BAD PLAY, GREAT CAREER
Bill Buckner, the longtime infielder best known for his error against the Mets in the 1986 World Series, died on Monday at the age of 69. In a statement to ESPN, Buckner’s wife, Jody, said that, “After battling the disease of Lewy Body Dementia, Bill Buckner passed away early the morning of May 27th surrounded by his family. Bill fought with courage and grit as he did all things in life. Our hearts are broken but we are at peace knowing he is in the arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Buckner was a 22-year MLB veteran with the Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, Angels, and Royals, but will forever be linked to the Red Sox and Mets because of an error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. His Red Sox were leading the series, 3-2, and leading the game 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning when Mookie Wilson came to the plate. Bob Stanley threw a wild pitch, scoring one runner and moving another to second base. Wilson then hit a soft, bouncing grounder to first base. It was a routine play, but the ball rolled through Buckner’s legs. The Game 6-winning run scored on the play, and the Mets went on to win Game 7 and the series. The Red Sox would not win a World Series until 2004; the Mets haven’t won a title since.
Wilson said Monday that, “We had developed a friendship that lasted well over 30 years. I felt badly for some of the things he went through. Bill was a great, great baseball player whose legacy should not be defined by one play.”
Though he’s best remembered for the play, Buckner won a National League batting title with the Cubs in 1980 and was an All-Star with the Cubs in 1981. He finished his 22-year career with 2,715 hits. He’s one of just 29 players to have appeared in major-league games in four decades, as his career began in 1969 and ended in 1990.
The error is one of the most infamous plays in American sports history, and it negatively affected Buckner for decades after. The Red Sox cut Buckner in the summer of 1987, and after short stints with the Angels and Royals, he returned to the Red Sox in 1990. He retired mid-season, but later said the environment in Boston was too hostile for him and his family. They moved to Idaho.
Time and two World Series titles for the Red Sox helped heal. In April 2008, after that second Red Sox title, Buckner threw out a first pitch at Fenway. He described it at the time as “probably as emotional as it could get,” saying that “I really had to forgive, not the fans of Boston per se, but I would have to say, in my heart, I had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family through. So I’ve done that. I’m over that. And I’m just happy that I just try to think of the positive.”
Buckner’s teammate, Bobby Valentine, was the first to announce the news, saying that “As I clear my head and hold back the tears I know I will always remember Billy Buck as a great hitter and a better friend. He deserved better. Thank god for his family. I ll miss u Buck!”
Wilson and Buckner became close over the years, with Wilson describing their relationship as “the best of friends” in 2014. That same year, Wilson also said he believed he would have beaten Buckner to first base on the play. Whether or not that’s the case, Buckner certainly bore an unfair amount of the blame for the World Series loss. The team could have won Game 7 two days later, and if not for Stanley’s wild pitch, the grounder wouldn’t have plated the winning run that inning.
Buckner knew as much, saying years later that “You can look at that series and point fingers in a whole bunch of different directions … I didn’t feel like I deserved” the vitriol later directed at him. “At some point you have to realize that it’s just a game, even if people don’t understand that one person doesn’t lose the World Series,” Buckner told USA Today in 2016. Wilson agreed, saying, “That’s been my beef with the whole situation: People forget about everything that happened up to that last play.”
He was able to view the situation with humor by 2011. He starred in an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” where he drops a baseball (signed by Wilson) but later catches a baby thrown out of a burning building.
Keith Hernandez, another member of the ’86 Mets, said that “He’s another guy I wish I could have played with, not just against. He was a terrific hitter as well as a human being. Tears.”
Buckner and his wife had three children: Bobby, Brittany and Christen. Bobby played college baseball from 2010-12 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christie.