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Post by jerrygarciaparra on May 27, 2019 13:17:24 GMT -5
RIP Billy Buck. Helluva baseball player and by all accounts good man. Blamed for 1 play because...well...that is what people do.
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Post by malynn19 on May 27, 2019 13:26:01 GMT -5
RIP Billy Buckner, those bad ankles kept you of the HOF, maybe one day you'll get in.
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Post by grandsalami on May 27, 2019 13:27:06 GMT -5
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Post by grandsalami on May 27, 2019 13:27:29 GMT -5
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Post by jimed14 on May 27, 2019 13:32:09 GMT -5
That brings a tear to my eye. |
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Post by soxjim on May 27, 2019 15:33:37 GMT -5
RIP Billy Buck. Helluva baseball player and by all accounts good man. Blamed for 1 play because...well...that is what people do. Complete B.S. the crap he took. |
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Post by jimed14 on May 27, 2019 16:26:24 GMT -5
RIP Billy Buck. Helluva baseball player and by all accounts good man. Blamed for 1 play because...well...that is what people do. Complete B.S. the crap he took. Best example of how a few a-holes can make an entire fan base look bad. I didn't boo him and that's all I can control. All of the hate for Buckner following the 86 WS should have been directed at John McNamera. |
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 27, 2019 16:44:50 GMT -5
I'm so sad to learn of Bill Buckner's passing. I think back to that magical 9th inning against the Angels in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, and Buckner lead off with a single, hurt his achilles tendon even further, got pinch-run for by Stapleton, who then scored on Don Baylor's blast, and then after Gedman with 2 outs got hit with a pitch (Rice and Evans made the two outs), Dave Henderson rescued them with his famous HR. 3 of those principals of that historic inning have now passed away as Buckner, Baylor, and Henderson, sadly, are no longer with us. And on that team Sammy Stewart, who was troubled, is no longer with us either. That 1986 team was a huge part of my childhood and it hits me hard when somebody passes from that team. The BS Buckner took was awful. I never, ever, ever blamed him for that error. That was all on the block-head manager McNamara. Buckner could barely move and McNamara didn't defense for him with Stapleton. Buckner shouldn't have been playing with his ankles the way they were and somewhere along the way there was this narrative had Buckner fielded the ball, the Red Sox would have won the World Series. A lot of people actually think the Sox were up 5-4 and if Buckner had fielded that ball the Sox would have won the Series. They forget about the wild pitch/passed ball or the fact that Mookie probably had Stanley beat to the bag, and once the game was tied there was pretty much no way they were going to win. They could have used an Alex Cora for inspiration, but they had McNamara so there was no chance they were going to win Game 7. But the narrative took hold and they forgot that when Buckner was announced on Opening Day 1987 he got a standing ovation from the Fenway faithful. Same thing when he came back in 1990. That was the national media saying that Red Sox nation ran Buckner out of town. I was so glad that he came back to Fenway on Opening Day 2008 to throw out the first ball. Something was so very right about that. Buckner was a really good hitter. He was not a patient hitter at the plate. Didn't walk or K much. Didn't have a ton of power. Definitely not a sabermetrics type of guy. Before he had injury issues at some point in the 1970s he could run very well. Some forget that he was actually trying to climb the fence as Hank Aaron's 715th HR sailed over his head in Atlanta. He won a batting title for the Cubs and I think when Roger Clemens was promoted to the majors in 1984, he basically made Dennis Eckersley expendable (at that point Clemens was a huge potential upgrade to the struggling Eckersley) and Eck was dealt to Chicago for Buckner. And I'll never forget when Claudell Washington fell into the stands chasing Buckner's shot to the warning track and 41 year old Bill Buckner circled the bases. RIP Billy Buck.  |
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bosox
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Post by bosox on May 27, 2019 16:58:18 GMT -5
I'm so sad to learn of Bill Buckner's passing. I think back to that magical 9th inning against the Angels in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, and Buckner lead off with a single, hurt his achilles tendon even further, got pinch-run for by Stapleton, who then scored on Don Baylor's blast, and then after Gedman with 2 outs got hit with a pitch (Rice and Evans made the two outs), Dave Henderson rescued them with his famous HR. 3 of those principals of that historic inning have now passed away as Buckner, Baylor, and Henderson, sadly, are no longer with us. And on that team Sammy Stewart, who was troubled, is no longer with us either. That 1986 team was a huge part of my childhood and it hits me hard when somebody passes from that team. The BS Buckner took was awful. I never, ever, ever blamed him for that error. That was all on the block-head manager McNamara. Buckner could barely move and McNamara didn't defense for him with Stapleton. Buckner shouldn't have been playing with his ankles the way they were and somewhere along the way there was this narrative had Buckner fielded the ball, the Red Sox would have won the World Series. A lot of people actually think the Sox were up 5-4 and if Buckner had fielded that ball the Sox would have won the Series. They forget about the wild pitch/passed ball or the fact that Mookie probably had Stanley beat to the bag, and once the game was tied there was pretty much no way they were going to win. They could have used an Alex Cora for inspiration, but they had McNamara so there was no chance they were going to win Game 7. But the narrative took hold and they forgot that when Buckner was announced on Opening Day 1987 he got a standing ovation from the Fenway faithful. Same thing when he came back in 1990. That was the national media saying that Red Sox nation ran Buckner out of town. I was so glad that he came back to Fenway on Opening Day 2008 to throw out the first ball. Something was so very right about that. Buckner was a really good hitter. He was not a patient hitter at the plate. Didn't walk or K much. Didn't have a ton of power. Definitely not a sabermetrics type of guy. Before he had injury issues at some point in the 1970s he could run very well. Some forget that he was actually trying to climb the fence as Hank Aaron's 715th HR sailed over his head in Atlanta. He won a batting title for the Cubs and I think when Roger Clemens was promoted to the majors in 1984, he basically made Dennis Eckersley expendable (at that point Clemens was a huge potential upgrade to the struggling Eckersley) and Eck was dealt to Chicago for Buckner. And I'll never forget when Claudell Washington fell into the stands chasing Buckner's shot to the warning track and 41 year old Bill Buckner circled the bases. RIP Billy Buck. Thanks for this. It's what I remember and couldn't have expressed it any better. Excellent! |
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Post by jimed14 on May 27, 2019 17:05:30 GMT -5
I'm so sad to learn of Bill Buckner's passing. I think back to that magical 9th inning against the Angels in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, and Buckner lead off with a single, hurt his achilles tendon even further, got pinch-run for by Stapleton, who then scored on Don Baylor's blast, and then after Gedman with 2 outs got hit with a pitch (Rice and Evans made the two outs), Dave Henderson rescued them with his famous HR. 3 of those principals of that historic inning have now passed away as Buckner, Baylor, and Henderson, sadly, are no longer with us. And on that team Sammy Stewart, who was troubled, is no longer with us either. That 1986 team was a huge part of my childhood and it hits me hard when somebody passes from that team. The BS Buckner took was awful. I never, ever, ever blamed him for that error. That was all on the block-head manager McNamara. Buckner could barely move and McNamara didn't defense for him with Stapleton. Buckner shouldn't have been playing with his ankles the way they were and somewhere along the way there was this narrative had Buckner fielded the ball, the Red Sox would have won the World Series. A lot of people actually think the Sox were up 5-4 and if Buckner had fielded that ball the Sox would have won the Series. They forget about the wild pitch/passed ball or the fact that Mookie probably had Stanley beat to the bag, and once the game was tied there was pretty much no way they were going to win. They could have used an Alex Cora for inspiration, but they had McNamara so there was no chance they were going to win Game 7. But the narrative took hold and they forgot that when Buckner was announced on Opening Day 1987 he got a standing ovation from the Fenway faithful. Same thing when he came back in 1990. That was the national media saying that Red Sox nation ran Buckner out of town. I was so glad that he came back to Fenway on Opening Day 2008 to throw out the first ball. Something was so very right about that. Buckner was a really good hitter. He was not a patient hitter at the plate. Didn't walk or K much. Didn't have a ton of power. Definitely not a sabermetrics type of guy. Before he had injury issues at some point in the 1970s he could run very well. Some forget that he was actually trying to climb the fence as Hank Aaron's 715th HR sailed over his head in Atlanta. He won a batting title for the Cubs and I think when Roger Clemens was promoted to the majors in 1984, he basically made Dennis Eckersley expendable (at that point Clemens was a huge potential upgrade to the struggling Eckersley) and Eck was dealt to Chicago for Buckner. And I'll never forget when Claudell Washington fell into the stands chasing Buckner's shot to the warning track and 41 year old Bill Buckner circled the bases. RIP Billy Buck. The other thing that people forget is that even if Buckner fielded that ball, there's no way in hell he was going to beat Mookie Wilson to 1B and the Mets probably would have won anyway. |
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Post by voiceofreason on May 27, 2019 18:23:38 GMT -5
RIP Billy Buck, you deserved better. Espn just loved showing that play and it influenced way too many people who just didn't know any better. I hope he gets a little more respect posthumously.
Have to admit though watching the video of him circling the bases for an insider job is kind of funny, he looks like an old man from the waste down.
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Post by awall on May 28, 2019 6:43:22 GMT -5
I still can't watch that first pitch to Evans without getting teared-up. A great ballplayer, he taught me a lot about about what being a fan should and shouldn't mean.
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Post by libertine on May 28, 2019 10:35:41 GMT -5
Very sad to hear of Bill's passing. He was one of my favorite Red Sox from that era and a borderline HoF candidate. It is annoying to me that his whole career was defined in the media by that one play. If we had a whole team of Bill Buckners we would have won the series in 86.
I guess he had Dementia with Lewy bodies, the same thing that the comedian Robin Williams had, which was the cause of his death.
RIP Bill...
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 28, 2019 12:06:55 GMT -5
I'm so sad to learn of Bill Buckner's passing. I think back to that magical 9th inning against the Angels in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, and Buckner lead off with a single, hurt his achilles tendon even further, got pinch-run for by Stapleton, who then scored on Don Baylor's blast, and then after Gedman with 2 outs got hit with a pitch (Rice and Evans made the two outs), Dave Henderson rescued them with his famous HR. 3 of those principals of that historic inning have now passed away as Buckner, Baylor, and Henderson, sadly, are no longer with us. And on that team Sammy Stewart, who was troubled, is no longer with us either. That 1986 team was a huge part of my childhood and it hits me hard when somebody passes from that team. The BS Buckner took was awful. I never, ever, ever blamed him for that error. That was all on the block-head manager McNamara. Buckner could barely move and McNamara didn't defense for him with Stapleton. Buckner shouldn't have been playing with his ankles the way they were and somewhere along the way there was this narrative had Buckner fielded the ball, the Red Sox would have won the World Series. A lot of people actually think the Sox were up 5-4 and if Buckner had fielded that ball the Sox would have won the Series. They forget about the wild pitch/passed ball or the fact that Mookie probably had Stanley beat to the bag, and once the game was tied there was pretty much no way they were going to win. They could have used an Alex Cora for inspiration, but they had McNamara so there was no chance they were going to win Game 7. But the narrative took hold and they forgot that when Buckner was announced on Opening Day 1987 he got a standing ovation from the Fenway faithful. Same thing when he came back in 1990. That was the national media saying that Red Sox nation ran Buckner out of town. I was so glad that he came back to Fenway on Opening Day 2008 to throw out the first ball. Something was so very right about that. Buckner was a really good hitter. He was not a patient hitter at the plate. Didn't walk or K much. Didn't have a ton of power. Definitely not a sabermetrics type of guy. Before he had injury issues at some point in the 1970s he could run very well. Some forget that he was actually trying to climb the fence as Hank Aaron's 715th HR sailed over his head in Atlanta. He won a batting title for the Cubs and I think when Roger Clemens was promoted to the majors in 1984, he basically made Dennis Eckersley expendable (at that point Clemens was a huge potential upgrade to the struggling Eckersley) and Eck was dealt to Chicago for Buckner. And I'll never forget when Claudell Washington fell into the stands chasing Buckner's shot to the warning track and 41 year old Bill Buckner circled the bases. RIP Billy Buck. The other thing that people forget is that even if Buckner fielded that ball, there's no way in hell he was going to beat Mookie Wilson to 1B and the Mets probably would have won anyway. That's the way I feel. Even if Buckner fields the ball, Mookie was beating Buckner or Stanley to the bag. The momentum of the Mets during that stretch of time was so monumental nothing was going to stop it. The Red Sox would have lost. Nobody was surprised they lost Game 7. Except the eternally optimistic or too young to get it fanbase would have thought the 3-0 lead was going to hold up in Game 7. The Sox were a beaten team. They gave it a good effort, but it wasn't going to happen. This is one of the reasons I have a lot of appreciation for Alex Cora. The loss in Game 3 of last year's World Series was devastating. They were one good Kinsler throw from being up 3-0 in the Series and except for the Yankees, nobody blows 3-0 series leads (HAHA). Alex Cora turned that loss into a positive. He was so in tune with his players he knew how to turn that loss to their advantage. As players said, they wound up leaving the meeting afterwards feeling like they won and that the Dodgers had no chance. That is SO different from what the Red Sox of 1986 were feeling. McNamara was a dour man. To this day, there's still the Roberts/Hill type of controversy of did Clemens ask out of Game 6 or was he taken out. McNamara claims Clemens couldn't go any further and Clemens insists he wanted to pitch (and the evidence backs up Clemens although I can't remember what the hell it was). Then there's McNamara refusing to bring in Stapleton. I think it was McNamara who said Stapleton had the nickname "Shaky" which is why he wouldn't put him in for Buckner although he did it every other game they were winning. Hurst had no idea what McNamara was talking about. I'm trying to go from memory from a MLB special they did in 2011. Then there was the decision to sit Boyd down for Game 7 and start Hurst once they had the rainout - and that was the correct decision. And yes, Boyd was flammable and had his issues - but McNamara did nothing to keep the pitcher in a good frame of mind. There was no "Oil Can, you're not starting Game 7, but you just might be closing out Game 7. We need you." kind of talk that perhaps could have kept Boyd engaged. Contrast that with the way everybody was volunteering to pitch regardless of whatever situation. Sale got sat down last second before Game 5 for Price. No problem. Cora showed faith in everybody. And he had a rapport with his players that made it so they were all together. It's just a different feel of how things were handled between the 1986 Red Sox and the 2018 Red Sox, both dealing with devastating World Series losses that could sink them. I'll always put the blame on McNamara. I'm thankful the Red Sox are light years away from him with the way Alex Cora manages. The Xs and Os are important. It never dawned on McNamara to get Clemens into the seventh game at 3-3? He couldn't or wouldn't use Boyd. His not defending for Buckner (sentiment is nice, but c'mon!! And then doubling down that Stapleton was "shaky"!). Contrast that with the way Cora inserted his "rovers". But really, it's not the Xs and Os, it's the ability to manage players that's one of the most important aspects of a manager and with McNamara at the helm, they were not going to recover. I didn't think the 2018 Sox could recover, but Cora is so night and day different - he deserves so much credit for getting that team all on the same page and keeping them upbeat and inspiring them so they were playing as one unit. In retrospect, I think I've learned that the right manager can make such a difference in these situations. Unfortunately for Buckner his manager was Johnny McNamara so one the Sox gave up the lead, they were done. Perhaps (or I think likely) if the 1986 Sox had Alex Cora at the helm, they would have had a different fate, and Buckner would never have gotten the grief he got. Ian Kinsler should be quite thankful. |
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on May 28, 2019 17:53:33 GMT -5
There's some inaccuracy about the assessment of Buckner as a ballplayer and his role in the 1986 WS loss. He's not the villain in 1986, but not for the reasons people think.
No player in MLB history was more overrated by managers and general managers than Bill Buckner. He did excellently the one thing they understood, hit for a high batting average. He didn't walk, he didn't hit for power, he didn't play an important defensive position and he didn't field his position particularly well, all things they ignored to varying degrees.
There have been exactly 85 players who've had 10,000 career PA. It's almost impossible to play that long and not accumulate 40 WAR. Dave Parker has 40.1 bWAR and 41.1 fWAR. Harold Baines had 38.7 and 38.5, but that's with a demonstrably incorrect positional adjustment for DH. He's probably closer to 50 than 40.
Bill Buckner got 10,037 PA while accumulating 15.1 bWAR and 18.8 fWAR. The only guys on the list with lower career OBP's are Rabbit Maranville and Luis Aparicio -- who were perceived as defensive wizards at the game's most difficult full-time position.
Dan Shaugnessy in today's Globe cited Buckner's 102 RBI in 1986. That was 38% higher than the average player with his number of PA (681). He also had 38% more guys on 1B and 28% more guys in scoring position. So given his opportunities, that's a below average number for your 1B. He also somehow managed to score just 73 runs while having Jim Rice, Don Baylor, and Dwight Evans bat behind him. Evans, with no one of note hitting behind him, scored 13 more runs, knocked in 5 fewer, and made 86 fewer outs.
I just wrote the following on Quora, in response to a question asking whether he was "the most unfairly pilloried great player of all time."
----
He wasn’t remotely great. In fact, it’s a stretch to call him “good.” He was a slightly above average player (at his peak) who kept playing for years after he became essentially worthless as a ballplayer. [Point about the four things he didn't so well.]
In 1985 Bill Buckner played 162 games for the Boston Red Sox and compiled 1.5 WAR. Now, WAR didn’t exist in those days, but there were advanced hitting metrics, and by my numbers (done on a hand calculator!) Buckner had been one of the the worst 1B in the AL. I spent all winter desperately hoping the Sox would dump him and get someone better.
At that point in his career, he had played 15 full seasons and 2023 games. And he had 19.1 WAR. That’s 1.4 WAR per 150 games, where 2.0 is considered average. His 5 best seasons totaled 13.6, but they were spread out over an 11 year span. His three best seasons in a row totaled 6.4 WAR. To put that in perspective, the Red Sox’ Rafael Devers is on a pace to match that this year—at age 22.
In 1986 he had -0.3 WAR.
In the 1986 World Series, he went 6 for 32, all singles, with no walks. [Explanation of Win Probability Added.] Here are the offensive WPA totals for the 1986 World Series Red Sox.
+.491 Dwight Evans
+.350 Marty Barrett
+.334 Dave Henderson
+.248 Jim Rice
-.047 Spike Owen
-.085 Wade Boggs
-.141 Don Baylor
-.281 Rich Gedman
-.465 Bill Buckner
Buckner’s the first baseman. He’s supposed to provide at least as much offense as the outfielders. Well, the OFers averaged .358. He’s approaching a full win below what was expected of him, so he single-handedly cost the Sox the 1986 World Series even without the famous error. Which was worth another -.500. Include that, and he was so bad that he offset the contributions of the team’s three best players.
Having said all that, I hold him blameless.
Ballplayers need to have a competitive nature. I cannot fault any one of them for saying “put me in coach, I’m ready to play.”
It was manager John McNamara’s job to say, “No you’re not ‘ready to play,’ you’re awful. Sorry.”
In 1986 the second toughest lefthander in all of MLB for lefty hitters to hit was the Met’s Bobby Ojeda, who started game 6. Buckner was one of the worst hitters against lefties in baseball. McNamara had Don Baylor, a much better hitter against even average lefties, as an option to start the game. He not only started Buckner, he had him hitting 3rd. His catcher, Rich Gedman, was even more inept against lefties. McNamara hit him 6th. Both Buckner and Gedman were having incredibly bad post-seasons against lefties.
In other words, Johnny Mac had three guaranteed outs in his lineup (the other being pitcher Roger Clemens), and he cleverly spaced them at equal intervals so as to prevent any big inning from happening.
[None of this, BTW, is second-guessing; I literally lay awake in bed for hours the night before the game, going through better batting orders in my head, as if doing so might somehow cause McNamara to be even fractionally less than idiotic. Note that he had gone the entire season surrounding the best hitter in baseball, Boggs with the four weakest hitters on the team.]
The six other guys in the lineup went 8/19, 2B, 2 BB (.421 / .476 / .474). The Small Three went 0/9 as expected, and Ojeda got though 6 innings giving up only 2 runs. Buckner and Gedman stranded 8 runners on base between them, half of them in scoring position.
There was one guy that year in all of MLB who had been even tougher on lefties than Ojeda. Jesse Orosco. The Mets brought him in to face Buckner with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the top of the 8th, with the Sox leading by just a run.
During the commercial break my Dad and I agreed on two things.
-- John McNamara was the stupidest manager either one of us had ever seen, as evidenced by his batting order in this game, just for starters.
-- However, no manager in the history of baseball would be so stupid as to not pinch-hit Don Baylor for Buckner. (And neither of us knew just how tough Orosco had been on lefties that year! .187 / .235 / .283, if you must know).
McNamara let Buckner hit. He hit the first pitch to Mookie Wilson in CF.
At that point I lost my s***. I had always hated the pessimism of many Sox fans, but now I joined their ilk. “They’ll lose this game,” I spat at the TV. “They’ll lose this game! And you know how they’ll lose this game?”
I very quickly thought of the most ridiculous way they could lose the game because McNamara was still sticking with Buckner’s festering corpse. Remember, I wanted him off the team the day the previous season ended, I wanted him off the team in spring training and again at mid-season, I wanted him on the bench to start the game, and I wanted him in the showers after the 8th.
Drenched in venom. Venom directed against the manger, not the player.
“Someone will hit a ground ball right through Buckner’s legs.”
I swear to whatever Deity you believe in that this happened. As you can well imagine, I can remember my exact tone of voice for every word.
So no, it was never Buckner’s fault.
Buckner played 341 more games over 4 more seasons. In none of them was he above replacement level, and he lost 3.7 more WAR to finish his career at 15.1.
Q: How many John McNamaras does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Well, we’re not going to change the light bulb. It got us this far, so we’re just going to stick with it.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 28, 2019 21:18:24 GMT -5
There's some inaccuracy about the assessment of Buckner as a ballplayer and his role in the 1986 WS loss. He's not the villain in 1986, but not for the reasons people think.
No player in MLB history was more overrated by managers and general managers than Bill Buckner. He did excellently the one thing they understood, hit for a high batting average. He didn't walk, he didn't hit for power, he didn't play an important defensive position and he didn't field his position particularly well, all things they ignored to varying degrees.
There have been exactly 85 players who've had 10,000 career PA. It's almost impossible to play that long and not accumulate 40 WAR. Dave Parker has 40.1 bWAR and 41.1 fWAR. Harold Baines had 38.7 and 38.5, but that's with a demonstrably incorrect positional adjustment for DH. He's probably closer to 50 than 40.
Bill Buckner got 10,037 PA while accumulating 15.1 bWAR and 18.8 fWAR. The only guys on the list with lower career OBP's are Rabbit Maranville and Luis Aparicio -- who were perceived as defensive wizards at the game's most difficult full-time position.
Dan Shaugnessy in today's Globe cited Buckner's 102 RBI in 1986. That was 38% higher than the average player with his number of PA (681). He also had 38% more guys on 1B and 28% more guys in scoring position. So given his opportunities, that's a below average number for your 1B. He also somehow managed to score just 73 runs while having Jim Rice, Don Baylor, and Dwight Evans bat behind him. Evans, with no one of note hitting behind him, scored 13 more runs, knocked in 5 fewer, and made 86 fewer outs.
I just wrote the following on Quora, in response to a question asking whether he was "the most unfairly pilloried great player of all time." ----
He wasn’t remotely great. In fact, it’s a stretch to call him “good.” He was a slightly above average player (at his peak) who kept playing for years after he became essentially worthless as a ballplayer. [Point about the four things he didn't so well.]
In 1985 Bill Buckner played 162 games for the Boston Red Sox and compiled 1.5 WAR. Now, WAR didn’t exist in those days, but there were advanced hitting metrics, and by my numbers (done on a hand calculator!) Buckner had been one of the the worst 1B in the AL. I spent all winter desperately hoping the Sox would dump him and get someone better.
At that point in his career, he had played 15 full seasons and 2023 games. And he had 19.1 WAR. That’s 1.4 WAR per 150 games, where 2.0 is considered average. His 5 best seasons totaled 13.6, but they were spread out over an 11 year span. His three best seasons in a row totaled 6.4 WAR. To put that in perspective, the Red Sox’ Rafael Devers is on a pace to match that this year—at age 22.
In 1986 he had -0.3 WAR.
In the 1986 World Series, he went 6 for 32, all singles, with no walks. [Explanation of Win Probability Added.] Here are the offensive WPA totals for the 1986 World Series Red Sox.
+.491 Dwight Evans
+.350 Marty Barrett
+.334 Dave Henderson
+.248 Jim Rice
-.047 Spike Owen
-.085 Wade Boggs
-.141 Don Baylor
-.281 Rich Gedman
-.465 Bill Buckner
Buckner’s the first baseman. He’s supposed to provide at least as much offense as the outfielders. Well, the OFers averaged .358. He’s approaching a full win below what was expected of him, so he single-handedly cost the Sox the 1986 World Series even without the famous error. Which was worth another -.500. Include that, and he was so bad that he offset the contributions of the team’s three best players.
Having said all that, I hold him blameless.
Ballplayers need to have a competitive nature. I cannot fault any one of them for saying “put me in coach, I’m ready to play.”
It was manager John McNamara’s job to say, “No you’re not ‘ready to play,’ you’re awful. Sorry.”
In 1986 the second toughest lefthander in all of MLB for lefty hitters to hit was the Met’s Bobby Ojeda, who started game 6. Buckner was one of the worst hitters against lefties in baseball. McNamara had Don Baylor, a much better hitter against even average lefties, as an option to start the game. He not only started Buckner, he had him hitting 3rd. His catcher, Rich Gedman, was even more inept against lefties. McNamara hit him 6th. Both Buckner and Gedman were having incredibly bad post-seasons against lefties.
In other words, Johnny Mac had three guaranteed outs in his lineup (the other being pitcher Roger Clemens), and he cleverly spaced them at equal intervals so as to prevent any big inning from happening. [None of this, BTW, is second-guessing; I literally lay awake in bed for hours the night before the game, going through better batting orders in my head, as if doing so might somehow cause McNamara to be even fractionally less than idiotic. Note that he had gone the entire season surrounding the best hitter in baseball, Boggs with the four weakest hitters on the team.]
The six other guys in the lineup went 8/19, 2B, 2 BB (.421 / .476 / .474). The Small Three went 0/9 as expected, and Ojeda got though 6 innings giving up only 2 runs. Buckner and Gedman stranded 8 runners on base between them, half of them in scoring position.
There was one guy that year in all of MLB who had been even tougher on lefties than Ojeda. Jesse Orosco. The Mets brought him in to face Buckner with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the top of the 8th, with the Sox leading by just a run.
During the commercial break my Dad and I agreed on two things.
-- John McNamara was the stupidest manager either one of us had ever seen, as evidenced by his batting order in this game, just for starters.
-- However, no manager in the history of baseball would be so stupid as to not pinch-hit Don Baylor for Buckner. (And neither of us knew just how tough Orosco had been on lefties that year! .187 / .235 / .283, if you must know).
McNamara let Buckner hit. He hit the first pitch to Mookie Wilson in CF.
At that point I lost my s***. I had always hated the pessimism of many Sox fans, but now I joined their ilk. “They’ll lose this game,” I spat at the TV. “They’ll lose this game! And you know how they’ll lose this game?”
I very quickly thought of the most ridiculous way they could lose the game because McNamara was still sticking with Buckner’s festering corpse. Remember, I wanted him off the team the day the previous season ended, I wanted him off the team in spring training and again at mid-season, I wanted him on the bench to start the game, and I wanted him in the showers after the 8th.
Drenched in venom. Venom directed against the manger, not the player.
“Someone will hit a ground ball right through Buckner’s legs.”
I swear to whatever Deity you believe in that this happened. As you can well imagine, I can remember my exact tone of voice for every word.
So no, it was never Buckner’s fault.
Buckner played 341 more games over 4 more seasons. In none of them was he above replacement level, and he lost 3.7 more WAR to finish his career at 15.1.
Q: How many John McNamaras does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Well, we’re not going to change the light bulb. It got us this far, so we’re just going to stick with it.
That's how I remember thinking at the time. I remember wishing Baylor would get a swing against Orosco knowing that McDowell was out of the game and one huge hit could ice the game in the 8th inning of Game 6, and then they could defense with Stapleton. But yes, McNamara was the biggest blockhead I've seen going back to my time starting with Zimmer, who was managing when I started watching in 1980 but was too young to understand any managerial nuance whatsoever. Hobson was clueless and Little was antiquated and Valentine was just flat out destructive, but McNamara was the worst - and your joke illustrates exactly the reason why. He was the most "do nothing" manager I've ever seen. There isn't much difference in lineups I suppose, but his laziness to not move Eddie Romero out of the #3 spot in the order because Boggs was hitting there and happened to not be able to be in the lineup is the most laziest thing I've ever seen a manager do. And let's face it - if this site had been around in 1986, we all would have hammered McNamara for playing Bill Buckner every day, especially when Pat Dodson was having a nice season at Pawtucket and presented another option. The thing about Buckner was that he was an excellent hitter, but not a great offensive player. He didn't walk and didn't have much power. I was very surprised to see that he only had 2 seasons in his career where his OPS was in the .800s. I know OPS isn't everything, but wow, I was surprised to see that. Buckner's BABIP was pretty close to his BA given that he didn't K much and had little HR power. His SA and OBP wasn't that much higher than his good BA, so I guess it shouldn't be THAT surprising his OPS was hardly ever in the .800s. Buckner's biggest issue during the WS was his lack of hitting, not his defense. To be fair, I've watch the replay of his error a bunch of times. It seems to me that Buckner just got his feet planted a split second before the ball was coming his way while another 1b who was healthy would have had his feet planted a lot sooner, so I think Buckner had to rush and I think that contributed to the error - and that is totally NOT his fault. It's the manager who left him in. I remember reading the Bill James 1987 Baseball Abstract and he did his story about the 1986 Red Sox and I think he said that Buckner was a "millstone" to the Sox efforts to win. I think he went into Sept with a .240 something BA and about 10 HRs so his OPS was extremely low and his OBP was just putrid. McNamara was a do nothing manager so he did nothing - which would probably have driven this board crazy. James mentioned that sometimes doing nothing can be the right thing to do - and in that in this case the non-gamble worked out perfectly as Buckner had a September to remember. During the most important games of the year at that point he went on a rare home run tear which brought him from 10 (I'm guessing) to his career high of 18. He raised his BA to .267 which was a tough thing to do given how many ABs he already had. And to his credit, Buckner was a big part of the Red Sox taking off on an 11 game winning streak which iced the division. Prior to that Toronto had won 9 in a row and was making their move. And the Yankees were hanging around. Many thought the Sox were going to choke again. Buckner getting hot at the perfect time headed that off. And he did jumpstart the Sox in the 9th inning of Game 5 ALCS and he did contribute offensively in Game 7 of the World Series jumpstarting the Sox 8th inning when they were down 3 and got to within 1. He played with courage and determination, which are admirable traits. And he had a skill set that is so rare - especially in today's game - a 1b with little power, no walks, no Ks, and a strong hit tool. And when he was younger and healthier, he also possessed speed that allowed him to be a LF. Again, he was a victim of circumstances. Jean Yawkey had it dead on when she turned to Lou Gorman and said to him, "Your manager just cost us the World Series." She knew it wasn't Buckner's fault. She knew where the blame lies. And sure enough, to kind of prove it, the Sox got hotter than they ever been when McNamara was fired in favor of Joe Morgan and they went 19-1 in his first 20 games. Talk about feeling free. That shows the affect of when a toxic/inept manager gets changed. Dump blockhead McNamara. Get hot with Joe Morgan. Dump hillbilly Hobson. Win a division with Kevin Kennedy. Lose a post-season because of Little. Win the Series because of post-season Francona. Dump toxic Bobby Valentine. Feel free to win a World Series with John Farrell. Farrell's wearing on everybody - hire Alex Cora and watch them gel into the best Sox team of our lifetime. Conversely, dump Joe Morgan for no good reason. Hit the skids with Hobson. Dump Jimy Williams for the wrong reason. Go off the rails with Joe Kerrigan. Screw over Terry Francona. Hit rock bottom with Valentine. Funny how that works. |
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