Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Billy Buck

Bill Buckner passed away yesterday at the age of 69 (oh, that sounds so young!) from Lewey Body Dementia, a nasty disease for both the sufferer and their loved ones, and one our family has had experience with.

Though Buckner had a 20 year major league career, gathering more than 2700 hits, he is best remembered for a play that went horribly wrong in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, when the Red Sox seemed on the verge of their first World Championship since 1918.  I will always remember that excruciating inning which ended with me on the floor, face down in front of the TV, reaching out to shut the device off (this was before the age of remote controls), and then laying there motionless for some time before dejectedly going off to bed.

Bill Buckner took a lot of blame from Red Sox fans for his miscue in letting that ground ball bounce through his legs, yet the bulk of the blame lay elsewhere, with Sox pitchers Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley who let a sure victory get away and, most of all, in the failure of Sox manager John McNamara.  Buckner was a hurting ballplayer by then, particularly defensively, with damaged ankles limiting his flexibility.  Yet when the left-handed hitting Buckner batted in the top of the 8th against against Mets lefthander Jessie Orosco, a specialist in retiring left handed hitters, McNamara did not pinch hit for him. 

Entering the 1986 World Series, Bill Buckner had only two hits, both singles, in 18 at bats against Orosco in his career.  He'd already faced Orosco twice in the Series, in the 8th inning of Game 2 getting a bloop single to short right field, and in Game 4 hitting a weak bouncer to Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez.  And it wasn't as if Buckner was otherwise hitting well.  So far in the playoffs plus the last five games of the regular season, Bill had only 14 hits in 85 at bats, a .165 average, with one extra base hit, a double, and two walks, one intentional.

Buckner swung at the first pitch and lofted an easy pop fly to center field.

During the season, McNamara had often put the slick fielding Dave Stapleton in as a defensive replacement for Buckner in the late innings but this night he failed to do so even as the Sox entered the bottom of the 10th inning with a 5-3 lead.  Bill was in the wrong place at the wrong time due to his manager's inaction.

What is often lost in the debacle of Game 6 is the key role Bill Buckner played in the most important stretch of the regular season for the Red Sox in 1986.

As of August 30, the Sox were in first place but had played mediocre ball for more than a month going 19-25, including losing 5 of their last 6 games, cutting their lead, which once stood at 8 games, to 3 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays and 5 1/2 over the Yankees.  Buckner was having a below average season with ten homers, 79 ribbies, and a slash line of .259/.300/.391.  We all feared another late season collapse.

Starting that day, the Sox turned it around, winning 12 of 13, and by September 12 had a ten game lead and could glide through the rest of the season.  In those thirteen games, Bill Buckner went 21 for 55 with five doubles and six home runs (he hit only 18 the entire season), and walked six times (he had only 40 base on balls in all of 1986), along with driving in 19 runs.  His slash line was .382/.444/.745.

Bill and Red Sox fans slowly made their peace with each other, with Bill returning briefly to close out his career with the Sox in 1990 and making a couple of other appearances, but it was winning the World Series in 2004 that made it easier for everyone.  I'm happy Bill got to enjoy this moment in Fenway, throwing out the first pitch in the 2008 season:





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