I loved his grit. Hated that he was only known for error in the World Series. He was a ball player.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26832836/bill-buckner-dies-69-battling-dementia

He took a lot of misplaced hate for that play; it was Calvin Sharaldi (sp?) who should have been in the crosshairs. Rewatch it, hit after hit after hit.

MrGolfguy said:

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He took a lot of misplaced hate for that play; it was Calvin Sharaldi (sp?) who should have been in the crosshairs. Rewatch it, hit after hit after hit.

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I'll have to look. What I loved about Buckner is all the icing and wrapping he did just to be on the field. He was a warrior.

Schiraldi was Longhorn, boo, but him and some dude named Roger pitched them to College World Series win in Omaha...boo Longhorns.

Quote:

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They [Mets] took Game 7, too, a gut punch to a Red Sox team a strike away from a long-awaited title just 48 hours earlier.

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Wrong! The score was tied. Had Buckner made the play, they continue play in the 11th inning.
Mets tied the game prior on a wild pitch. Why no criticism of the Bosox pitcher/catcher?

What's so sad is that fans and the media allowed that one play to overshadow a wonderful career. Here's how I would like to remember Billy Buckner:

Batted over .300 in 8 seasons (and .299 another year)
Led the league in batting average one year
Led the league in doubles twice
Rarely struck out (I looked it up to confirm my memory. Worst season he ever had was 39 strikeouts in 518 plate appearances. The year he led the league in hitting, he struck out only 18 times in 615 plate appearances. The year he led the league in at-bats, he struck out only 26 times in 709 plate appearances. The guy was a beautiful hitter.

Stuff I didn't know until I looked up his career stats:

I don't remember him as very fast, even in his younger days. But he stole 31 bases with the Dodgers in '74 and 28 for them in '76. As late as 1985 he stole 18 bases for the Red Sox and was caught only 4 times.

In 22 seasons he committed only 146 errors, an average of less than 7 per year.

I had forgotten that in his early days with the Dodgers, he mostly played LF.


Overall, had he played out the rest of his career in Chicago, where he was beloved, I think he'd have been remembered as the "Mr. Baseball" successor to Ernie Banks.

The NY media hated anything Boston. They grabbed the error and made Buckner into Bozo. Couldnt be farther from the truth, but that is the NY media

Assassin said:

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The NY media hated anything Boston. They grabbed the error and made Buckner into Bozo. Couldnt be farther from the truth, but that is the NY media

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It was the Boston media, too. I think that's what hurt Buckner the most. And the highlight played countless times on ESPN and elsewhere; it was the video, not the media commentary, that became iconic. Think about that play, and probably the first thing that comes into your mind is not what any columnist or reporter wrote but the sight of that ball rolling between Buckner's legs, his body language as he realizes what has happened, and the sight of Mookie Wilson ecstatically crossing home plate, and then the cutaway to the reaction of the Mets crowd, and then the cut back to the dejected Buckner. The constant replaying of that video sequence is what made people forget that the Series didn't end on that play and that other plays contributed to Boston's loss.

bubbadog said:

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Assassin said:

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The NY media hated anything Boston. They grabbed the error and made Buckner into Bozo. Couldnt be farther from the truth, but that is the NY media

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It was the Boston media, too. I think that's what hurt Buckner the most. And the highlight played countless times on ESPN and elsewhere; it was the video, not the media commentary, that became iconic. Think about that play, and probably the first thing that comes into your mind is not what any columnist or reporter wrote but the sight of that ball rolling between Buckner's legs, his body language as he realizes what has happened, and the sight of Mookie Wilson ecstatically crossing home plate, and then the cutaway to the reaction of the Mets crowd, and then the cut back to the dejected Buckner. The constant replaying of that video sequence is what made people forget that the Series didn't end on that play and that other plays contributed to Boston's loss.

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Not sure about that, but I was working in NYC when it happened, down at Port 56 I think. That was all the Port Police and NYC cops were talking about. It was 'the curse of the Bambino' all over to them

Assassin said:

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bubbadog said:

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Assassin said:

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The NY media hated anything Boston. They grabbed the error and made Buckner into Bozo. Couldnt be farther from the truth, but that is the NY media

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It was the Boston media, too. I think that's what hurt Buckner the most. And the highlight played countless times on ESPN and elsewhere; it was the video, not the media commentary, that became iconic. Think about that play, and probably the first thing that comes into your mind is not what any columnist or reporter wrote but the sight of that ball rolling between Buckner's legs, his body language as he realizes what has happened, and the sight of Mookie Wilson ecstatically crossing home plate, and then the cutaway to the reaction of the Mets crowd, and then the cut back to the dejected Buckner. The constant replaying of that video sequence is what made people forget that the Series didn't end on that play and that other plays contributed to Boston's loss.

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Not sure about that, but I was working in NYC when it happened, down at Port 56 I think. That was all the Port Police and NYC cops were talking about. It was 'the curse of the Bambino' all over to them

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I'm sure that's how they saw it in New York. People in Boston also believed in the curse; it was downright pathological with them. I can tell you that, when they finally broke the curse in 2008, there were Red Sox fans who were watching as their team was up 3-0 with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, up three games to none, and they were so invested in the curse that they thought God had led them to this point just to make them lose the Series in a way that had never, ever happened before.

Despite a more credible "curse" story (involving the owner of the billy goat), Cubs fans were always optimistic when they made the playoffs. Red Sox fans were fatalistic. Given that mindset, you'd think they'd have been more readily forgiving of Buckner and seen him as a mere cog in some giant cosmic wheel.