. And Bill Buckner played on bad ankles for most of his time in the sports, due to a staph infection he developed in the mid-Seventies.

Is Bill Buckner Hall of Fame worthy? I do not personally believe he is. He is one of many on the border between very good and great. Bill Buckner had 200 hits in a season only twice, and never scored 100 runs in one year. He was not a home run hitter, with 18 being his single season high, and he was not a great run producer, as his average season amounts to 78 runs batted in. In post-season play as a batter, Bill Buckner did nothing to distinguish himself. He was simply a very good contact hitter with some power. Before his ankles betrayed him, Bill Buckner had enough speed to have stolen 31 bases in 1974 while with the Dodgers, and he even managed to swipe 18 with Boston in 1985. But Bill Buckner was not a Hall of Famer.

Still, Bill Buckner deserves better than to carry the cross he has borne all these years. So many things conspired against Bill Buckner on that October night in New York that one could write a book about it. For his part, Bill Buckner blamed nobody but himself for his error and took full responsibility, which counts for much. Boston fans gave Bill Buckner a standing ovation his first plate appearance at Fenway Park when he returned to the team briefly to begin the 1990 season. The very next year the Red Sox were playing the Yankees in New York. Incredibly, Bill Buckner had the same thing happen on a ground ball hit by Don Mattingly. The ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs for an embarrassing error. But Bill Buckner does not look back on his Gotham miscues in the field as the worst moments in his life. That would be when his dad passed away when Bill Buckner was just 14 years old. Today he lives in Idaho and is active in his community, at peace with his place in the game. He just hopes that the ultimate message of what happened to him isn’t misinterpreted into not attempting something because you might screw up.

In 1974, when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth, it was Bill Buckner in the outfield for the Dodgers who saw the ball sail over his head and the fence. It was rumored the ball would fetch as much as $30,000 dollars on the market from memorabilia collectors, and Bill Buckner tried to scale the left field wall and get the ball, but failed. Ironically for Bill Buckner, who actually has made more money as a businessman than he ever did in baseball, actor Charlie Sheen paid $93,000 for the ball Mookie Wilson hit between his legs that night. Says Bill Buckner, “I guess I should have turned around and gone after it”.