RIP Bill Buckner

[DuWayne Steurer]

Passed away at age 69 from dementia. Dude struck out a whopping 453 times in 22 seasons. 10037 plate appearances. Sure tells you how the game has changed in a fairly short amount of time.

[JimH5]

He was a good man who didn't deserve the treatment he was given after the Mookie play.

 

He had a good, long career and was well liked by his peers.

 

He was taken too soon.

[MrTPlush]

ESPN had the breaking news for him and the short info was how he screwed up the World Series decades ago. And when they had guys talk about him that is mostly what they talked about.

 

My oh my...what a disaster ESPN is.

 

Not being that old is the play being referred to the one where the ball goes right between the legs of the 1B?

[DuWayne Steurer]

I kinda feel for the dude that his 22 year career is just marked by that one stark moment in time. Stuff happens. Buckner was a decent hitter in a time when hitting. 290 and making contact was an offensive force.

[homer]

ESPN had the breaking news for him and the short info was how he screwed up the World Series decades ago. And when they had guys talk about him that is mostly what they talked about.

 

My oh my...what a disaster ESPN is.

 

Not being that old is the play being referred to the one where the ball goes right between the legs of the 1B?

 

ESPN was not even close to the only outlet covering it that way.

[MadScientist]

Passed away at age 69 from dementia. Dude struck out a whopping 453 times in 22 seasons. 10037 plate appearances. Sure tells you how the game has changed in a fairly short amount of time.

I thought you missed a digit on the K's. Definitely a player from a different era.

[sveumrules]

Buckner's contact ability was truly elite for any era.

 

He had a K%+ of 35, meaning he struck out 65% less than league average for his career, which is 16th all time among batters with a minimum of 4,000 PAs.

 

Other notables on the career K%+ leaderboard in include Nellie Fox (20), Tony Gwynn (29), Lloyd Waner (29), Tris Speaker (33), Juan Pierre (34), Fernando Vina (38), Ozzie Smith (40).

[topper09er]

Buckner's contact ability was truly elite for any era.

 

He had a K%+ of 35, meaning he struck out 65% less than league average for his career, which is 16th all time among batters with a minimum of 4,000 PAs.

 

Other notables on the career K%+ leaderboard in include Nellie Fox (20), Tony Gwynn (29), Lloyd Waner (29), Tris Speaker (33), Juan Pierre (34), Fernando Vina (38), Ozzie Smith (40).

 

Nice, where did you get that stat from?

[sveumrules]

Buckner's contact ability was truly elite for any era.

 

He had a K%+ of 35, meaning he struck out 65% less than league average for his career, which is 16th all time among batters with a minimum of 4,000 PAs.

 

Other notables on the career K%+ leaderboard in include Nellie Fox (20), Tony Gwynn (29), Lloyd Waner (29), Tris Speaker (33), Juan Pierre (34), Fernando Vina (38), Ozzie Smith (40).

 

Nice, where did you get that stat from?

 

FanGraphs recently added a "+ stats" feature to their leaderboards.

 

It's on the far right in the row of tabs with dashboard, standard, advanced, etc.

 

Currently Willians Astudillo has a career K%+ of 14, making him the hardest batter to strike out in the history of MLB (minimum 199 PAs).

[AKCheesehead]

Players these days have nothing on his mustache skills. He had 3 of them!

[LouisEly]

I really hope that ESPN shows the 30 for 30 on the Boston Red Sox to honor Buckner's passing, because Buckner had an integral part in that film and the filmmakers did a great job of creating empathy for Buckner and what he went through.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I really hope that ESPN shows the 30 for 30 on the Boston Red Sox to honor Buckner's passing, because Buckner had an integral part in that film and the filmmakers did a great job of creating empathy for Buckner and what he went through.

 

They didn't need to create the empathy. Boston fans treated the poor guy like dirt for years. I can't think of a baseball fan outside Boston who didn't feel for that guy after what he went through.

[rickh150]

And it wasn't the winning play that he botched.... he makes the play, they go extras.

And it was Game 6, not Game 7....

Almost as bad as how Cubs fans treated Bartman, whose play on a ball was not even ruled interference because it was in the stands...

[rondoman]

https://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/espn-ap-wapo-bill-buckner-death.html

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I secretly wished he'd separate from that organization forever. When they had him come back after they won it and all the fans "forgave" him was stupid and funny. Who are they to forgive him? I think I remember saying he wasn't sorry, but I'd have never given those fans a lick of satisfaction. He was too classy I guess.

[pacopete4]

He had nothing to apologize for. Errors happen. I felt the same with Brandon Bostick. He has no reason to apologize to me or any other fan. Does it suck? Absolutely. But they're competing and mistakes (physical and mental) happen.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I don't feel the same about Bostick because he disobeyed his assignment to catch a ball that was landing right in Jordy Nelson's lap. But he still doesn't owe me an apology. His teammates, yeah, he probably does.

[topper09er]

I mean, it is objectively true he is most famous for that error. Maybe you don't need to lead with it, but he would have already been long forgotten without it. His strikeouts were low and average high but his OBP was below average for this time (thanks to that fancy new +stats). Buckner's AVE/OBP/SLG relative to his league was 110/97/104. So his super low strikeout rate is not all that impressive considering what he gave up in production to avoid strikeouts.

He is the modern day Fred Snodgrass. First paragraph of his wikipedia page:

...He is best known for dropping a key fly ball in the 1912 World Series...

[HiAndTight]

I don't feel the same about Bostick because he disobeyed his assignment to catch a ball that was landing right in Jordy Nelson's lap. But he still doesn't owe me an apology. His teammates, yeah, he probably does.

 

 

Agreed. Bostic made a selfish play, Buckner just made a physical error. That's going to happen in sports. I thought it was Mookie Wilson who was hitting, but perhaps he was the one who scored, but I was under the impression that Buckner was unlikely to get the out even if he fielded the ball cleanly. He was too deep and the Pitcher was late in covering.

[topper09er]

Agreed. Bostic made a selfish play, Buckner just made a physical error. That's going to happen in sports. I thought it was Mookie Wilson who was hitting, but perhaps he was the one who scored, but I was under the impression that Buckner was unlikely to get the out even if he fielded the ball cleanly. He was too deep and the Pitcher was late in covering.

 

2 outs, tied game, bottom of 10th, runner on 2nd. If Buckner keeps the ball in the infield the game doesn't end on that play. Even if he gets the out the game just moves to the 11th, so its not like that was the world series clinching out.

[OldHeidelberg]

Agreed. Bostic made a selfish play, Buckner just made a physical error. That's going to happen in sports. I thought it was Mookie Wilson who was hitting, but perhaps he was the one who scored, but I was under the impression that Buckner was unlikely to get the out even if he fielded the ball cleanly. He was too deep and the Pitcher was late in covering.

 

2 outs, tied game, bottom of 10th, runner on 2nd. If Buckner keeps the ball in the infield the game doesn't end on that play. Even if he gets the out the game just moves to the 11th, so its not like that was the world series clinching out.

 

That has always bugged me too, just like the Steve Bartman game it wasn't even a win or lose situation at the point it happened.

[Thurston Fluff]

IIRC he was grinding it out on a bad knee or ankle during the playoffs and really shouldn't have been out there to begin with. He certainly was a big part of them getting that far. Not only did he get unfairly ridiculed for that play but it wiped out how much he really contributed to getting that far. Rest in peace sir. You were one of the good ones.