On Tuesday, the Red Sox had Bill Buckner throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park. Buckner, instead of being remembered for a career that spanned 20 plus years, was instead vilified for one lousy play. Boston has now won 2 world championships, so I guess the Red Sox brass felt now was the time to be magnanimous and let Buckner off the hook. The Boston fans and the media have pretty much made Billy Buck's life a living hell over his error in the 1986 World Series, forgetting that he'd hit 8 home runs in September, driven in 22 runs, and carried a .340 average. He drove in over 100 runs that season and in the ALCS, singled to key the ninth inning rally that saved the Sox from elimination. So Boston wouldn't even have been able to lose the World Series if not for Billy Buck. One could just as easily blame the manager for not removing Buckner for a defensive replacement, as BB had been bothered by an ankle injury that had made him more of a liability in the field.
This treatment of Buckner has always bothered me, especially since he was my late grandfather's favorite Cub player (and thus mine when I was very young, long before Mark Grace was called up and before my favorite Fu Manchued closer joined the ranks). Billy Buck played for the Cubs from 1977-1983, plus 21 games in 1984 before being dealt to the Red Sox. Buckner won the batting title in 1980 with the Cubs. He was a great ballplayer with a great mustache whose career was tarnished by one bad play. That is a damn travesty and the Red Sox and their fans should have opened the door for Buckner a long time before they won two world championships.
Maybe now that the Red Sox have gotten over their little pity party, the true greatness of Buckner can be recognized.
(Thanks to Wikipedia for some of the info on Billy.)
No comments:
Post a Comment