Let's Remember Bill Buckner For His Accomplishments, Not the Error
Bill Buckner died on Memorial Day at the age of 69 after a battle with Lewy Body Dementia.
Of course, most of the headlines and tweets regarding his death mentioned the error he committed in the 1986 World Series, a play that unfortunately defined his baseball career, one single play from a 22-year run that included 2,517 regular season and 23 postseason games. It was a play that didn’t truly make or break Boston’s title chances in that series, but turned him into a scapegoat for long suffering Red Sox fans anyway.
As I went through social media and various sports websites Monday night and this morning, it was interesting to see how his career was presented.
On one side of the spectrum, I found this to be a strange tweet:
Bill Buckner’s death comes with unexpected guilt. The guilt of 8-year-old me, who thanks in part to his error (it’s Calvin Schiraldi & Bob Stanley too) got his only major sports championship (Mets, Jets, Nets, Islanders). Rest In Peace, Bill. I’m sorry my joy came with your pain. pic.twitter.com/P5wbRUAy0u
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 27, 2019
Rovell took a lot of flak for that, and later doubled down by posting this, after the jump:
The very least we could have done to honor Bill Buckner was to be true to ourselves about how we felt about him. We failed. We edited our past emotions, which means that history will repeat itself https://t.co/rm5fAu4yOg
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 28, 2019
Yeah, I dunno, but I get what he’s saying. It’s one thing to share honest memories from your youth without trying to whitewash how people felt about Buckner at the time. But on the other hand, here’s a guy who was 69 years old, he literally just died, and the first thing you think of is to talk about how his error helped win the New York Mets a World Series ring?
I noticed a lot of headlines mentioned the error, headlines like this one in The Washington Post:
Bill Buckner, whose long MLB career was overshadowed by World Series gaffe, dies at 69
And this was the opening sentence in the Associated Press writeup, which was carried by numerous outlets:
Bill Buckner, a star hitter who became known for making one of the most infamous plays in major league history, died Monday. He was 69.
Paragraphs four and five in the AP story:
But it was a little groundball in the 1986 World Series that forever changed his legacy.
Trying for their first crown since 1918, the Boston Red Sox led the New York Mets 5-3 going into the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 6 at Shea Stadium. The Mets tied it with two outs., then Mookie Wilson hit a trickler up the first base line that rolled through Buckner’s legs, an error that let Ray Knight rush home from second base with the winning run.
That’s what the AP does – present basic facts, tell us what happened, and remind us why the guy is famous. Articles are copied verbatim by subscribers and posted to their sites or in their newspapers, which is how wire services are used.
I think some of these other outlets, though, might have been wrong to include the gaffe in the headline.
Why?
First, I think the vast majority of sports fans know who Bill Buckner is. They’re familiar with the error he committed. I don’t think the headline requires a qualifier explaining what he was known for. Isn’t it somewhat disrespectful to headline somebody’s obituary with the one thing they did wrong over the course of a long and successful career? Regardless of whether it defined who he was (it certainly did), can’t we have some more… tact, maybe? Discretion? Prudence? Imagine you’re one of Buckner’s family members and every third obit headline brings up a single mistake that took place more than 30 years ago.
I’ll be honest with you; I didn’t know too much about Buckner’s career, since I’m not much of a baseball guy, not like Kyle and Phil and Bob and other dudes who write for this site. As such, I was fascinated to read tweets like these, posts that shed light on the positive things he did in his career:
On Sunday, the last full day of Bill Buckner's life, 16 major leaguers struck out at least three times. Buckner played 22 seasons and never did it once.
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) May 27, 2019
That’s insane, really. Bill Buckner finished his career with 9,397 at bats and struck out 453 times. Bryce Harper already has 907 career strike outs, for comparison.
Here’s another way to contextualize that:
Career games with three or more strikeouts:
Adam Dunn – 173*
Ichiro Suzuki – 22
Fernando Tatis Jr. – 2
Tony Gwynn – 1
Bill Buckner – 0*all-time leader
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) May 27, 2019
Buckner was a 1981 All-Star with the Cubs and won the 1980 National League batting title. He finished with 2,715 career hits, 450 walks, 174 home runs, 1,208 RBI, and 498 doubles.
Another good stat:
What a shame that Bill Buckner is only remembered for his worst moment as a baseball player. What he really was, was a pure hitter.
The only 5 players with a .300+ AVG from 1972-82 (5500+ AB):
Rod Carew .340
Al Oliver .312
Pete Rose .308
Steve Garvey .304
Bill Buckner .300— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) May 27, 2019
That’s pretty elite company.
And maybe the one thing people forget about the error is that it happened in game six. The Red Sox went on to blow a three-run lead in game seven and the rest, as they say, is history. Certainly one play does not define an entire series, similar to how Kawhi Leonard beat the Sixers on a buzzer-beater. You could point to the missed shots in game four, the stalled offensive sets in game seven, and the no-show in game five. Series are very rarely lost in one game or on one play, and that’s the case with the ’86 World Series. I think most people would agree with that, but somebody has to be the scapegoat, and unfortunately Buckner became that guy.
Later in life, he was able to turn the corner on the error. He famously threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park in 2008 to a standing ovation that lasted for two minutes. He even did a cameo on Curb Your Enthusiasm, poking a bit of fun at himself in what must have a therapeutic experience:
Anyway, this is one of those moments where “we the media” might be best served to take a step back and think things through. The 1986 World Series error certainly has to be included in any Bill Buckner story, since it did, unfortunately, define who he was as a player. But you’d hope that sequence would be relegated to one paragraph, or a short lede, with the positive things I mentioned above filling out the rest of his obituary.
It feels wrong to write an obit that highlights a mistake, rather than all of the good things somebody did during their life and/or sporting career. That’s my take.
RIP Bill Buckner.