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In a just world, Bill Buckner would not be long remembered for the 1986 World Series.
The 1974 World Series would’ve been more like it.
Buckner, the pride of Napa who died on Memorial Day, was a superb baseball player. He played relentlessly with skill, spirit, attitude and heart.
From the wonderful Jeff English profile penned for SABR: “Bill Buckner was a gamer. He played the game of baseball as hard as any player of his generation. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Walter Alston once said of Buckner, ‘He gets the red neck a lot, but I sort of like that.’ Alston was referring to the fiery temper and intensity that fueled Buckner’s approach at the plate and in the field.”
Those qualities were in full flower early in his career. Buckner played with all-out exuberance between the lines and, on one occasion, beyond. He was the left fielder in 1974 when Henry Aaron hit his 715th career home run, surpassing Babe Ruth. Buckner tracked the drive as it soared toward the Braves’ bullpen. Not only that, he scaled the fence in hopes of retrieving the milestone ball. Alas, Braves relief pitcher Tom House caught it on the fly.
The Dodgers won the National League West that year, and beat the Pirates in the NLCS. Their assignment for the 1974 World Series: the Oakland A’s, who were gunning for a three-peat. As far as Buckner was concerned, it was game on before Game 1.
“I definitely think we have a better ballclub than they do,” he was quoted in the San Francisco Examiner. “The A’s have only a couple of players who could play on our club. Reggie Jackson is outstanding. Sal Bando and Joe Rudi are good and they have a good pitching staff. Other than that … I think if we played them 162 times, we could beat them 100.”
The first four games of the series told a different story. The Dodgers lost three.
Game 5 was a tight affair — 2-2 after 6½ innings. Before the bottom of the seventh, the Oakland Coliseum crowd sang “God Bless America.”
“Then,” Oakland Tribune sports editor George Ross wrote, “they went a little crazy.” Fans lit rockets and firecrackers and threw them on the field in Buckner’s direction. Frisbees, toilet paper, paper airplanes and paper cups littered the field. A whiskey bottle came whizzing out of the stands. Security guards raced to the left field bleachers. It took some time to restore order.
Meanwhile, Dodgers relief ace Mike Marshall stood on the mound, intermittently stretching his pitching arm, but declining to throw any warm-up pitches.
Joe Rudi was first up in the inning. Reggie Jackson was on deck. The two conferred during the delay. “We agreed that if (Marshall) wasn’t staying warm,” Jackson wrote in his 1975 book “Reggie,” “he was going to have to come in with a fastball.
“I told Rudi, ‘He’s gonna go to the heater.’ And Rudi replied, ‘He’s going to crowd me, and I’m going to hit the ball up into the crowd.’ ”
Which he did. First pitch.
Fate wasn’t quite through with Buckner that night. He led off the eighth inning with a hit to right-center field, which center fielder Billy North let get away. Seeing that, Buckner decided to head for third base. He was cut down by a brilliant relay from Jackson, backing up North, to second baseman Dick Green, to third baseman Sal Bando.
Five outs later, the A’s had their third consecutive World Series championship.
It bears noting that Jackson, in his book, wrote about Buckner’s mad dash: “I’d have done the same thing because I’m human.” Marshall gave his teammate a pass at an old-timers game at the Coliseum in 1985, saying, “That’s the only way to play the game.”
Buckner? “I’d do the same thing again,” he said that night. “This is something I did all season, and something I’ll do the rest of my career.”
Which he did. Every chance he could.
