Errors and Averages: A Eulogy for Bill Buckner

If you’ve heard of Bill Buckner, here’s what you probably know: In the 1986 World Series, he missed an easy ground ball and lost the Fall Classic for the Boston Red Sox, who were toiling under the omnipresent Curse of the Bambino.

Buckner the goat. Buckner the choker. Synonymous with futility, incompetence and missed opportunity.

Only problem? That’s not the real story.

In Game 6 of the ’86 Series, the Red Sox went into the bottom of the tenth inning with a 5–3 lead. They were up three games to two in the best-of-seven bout. Three outs, and they’d be champions.

Boston reliever Calvin Schiraldi recorded the first two outs in succession, then allowed three consecutive singles. Then he threw a wild pitch to tie the game.

With the score knotted at five, Mookie Wilson hit a bouncing grounder down the first base line that skipped between Buckner’s legs and into infamy.

It was a seemingly simple play for a professional baseball player. But the 36-year-old Buckner was playing on two injured ankles, an aching Achilles tendon and a bad back. He only took his position in the tenth because Red Sox manager John McNamara wanted his starters on the field to celebrate their inevitable victory.

And that wasn’t the end of the story. There was the matter of Game 7.

In that tussle, Boston built a 3–0 lead, which they proceeded to blow with zero costly errors from Buckner. In fact, he went two-for-four and scored a run.

Yet, in the aftermath of the Sox’s collapse, he received death threats and was booed mercilessly by Boston fans. The Red Sox released him the following season.

Buckner never publicly blamed anyone (his manager, his teammates, cruel twists of fate) for his unfair tarring-and-feathering. He also finished his MLB career with 2,715 hits and won a batting title. Not many people talk about that.

“Baseball is a game of averages,” Buckner once said. “But over a short period of time, to have a little luck going is not a bad thing.”

Bill Buckner died today, Memorial Day, at the age of 69.

He’d been battling dementia. His family released a statement saying he “fought [the disease] with courage and grit as he did all things in life.”

In 2008, after the Red Sox had buried the Curse of the Bambino with a World Series win in 2004, Buckner threw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day at Fenway Park.

He got a standing ovation. He had tears in his eyes.

Baseball, like life, is a game of averages.