He had more hits — 2,715 — than either Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams.
But Bill Buckner also blew one important play, and was smart enough to know what that meant.
”The headline on my obituary will say I missed a ground ball in Game 6,” Buckner once said. “A little note at the end will say, ‘He was a pretty good player.’”
He got that right, the first part anyway. The obituaries for Buckner, who died on Monday, did try not to let his 22 stand-out seasons be eclipsed by one bobbled ball.
”A MIXED LEGACY,” read the headline in Tuesday’s Sun-Times.