Wednesday, May 18, 2016

TRADED: 1977 BILL BUCKNER (OR IS IT?)

Here’s a 1977 “Traded” card for former all-star and batting champ Bill Buckner, who found himself in the “Windy City” after starting his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, although I swear it looks like Tim Blackwell. But the source of this photo swears it is indeed "Billy Buck":


Traded in January, “Billy Buck” went on to have an excellent time as a Cub, topping .300 four of his seven seasons there, even winning the National League batting title in 1980 when he hit .324.
It was a big trade that included Ivan DeJesus going to Chicago with Buckner while Rick Monday went West to L.A.
Now I’m not going to talk about “that moment” in 1986 because I feel it unjustly takes away from a great 22-year career that saw him collect 2715 hits, 498 doubles, over 1000 runs scored and runs batted in with a .289 lifetime average.
He also topped 100 RBI’s in a season three times, each time with LESS than 20 home runs, a rare feat in the modern game, while also collecting 200 hits in both the N.L. and A.L. (1982 with the Cubs, 1985 with the Red Sox).
Not necessarily a borderline Hall of Famer, but if there was such a thing, a “borderline-borderline-HOF’er” at the very least!
For what it’s worth, he is also one of the handful of players whose career spanned four decades: 1960’s-1990’s.
Great player....