Cooperstown Complaints: Episode 1 – The Plight of Bill Buckner

Welcome to the introductory installment for the newest series here at Dubsism. With baseball season right around the corner, and with the list of errors made by the National Baseball Hall of Fame getting so long as to rival the list of criminal charges fitting (insert politician of your choice here), we here at Dubsism decided there couldn’t be a better time to bring common sense back to Cooperstown.

Let’s be honest. If you’re a baseball fan, you must have at least an inkling that the Hall of Fame is interminably broken. Beside the aforementioned list of blown calls, it’s mired in the fact that the writers who cast the votes are dipshits, the “analytics” geeks are taking over, and the “Pete Rose v. The Steroid Guys” debate is now as stale as month-old ball park popcorn.

That’s why for the initial episode of this series, I’ve chosen to start with a guy nobody considers when it comes to the “Hall-of-Famer or not” debate. That fact by itself is a big part of why the Hall is broken. Having said that, here is today’s central theme:

Should one incident on the field be enough to disqualify somebody from consideration?

What’s Really an “Unforgivable Sin?”

Roberto Alomar spit in an umpire’s face. Didn’t keep him out of the Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb leapt into the stands to mercilessly pummel a handicapped man. He was very first player inducted into Cooperstown. So, why did one error keep Bill Buckner really from ever being considered for the Hall of Fame?

Now, read that carefully before you dump in your two cents. I’m not saying Buckner is amongst those whose non-induction ranks among the Hall’s most egregious. The injustice in Buckner’s case is he deserved far more than 10 votes out of 470 cast, which made 1996 his only year on the ballot.

The BBWAA: The Heart of The Problem

Buckner’s only appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot came in a year the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) did not elect a single candidate, despite the fact that ballot included future inductees Phil Niekro, Tony Perez, Don Sutton, Ron Santo, Tony Oliva, Jim Rice, Bruce Sutter, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, and Joe Torre. There’s really not a better example showing both of the ineptitude of the BBWAA and how it outstrips the ability of the Era (formerly known as the Veterans) Committee to fix those screw-ups.

However, that’s a topic for another time. Believe me, that is on the list for this series…along with the others aforementioned.

Understanding how broken the Hall of Fame is to know the burgeoning number of reasons to question it’s very validity. You may feel free to list any reason you like along with the cause thereof, but it’s an exercise in pointlessness as none of them fully explain the complete under-appreciation for Bill Buckner.

Bill Buckner: The Fielder

The logical place to begin making the case for Buckner starts with that infamous error in the 1986 World Series. For a guy who got pilloried for one play, Buckner retired 4^th all-time in the number of assists at 1^st base, behind only George Sisler, Mickey Vernon, and Fred Tenney. That also puts him ahead of Hall-of-Famers Jake Beckley, Gil Hodges, and Willie McCovey. In other words, despite that one snapshot, the guy was damn good with the leather.

The raw numbers bear that out. In 14 full seasons at 1^st base., “Bucks” played 1,555 regular-season games in which he had 13,901 chances and only committed 128 errors. That breaks down to one error for every 109 chances. Get a buddy and go play catch in your back yard. Let me know when you get to 109 back-and-forths without flubbing a catch or chucking one under the bushes.

Bill Buckner: The Hitter

When it comes to performance at the plate, there are important categories in which Buckner ranks ahead of guys who have plaques in Cooperstown. I’m not an “analytics” guy, so I couldn’t care less about their numeric voodoo. Here, the old-school stats illustrate some hard reality.

Hits

Bill Buckner collected 2,715 hits, which is more than Hall-of-Famers Billy Williams, Ted Williams, and Ernie Banks. Two of those guys have statues outside of Wrigley Field, and even when the likeness of Ryne Sandberg is unveiled later this year, Buckner will still be the Cubs’ Statue League leader in career hits. unless you count all the times Harry Caray tapped Augie Busch’s wife (as rumor would have it…).

Runs Batted In

The entire point of baseball is to score runs, and Bill Buckner knocked in 1,208 of them. That puts him ahead of “storied” hitters George Sisler and Tony Gwynn. It also puts him ahead of Rickey Henderson. one the greatest all-around offensive players in the history of the game.

Speaking of “storied” hitters, while I think batting average is really over-rated as a statistic, it was one that writers loved before the arrival of “analytics.” That’s why they held Tony Gwynn in such reverence with his .338 career number and his eight batting titles. While those things are undeniably true, it’s also true that he didn’t drive in as many runs as did Bill Buckner.

Considering Buckner in terms of career batting average also tells an interesting story when discussed against the .285 of Carl Yastrzemski. In the 1960s and 70s baseball was dominated by pitching. 1968 saw Yastrzemski win a batting title at .301. Buckner made his major league debut the following year when Major League Baseball lowered the pitching mound; the idea being to literally somewhat level the playing field between the pitchers and the hitters.

The Stat That Really Pleads The Case: Doubles

That change didn’t really work; pitching still dominated hitting throughout the 1970s. Despite that, Bill Buckner was consistently one of the best hitters in that era…and this really gets fun when comparing Buckner’s time to a time just a bit closer to today.

Buckner wasn’t a “slugger” by any means; he only hit 174 career homers. But he did belt 498 two-baggers. I love guys who hit a lot of doubles because that usually means which they can get the good parts of the bat to a “pitcher’s pitch.” It’s one thing to slug mistakes; it’s completely another to drive a ball the pitcher loved coming out of his hand.

More importantly, Buckner’s totals rank him ahead in front of recent inductees like Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Vladimir (the Elder) Guerrero, and Fred McGriff. Now, combine that with my “eyeball test” comparison between those guys in their era and Buckner in his. No numbers can convince me of other than what I saw; Bill Buckner was one of the best hitters in the pitching-dominated 1970s.

My eyeballs also tell me if Buckner’s 22-year career had been 20 years later in the far more hitter-friendly 80s and 90s, he was the caliber of hitter who would have certainly been within range of 3,000 hits and 600 doubles. The only players with 600 doubles who aren’t in the Hall of Fame have extraordinary circumstances (Pete Rose, Barry Bonds) or are not yet eligible (Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera). Both those conditions also apply to the list of players with 3,000 hits.

The Bottom Line on Bill Buckner

Bill Buckner was an elite-level hitter. He could put the ball in play all over the field, and do it when it mattered. Had he only been able to pick up that one ball, he certainly would have garnered more than ten measly votes.

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Despite Cooperstown’s flub, Buckner’s error was forever immortalized (at the 7:48 mark) in this amazing recreation of that dramatic bottom of the 9th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series created with 80s-era Nintendo RBI Baseball.