Former major league first baseman/outfielder Bill Buckner has passed away after a battle with Lewy Body Dementia, as his wife, Jody, confirmed to Jeremy Schaap of ESPN. Buckner was 69 years old.
Buckner is best known for one play – an error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series that helped propel the Mets to a title over his Red Sox – but that doesn’t do justice to his career. A second-round pick of the Dodgers in 1968, Buckner debuted a year later and didn’t conclude his career until 1990 with the Red Sox. He also spent time with the Cubs, Royals and Angels, hitting .289/.321/.408 with 174 home runs and 183 stolen bases in upward of 10,000 plate appearances.
In what was likely the crowning personal achievment of his career, Buckner won the NL batting title as a Cub in 1980 with a .324 average. A year later, he earned his lone All-Star nod. Buckner logged a few more productive seasons thereafter, including with the Red Sox, though the way ’86 ended left a bad taste for Boston fans. Eventually, ill feelings between them and Buckner were put aside. Buckner returned to Fenway Park to a roaring ovation in 2008, four years after the Red Sox broke an 86-year championship drought and one season after they took home yet another title, to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day. Buckner later poked fun at himself in a 2011 episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” in which he made a life-saving catch.
Since Buckner’s passing, there has been an outpouring of support from the many who respected him as a person and a baseball player. MLBTR echoes those sentiments.
Sad. Met him at some even one time. He was a good dude.
He had a cool mustache.
Emphasis on error is from Eastern media and sportswriters too young to have seen Billy Buck play. As one of many with little interest in Red Sox, and NY & LA teams, who cares about the error.
I had a very good MLB ticket sources and went to the play off and WS games in 76-80, 82-85, even 86 just to see Fenway, and many since then. I didn’t accept 81 WS tix because I could care less about an LA/NY WS. My Dodger interest ended in Brooklyn.
Omg, Just sad,
RIP BILL
Rest in Peace, Bill. You had a very good career.
RIP Bill Buckner. A CLASS ACT!
Disgusting what fraudulent Sox fans did after 86. True fans remember how despite bad ankles, he was their MVP down the stretch in August and September. If not for him, there isvni Dave Henderson and Don Baylor heroics against the Angels. He should have been replaced by Stapleton. Moreover the team had a 3-0 lead in game seven. It was a team loss yet fraudulent fans destroyed him for years. Someone else said it, he was a class act from what I read on and off the field. RIP Billy Buck.
After the ’04 World Series win, some fans held signs that said, ‘we forgive you Bill Buckner’… But I’m sure he handled it all with class.
He did but was literally forced to move away because of threats made. Even the team then was late to the table. They should have IMHO done more to bridge things much earlier.
Agreed. Everyone overlooked he should have been a DH most of the time with his legs and ankles so messed up from numerous surgeries, but that was out of the question on the ’86 team with immovable object known as Don baylor around.
I always though Bucks did a fairly respectable job playing 1st watching many games on the big Dish back then.
Signs saying they forgive him.. yeah I laughed. They should have held signs apologizing to the man for making him their patsy. RIP Bill. Respect from SF.
Listening to EEI and confirmed online, the fans at Fenway gave BB a long standing ovation in 1990 when he returned as a visiting player.
This parallels blaming the 2003 NL Championship series on Steve Bartman.
This was worse because it was game 6. No one remembers Boston had a 3-0 lead in game 7 with Hurst, their best second half starter on the mound. Why not blame him? Truth be told, the Sox wanted to celebrate before the last out was recorded, the same way the Halos thought they were getting to the WS that year. Amazing playoffs in 86. The Mets-Astros was just as good if not better than the Sox-Angels. Wild card? Real playoffs don’t need gimmicks.
Too young. Dementia and cancer just suck. Billy Bucks never played for my Buccos, but I fondly remember him. Very underrated as a player and a person.
HOF caliber credentials. A lot of great but not in the HOF 1Bmen from his generation. Garvey, Hernandez, Cooper, Mattingly even overlaps. Darrell Evans too. Just A time period when too many players likely hurt each other’s chances. From my strato-o-matic days, he was clutch but I recall “just” a “2” defensively meaning above average but not considered the best like Hernandez was (a “1”).
He’s not even close to a HOF.
I did meet him at an event, interviewed him. Seemed to be a great guy and skilled player.
A solid career, and I wish that more people remembered him for a different reason.
I do! I remember him as a good hitting young left-fielder with the L.A. Dodgers who made spectacular diving catches on a regular basis.
In all due fairness, those catchers were more acrobatic than sensational.
I was a LF in high school in back to back innings there were slicing fly balls to LF that I thought I had all the way, they kept slicing from me and I dove and caught the two balls. Someone said Bill Bucker is playing LF.
I turned two should be outs into acrobatic outs. That was Bill Buckner. But he got the job done.
“This doesn’t add anything to the discussion I just wanted to brag”
I do. I remember him criticizing Leon Durham after his error in the 1984 NLCS.
Good person, awesome at catching babies, and never to proud to make fun of himself. RIP Buck.
Yeah Seinfeld appearance!
As a life long Red Sox fan, I never saw the ground ball. The game was over on the wild pitch/passed ball that happened earlier during Mookie’s at bat. I left the room at that moment, because you just know it’s over when you’ve been a Red Sox fan for that long. I never had anything but respect for Buckner and it always has driven me crazy the way the “fans” treated him. Yaz gave birth to Red Sox nation all the way back in 1967 and most of the time I am proud to be a Red Sox fan. The treatment of Buckner is not one of those prideful moments. I’m glad it got resolved in 2008 and I hope he enjoyed living in Idaho, I’ve spent a summer there and it is absolutely beautiful. Rest in peace, good man.
❤
Thank you
Well said
Well said.
whyhayzee – VERY well said. And always remember, there was a game 7. Buckner did not lose the World Series for them.
Well said, whyhayzee…but you made the biggest mistake of your life leaving that room (IF you really did) at that moment. I, for one, like millions of others stayed in the room after Rajai Davis tied the Cubs-Indians game seven in 2016. As a lifelong Red Sox fan you should have stayed. You would have been rewarded with extra innings and a championship. They whole time Buckner took the blame you hid behind the door of the other room, leaving after a wild pitch. It may take a hundred years, give or take, but never give up.
I almost threw up after Rajai’s home run.
Actually, I was trying to not scare my wife, I was so mad, I didn’t want my marriage to end in it’s first year. It was probably the worst moment of our now 33 year marriage. But yes, I should have stuck it out like 1967, 1975, and 1978 (ugh), 1988, 1990, 1995, 1999, and so on.
I met him when I was 14 back in 1987 when he was playing for the Angels, a year after the Sox lost their series vs. the Mets. The Angels had a photo day vs. the Athletics where fans could come on to the field and take pictures with the players. He was a really cool guy. Took time to talk with me, shook my hand, took a picture with me and signed my mit. It’s something I’ll never forget.
RIP, BIll
God Bless him, and my earnest condolences to his family. He was out there on knees that day that could barley afford him to move laterally. He gave his all…appropriate that he should pass on Memorial Day, because he was a very good player who gave his all. Rest easy Bill Buckner…❤
Very sad news. I didn’t know he was battling with dementia and I wonder how much that isolated event factored in that, since it’s always brougth up when linked to his name.. Its more sad that his passing will allow him to finally rest in peace.
Buckner’s ankle was destroyed by a staph infection, which led to his shift to 1st base with the Cubs. He and the training staff spent an hour a day pregame taping his ankle so he could play. Still managed to win a batting title with a .324 avg while plying for the Cubs and basically playing on 1 leg.
I will never remember him as the “ error guy” I remember him playing lopsided on that leg and playing daily. You could tell he just wanted to play. Fun guy to watch play.
He was the Cubs 1b when I started following then in the early eighties, I’ll always remember him for that. I’m glad he was able to make peace with the WS error and Red Sox nation.
Great hitter. Sad news. RIP Mr. Buckner
I think the most interesting thing about Buckner, aside from the obvious, is the fact that in a 22 year career in which he complied over 2,700 hits, he neither walked nor struck out more than 40 times in a season. And he was not much of a home run hitter. The guy was the complete antithesis of the modern era. He was a contact hitter and a really good one at that. The guy is borderline HOF, maybe not by modern standards, but by the standards of the time.
R.I.P. Mr. Buckner. Great human, loved his cameo in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Glad he found some closure before he left.
1980, 615 PA and struck out 18 times. You will never see that again. RIP Billy Buck.
Sad. I heard he was a Christian so he is Heaven now God bless.
RIP. Hope the Sox awarded him the ring (or four) he well deserved.
As a Dodger, he climbed the fence in Atlanta hoping to catch Hank Aaron’s record breaking hr to become the all time hr leader.
Always a class act and good guy.
This isn’t showing up in my Red Sox feed
The best example of fans and media doing a disservice to the game of baseball. How he was treated after that play in the World Series was nothing short of disgraceful. Even if he made that play the game was still tied and not a guarantee Boston wins that game. A lot happened, and he became the scapegoat.
A very good baseball player who’d be a first ballot Hall of Very Good candidate. He deserved better.
Very sad news. Condolences to his family for their loss and for everything they’ve been through.
To bad he’ll be remembered for one play! Solid player deserves better than what he got over the years!
Real baseball fans remember him for more than that one play.
A sad day for baseball fans in general. People say he was a great guy, and always made time for fans. Many of the guys do not. RIP Billy Buck.
“Life is a lot of hard knocks. There are a lot worse things happening than losing a baseball game or making an error, so it puts things in perspective. You learn forgiveness, patience — all the things you have to do to survive.”
–Bill Buckner (a wise man and a fine ballplayer)
He was a very good player and a nice guy. It is a shame he is remembered most for that World Series.
RIP Mr. Buckner
It’s almost impossible to imagine somebody having a 21 year career anymore. People wont even expect Harper/machado to play that long.
Bill Buckner was a solid “professional” hitter and one of my favorite Chicago players. He put up his best career numbers with the Cubs in the prime of his career from 1977-1984 after being acquired from the Dodgers in a blockbuster trade that saw another fave in CF Rick Monday go to LA. Much like another beloved and under-rated 1B in Mark Grace, Buckner lacked the prefered power for the position but man could he hit, slashing .300/.332/.439 with the Cubs including his lone batting title in 1980
RIP Billy Buck.
They had a note on Buckner during the Cubs broadcast today – over 10,000 plate appearances, over 2500 games played in his career, never struck out three times in one game. My memories of Buckner are primarily Cubs associated – he was a workmanlike player on some wretched teams on the northside. But I also remember his pre-Cub, pre-broken ankle days with the Dodgers – very good outfielder with a weak throwing arm who could fly on the bases and seemingly always put the ball in play. Only 450 walks, 453 K’s in over 10,000 plate appearances, the “contact hitter” personified. More or less the antithesis of the walk-homerun-strikeout approach to baseball. Easy to speculate that without the leg problems, he would have reached 3000 hits. He was a pro. May he rest peaceably now.
Ugh, just awful. My dad also died of dementia just a week ago. Terrible, terrible disease. RIP
Sorry for your loss.
Thank you
Sorry for your loss.
It’s kinda wild but growing up I only knew him for the 86 Mets play, but seeing him humanized in Curb opened up a different side I never even thought of. Rest In Peace and thoughts and prayers to the Buckner family
The most telling thing I heard about Buckner, at least as a hitter, was from a story about how George Brett injured himself. Brett was home on an off day, and had the Cubs game on TV. He was in another room when he heard that Buckner was coming to bat. He tripped hurrying to the TV because he was so anxious to see Buckner hit. It tells you something when a great hitter like Brett was that intent on seeing Buckner at the plate.
Great player. Good guy. RIP Billy Buck
Some people still believe that if he catches that ball and tags first the Redsox win the WS. Game was tied people. Rip Bill