When Bill Buckner died last week, I mentioned on Twitter that he had handled his fielding-error-induced infamy with class and also that it was a good thing social media had not been around for the flub. Outrage pile-ons and shame-storms used to be a dry heat: often excessive, but you could still find shelter in the shade. Now they’re more like humid summer climes: The air itself is saturated with the stuff, no matter where you stand.
Everyone understands that it’s unfair for an athlete to be known for his worst moment, but that’s life. What happened to Buckner is an order of magnitude worse, because the reputation he developed after flubbing a ground ball in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series isn’t merely “not who he is.” It’s the opposite. The Buckner flogging is the best example of the worst instincts of fandom and celebrity culture.
“Buckner” became a sort of synonym for unreliability. Yet the truth is, if anything characterized Buckner’s career, it was an almost preternatural reliability. “On Sunday, the last full day of Bill Buckner’s life, 16 major leaguers struck out at least three times. Buckner played 22 seasons and never did it once,” tweeted New York Times baseball writer Tyler Kepner. Jayson Stark from the Athletic added: “What a shame that Bill Buckner is only remembered for his worst moment as a baseball player. What he really was, was a pure hitter,” one of only five players who had 5,500 at-bats from 1972 to 1982 with a batting average of .300 or better. Two of the others: Pete Rose and Rod Carew. Buckner’s “4.5 percent career strikeout rate ranks third among the 237 players who have batted at least 7,500 times since 1950. The only players with a lower rate are Hall of Famers Nellie Fox and Tony Gwynn,” wrote MLB.com’s Matt Kelly.
It didn’t matter. “ESPN, the AP, and the Washington Post all led news of Bill Buckner’s death with his World Series error,” read a headline on one popular sports blog. In this respect, MLB.com had it right. The headline on Kelly’s piece? “Batting champ, All-Star Buckner dies at 69.”
