Buck Isn’t Stopping Yet : A Hobbled Goat of ’86 Series, Boston’s Bill Buckner Returns in High Tops to Chase 2 Goals

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. —  Over the nameplate above the spring locker of Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, No. 6 in your program, is a strip of tape that reads: “19 Unitas.”

It was affixed by playful teammates because Buckner is again wearing the basically black, high-top athletic shoes similar to the ones once favored by former Baltimore Colt quarterback Johnny Unitas, No. 19.

A hobbled Buckner first wore them during last year’s World Series to protect his painful ankles.

The camera of the mind, in fact, will always see him as the limping symbol of Boston’s pained failure to defeat the New York Mets, particularly in the pivotal Game 6, when he was at the core of debatable strategy by Manager John McNamara.

Now, at 37 and attempting to prepare for his 17th major league season, Buckner is again wearing the high tops because of a November operation, the fourth on his left ankle.

He expects to be able to play, but the doubt and concern that have accompanied each spring since he first injured it as a Dodger in 1975 seem a bit greater now.

“I’ve been skeptical about it every year in spring training,” Buckner said. “It’s just that this year I probably have a little more skepticism. I have to keep in mind that the doctor who did the surgery has assured me that it will keep getting better.”

Buckner will battle it as he did last year when he had nine cortisone shots and as he has throughout a career in which he has lived with ice, heat and two anti-inflammatory pills a day for 10 years.

He will battle it again because he wants to play this year for two primary reasons:

--To erase a lingering hurt stemming from the criticism directed at him after the World Series.

--As a steppingstone to two more years and a bid for 3,000 hits.

Buckner’s contract will expire after this season, though the club has an option on 1988. He has now seen the Red Sox reject options on Tom Seaver and Tony Armas and he is aware of the game’s economic climate.

“At this point in a career, when you’re making good money, you have to have a decent year every year to stay around,” he said. “If I only wanted to play this one more year, I wouldn’t have had the operation. But I hope to play two more years after this and I couldn’t have done it without it.

“My No. 1 goal is to play in a World Series again, but I also have this thing about 3,000 hits. I mean, for a guy who was supposed to be finished 11 years ago and has had to play most of his career on one leg, it would mark my career as a pretty good one. I feel good about my career anyway, but I’d like to feel that much better.”

That much would require 536 more hits. He had 201 in 1985 and 168 last year, when he batted .267 overall and .338 during the final six weeks of the regular season.

“I feel I’d need 170 to 175 hits a year (for three years to reach 3,000),” Buckner said. “Right now, the odds of that happening are about 30%. If I have a good year this year, they’ll go up to 50%.

“Right now, I’m concerned only about this year because I’ve got my hands full with the ankle. I hope to have it healthy enough to play 150 to 155 games. If that’s the case, I expect to hit .300 and continue driving in 100 runs (he had 102 RBIs last year when he hit a career-high 18 homers, and he had a career-high 110 RBIs in 1985). I mean, right now I have to take it a day at a time. That’s my main motivation.”

But, of course, not his only motivation. Three thousand is always there somewhere. And so is the fallout from last fall. Buckner acknowledges that.

“I haven’t completely gotten over the negative part of it,” he said, alluding to the media and fan portrayal of his role in the Red Sox demise, especially Game 6.

“I’ve gotten over 80% of it, but I’d like to use that last 20% as motivation,” he said. “I’d like to be able to wipe all of it out this year and show the people who have been most critical.”

The Red Sox were one out from winning the World Series in Game 6, just as they had been one strike from losing the American League playoff to the Angels in Game 5. They lost that Game 6 to the Mets, 6-5, after leading, 5-3, in the 10th. Then they lost Game 7, 8-5, after leading, 3-0, in the sixth.

Another October had turned bitter for a team and city that has lived with the specter of previous failures, but the Red Sox returned to a heartening parade and civic celebration.

“Most people recognized where we had come from and what we had accomplished,” Buckner said. “The parade was our reward. Unfortunately, there are a few jerks everywhere.”

They mailed their thoughts, just as the more sympathetic did when he had his surgery.

Though Buckner and his wife, Jody, have a ranch in Idaho, where he normally releases the emotions of a long summer, the Buckners spent the winter in Boston, a concession to the surgery.

He faced questions about his ankle, questions about the ground ball he missed in the 10th inning of Game 6.

“From that aspect, I’d rather have spent the winter somewhere else,” he said. “I got sick of everybody asking me about the ground ball. I tried to be fair about it the whole way, but I reached a point where I finally decided I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.”

That was about 10 days before he came to Florida. No more questions from the Boston media.

Now, relaxing in the sun after a recent practice, Buckner scrapped his promise and discussed the ground ball, and what preceded it, in depth.

A two-pronged question, however, had to be directed to Red Sox Manager John McNamara:

--Should Buckner have still been at first base in the 10th inning of Game 6, the Red Sox leading, 5-3?

--Should he have batted against the left-handed Jesse Orosco with two outs, the bases loaded, right-hander Don Baylor available to pinch-hit and Boston leading, 3-2, in the eighth?

“I don’t have second thoughts about any of my decisions,” McNamara said. “I’ve got two outs with a one-run lead in the National League park. It’s not a sacrifice fly situation. If I hit Baylor and bring in (Dave) Stapleton to play first, I’ve lost two of my most productive hitters (Baylor and Buckner). What happens if they tie the game (which the Mets did)? Buckner hit against right-handers and left-handers all season. He drove in 102 runs. I have confidence in him.”

Buckner batted .214 in the playoffs and .188 in the Series. He considers the second half of the 1986 regular season to have been his best, but he strained the Achilles’ tendon in his right ankle near the end of the season, compounding the persistent pain in his left ankle as he began the playoffs and eventually prompting his use of the high tops.

“It was frustrating, not being able to perform at my best,” Buckner said. “But there’s no guarantee I’d have produced even if I’d been 100%. I wasn’t comfortable, but I’ve produced under those circumstances before. I mean, I can’t use my physical condition as an excuse.

“Maybe if it had been the first or second game, I’d have encouraged Mac to make a change. He was leaving it up to me all year. I was honest with him. I wanted to win. If I felt someone could do a better job I’d have him in there.

“But by the sixth game I was actually feeling better and didn’t even think about a pinch-hitter. I was one for two against Orosco and had hit him well the other time. Why use two or three guys in that situation if there’s still a possibility you can end up in a tie?”

Buckner flied out to end the eighth, the Mets tied it in the home half, the Red Sox went ahead, 5-3, in the 10th, and the Mets then staged their improbable rally, scoring three runs after two were out. The tying run scored on a wild pitch by Bob Stanley, setting the stage for Mookie Wilson’s grounder that rolled down the first base line and skipped between Buckner’s legs as the winning run scored.

“Buckner is my best first baseman,” McNamara said, looking back. “If he hadn’t gotten to the ball, I could see people questioning the decision to leave him in, but the ankle didn’t cause him to miss it. He got there and then just missed it. He erred.”

Said Buckner, who led American League first basemen in assists and was second to Don Mattingly in total chances: “If it hadn’t been for the wild pitch and I had still been holding the runner on first base, it would have been a nice little ground ball.

“But I was playing off the line against a hitter who normally doesn’t pull the ball and that Shea Stadium infield is terrible.

“I’m not making excuses, but when you miss only five or six ground balls out of 300 or so over the course of a season, it’s as if what happened was meant to be.

“I mean, it wasn’t mechanical. I didn’t pull my head up. I didn’t fail to get my glove down.

“The glove was down, but the ball skidded toward second base and seemed to go right around (the glove).”

Buckner added that a review of the tapes also convinced him that Stanley would have had to cover first base but that Wilson told him Stanley had not gotten off the mound in time and wouldn’t have beaten him to the bag.

“I’m not living in the past,” Buckner said. “It hurts that we lost and I don’t like some of the criticism I’ve received, but it doesn’t still bother me, because in my own mind I don’t feel responsible for losing the World Series. It was a 24-man thing.

“I mean, we had the best pitcher in baseball (Roger Clemens) and the best hitter in baseball (Wade Boggs) and neither did as well as expected.

“We reached the seventh game of the World Series after being picked to finish fifth. You have to be happy about that. We had a lot of fun. We made a lot of money. You’ve got to keep things in perspective.

“Sure, the farther you go, the bigger the fall. But every time I start to feel badly, I think about the Angels. They’re the ones who’ve got reason to feel badly.”

So Buckner is now trying to put the lingering memory behind him, hoping that the removal of bone chips will improve his flexibility and leave him with the familiar dull ache of previous years instead of the sharp and debilitating pain of last year.

Pat Dobson, who hit 27 home runs and drove in 102 runs at Pawtucket last year, is a possibility at first base if Buckner can’t play.

The defensively suspect Baylor could also go to first, with Buckner becoming the designated hitter, but that’s not an option Boston hopes to exercise.

Said McNamara: “The doctor’s optimistic. I’m going about it as if Buck’s my first baseman.”

Buckner, of course, believes he would already be at 3,000 hits, would have won more than one batting title and may never have been traded by the Dodgers if he hadn’t initially sprained the ankle attempting to steal second base in a game against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium in April of ’75.

Playing in pain? Buckner has known no other way.

“Johnny Bench decided it wasn’t worth it,” he said. “He wanted to be able to walk and play golf and lead a normal life. I’ve dedicated my life to baseball. I accept the way it has to be.

“If I play badly this year I’ll retire on my own, but if I didn’t think I could play or do the job this year I wouldn’t be here. Three weeks ago I could barely walk. Now it’s improving every day. Now it’s only a matter of building up strength and endurance.”

Buckner stood, picked up his distinctive high tops and limped off to post-practice therapy.