Don Miller autograph 1927 Yankee

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by JimStinson

Poor Buckner , It was not Buckner's fault at all he was playing injured could barely walk actually , and with the lead they had....It was the manager's job to place a defensive sub at first that could at least walk..
Manager blew it not Bill Buckner.
And give the Mets some credit for taking advantage of it and having the tenacity to come back and win , except for Keith Hernandez who was already in the clubhouse drinking a beer and thinking "wait till NEXT year"..

I always have to laugh when I hear people say "poor Buckner" as he was one of the first to criticize Leon Durham for letting a ball go through his legs against the Padres in the 1984 playoffs. For those who don't remember, there was a first baseman controversy in '84 with the Cubs as Leon Durham eventually won the job from Billy Buck who would soon be shipped off to Boston. After Durham booted the ground ball Buckner was quoted as saying that if he was in the game he would have never missed that ball, implying that the Cubs would have been in the series if he was there. Two years later, Buckner was in the same situation and was now the goat for his miscue.

I remember talking to Jay McCracken, then of Upper Deck at the Field of Dreams show in Iowa back in '92 or so and I asked him if Buckner's Upper Deck card from 1990 which showed him fielding his position but you could clearly see the large tarp between his legs was intentional and he looked at me, winked and said, "what do you think".

I think it is time Buckner is let off the hook for this one though.