Master Index of Archived Threads


RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

G-Fafif May 27 2019 11:40 AM

https://mobile.twitter.com/BobbyValentine/status/1133039440073547777?p=v No outside confirmation, but Bobby V (his verified account) followed with a couple of pictures of himself and his old Dodgers teammate. OE: It's official. Bill Buckner has died at 69.

G-Fafif May 27 2019 12:04 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Per Jeremy Schaap, following a conversation with Jody Buckner (Bill's wife), Bill died today after battling Lewy Body Dementia.

dgwphotography May 27 2019 12:34 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

One hell of a hitter, and showed how classy he was by how he handled everything after 1986

G-Fafif May 27 2019 01:14 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Remembering him for more than what shouldn't have to define a great career and full life here.

batmagadanleadoff May 27 2019 01:21 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

RIP. Jeez, he was like a part of the Mets family.

Edgy MD May 27 2019 01:23 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Bill and Bobby debuted a few weeks apart from each other with the Dodgers in September 1969, and I assume were teammates on several minor league rosters.

41Forever May 27 2019 01:46 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Edgy MD wrote: Bill and Bobby debuted a few weeks apart from each other with the Dodgers in September 1969, and I assume were teammates on several minor league rosters. Is this Buckner, Lasorda, Garvey and Bobby V? https://scontent.fdet1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/61238640_10157030090450900_5116285826065498112_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ht=scontent.fdet1-1.fna&oh=9f5fbd7a0e184a7aa587b2f7cb56d197&oe=5D9300D2>

Frayed Knot May 27 2019 01:47 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Edgy MD wrote: Bill and Bobby debuted a few weeks apart from each other with the Dodgers in September 1969, and I assume were teammates on several minor league rosters. And both were considered superior athletes (even among groups of athletes) until injuries, age, and time wore them down. NFL coach, and a college coach prior to that, Dick Vermeil once named Buckner as the player he was most disappointed at being unable to recruit. I think Vermeil heading up Stanford at the time and Buckner was a local HS wide receiver "who could fly" acc to Vermeil. Keith will likely have some words tonight (assuming he makes this trip). He was just a couple years behind B.B. and described him as "a schoolboy legend" in northern California.

G-Fafif May 27 2019 02:02 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

It was overwhelmed by 1986, but Bill also had a moment of infamy in the 1974 World Series, trying to stretch a double into a triple and getting thrown out easily to kill the Dodgers' last chance. Johnny Carson joked about it in his monologue the next night, getting all-too-knowing laughs from his L.A. studio audience.

Edgy MD May 27 2019 02:12 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Buckner was also an outstanding fielder, at least for the first half of his career. He played the cutoff like a quarterback. He was to the cutoff play what Keith Hernandez was to the sacrifice bunt. Of course, he would never win a Gold Glove, because he was not Keith Hernandez.

batmagadanleadoff May 27 2019 02:18 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Edgy MD wrote: Buckner was also an outstanding fielder, at least for the first half of his career. He played the cutoff like a quarterback. He was to the cutoff play what Keith Hernandez was to the sacrifice bunt. Of course, he would never win a Gold Glove, because he was not Keith Hernandez. That's odd because my first serious memories of Buckner came from playing the 1971 Strat-O-Matic set (for many years) and from that set at least, I remember Buckner as a pretty good hitter though not much of a home run threat who, defensively, was a jack of all trades who played several positions, none too well.

Frayed Knot May 27 2019 02:22 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Great mustache

batmagadanleadoff May 27 2019 02:28 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Buckner beat out Keith Hernandez for the NL 1980 batting crown by three points, depriving Keith of a second straight batting title.

Edgy MD May 27 2019 02:37 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Edgy MD wrote: Buckner was also an outstanding fielder, at least for the first half of his career. He played the cutoff like a quarterback. He was to the cutoff play what Keith Hernandez was to the sacrifice bunt. Of course, he would never win a Gold Glove, because he was not Keith Hernandez. That's odd because my first serious memories of Buckner came from playing the 1971 Strat-O-Matic set (for many years) and from that set at least, I remember Buckner as a pretty good hitter though not much of a home run threat who, defensively, was a jack of all trades who played several positions, none too well. That's probably accurate — both your memory and the ratings — but he became more refined at first as it became his position, if only briefly with the Cubs during the Mets' Torre Era. As his wheels started going early, he almost never took a grounder unassisted. He considered covering first on a grounder to him to be the pitcher's responsiblity, and he'd point at the bag to remind the pitcher to hustle over.

TransMonk May 27 2019 03:12 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/tylerkepner/status/1133111201821593600[/TWEET]

MFS62 May 27 2019 04:25 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Remembering him for more than what shouldn't have to define a great career and full life here. The update sports person on WCBS quoted Mookie Wilson saying (basically) the same thing. RIP. Later

Fman99 May 27 2019 05:22 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Hey, 2700 career hits. An All Star. A batting title. Pretty damn fine career, errant WS grounders notwithstanding.

batmagadanleadoff May 27 2019 06:31 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Lunchbucket's got a Bill Buckner avatar.

Johnny Lunchbucket May 27 2019 06:34 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

That's right. Jesse Orosco's first batter faced

Edgy MD May 27 2019 06:38 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Had an great and awful uncomfortable-looking stance. Like a guy with a bad back who can't squat all the way down on the toilet.

Willets Point May 28 2019 08:39 AM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/Mets/status/1133097214522339328[/TWEET]

Lefty Specialist May 28 2019 09:13 AM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Classy guy and a great hitter who always deserved better.

41Forever May 28 2019 10:50 AM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

I'm surprised a guy with 2,700 hits and a batting title was an All-Star only once.

Edgy MD May 28 2019 12:13 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

1) He was a firstbaseman with limited power. 2) It was like, Gospel, for ballot stuffing boys everywhere to believe in the American American-ness of Steve Garvey. American in a way that Al Oliver and Tony Perez and Bill Buckner and Keith Hernandez and Richie [CROSSOUT]Hepburn[/CROSSOUT] Hebner and Mike Ivie could never be. So, if Garvey got the automatic vote that he was due from every right-thinking, flag-waving, barbecue-grilling American, and the sentimental old-guy selections went to Willie McCovey and/or Willie Stargell, there weren't going to be a lot of All-Star appearances left to dole out among National League firstbasemen during Buckner's best years. The only way Garvey's lock on the starting first base slot in the All-Star Game was broken was by Pete Rose moving over there — with appreciation of pre-Dowd Report Pete also being a near-requirement of citizenship, despite being perhaps the weakest starting firstbaseman in the league. His pursuit of the hit record and his being held up as the model of American grit and hustle outshone even the gleaming smile of rugged Park Ranger Steve Garvey.

Benjamin Grimm May 28 2019 12:16 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

Richie Hepburn? I'm not sure if you actually meant to type "Katharine" or "Audrey" there.

Edgy MD May 28 2019 04:35 PM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

I think Hebner got autocorrected.

batmagadanleadoff May 29 2019 08:33 AM Re: RIP Bill Buckner, 1949-2019

[QUOTE]The truth about baseball and its slow accumulations is more mundane than any of the stories—of failure, or of misunderstanding, or of redemption—that attached themselves to Buckner. For him, it was a mile of eye black and thousands of bags of ice and shredded knees, bickering with team executives about contracts and managers about playing time. It was appearing in a major-league game for the Dodgers at nineteen and winning a batting title with the Cubs at thirty-one. It was the great satisfaction not of being hailed by the fans on Opening Day, in 1990, but grinding to make the team in the first place. It was running the bases that season to leg out an unlikely inside-the-park home run, looking like “a suitcase falling downstairs,” as Roger Angell put it at the time.

Excerpt from The New Yorker. Can't paste link. Stupid smartphone.



Ed: Here you go.