Bill Buckner Deserves to Be Remembered for More Than One Play

Bill Buckner will forever be associated with one infamous play, but his career was so much more than that. He amassed more than 2,700 hits across 22 seasons, establishing himself as a productive player throughout most of his career. He died Monday at the age of 69.

For a generation of Red Sox fans, Bill Buckner’s name was a curse. It was part of the long litany of men who were often invoked in moments of fury and agony—one that stretched as far back as Harry Frazee and included Denny Galehouse, Johnny Pesky, Bucky Dent and Mike Torrez, and that officially added Buckner in the early hours of Oct. 26, 1986, in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The groundball off Mookie…