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Showing posts with label bill buckner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bill buckner. Show all posts

June 28, 2012

HOVG Heroes: Bill Buckner


WILL JOHNSON on BILL BUCKNER

As you’ll read below, Will Johnson is the art world’s definition of a “five-tool player”.  Actually, he’s more than that…he’s Bert Campaneris or Jose Oquendo. 

Dude can literally do it all...and he loves baseball.

"I think the game itself, no matter what level it’s played on, is one of the most incredible inventions of strategy, physics and geometry that humans have come up with," Johnson recently told Modern American Weekly.  "It’s humbling and humanizing.  As Willie Mays said: it’s 'violence under wraps'.  There’s a duality in its flawless simplicity, and consuming, psychological complexities."

One such player that epitomizes all of that is Bill Buckner.

Buckner has been both hero and goat on the field, but let’s not forget that lifetime .289 batting average and 2,715 hits he collected during his twenty-year big league career.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Will Johnson drives a small pickup, is not presently on any medication, writes songs and plays in two bands with some friends that he loves a lot. He’s worked jobs on a farm, in maintenance and janitorial work, in comic book distribution, in a record store, in restaurants, teaching, delivering cars, transporting equipment, renting out tuxedos, making sandwiches and cleaning up radioactive and mercury-contaminated waste.

Most importantly, Johnson loves baseball. He has always loved baseball.  You can check out more of Johnson’s work and find out where he’ll be next over at his website.


June 13, 2012

Kenyan Students Re-enact 1986 World Series Game Six

I watch way too many videos on YouTube and a vast majority of it is garbage.

But this clip...this clip is magical.

Apparently some Kenyan students were interested in making a movie about a famous American sporting event. And after watching both real live clips, the students voted Bill Buckner's 1986 World Series Game Six error over the "Music City Miracle."

According to the video's comments, "they loved the experience and want to make a second movie".

I have nothing more to say other than this...I can't wait to see it.


***H/T to Bugs and Cranks.***

May 4, 2012

"Buckner Ball" Fetches $418,250

Last week at this time, the question wasn't "how much" the famed "Buckner Ball" would sell for...it was "if" it would sell at all.

Today...we have an answer to both.


Heritage Auctions says the ball that helped the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series was sold Friday in Dallas to a buyer who wants to remain anonymous. The sale price...$418,250.

"(It) came as a real surprise," the ball's now-former owner Seth Swirsky said.  "It was a true honor to have the privilege of being the caretaker of this storied piece of baseball folklore for the past 12 years."

Following that fateful Game Six, an umpire gave the ball to Mets executive Arthur Richman. In 1992, actor Charlie Sheen bought it for more than $93,000. Swirsky purchased it for nearly $64,000 in 2000.

You can check out the rest of what Swirsky is auctioning off by clicking this link!


December 1, 2011

Is Bill Buckner Headed Back to Boston?

More intriguing than the lack of creativity behind the numerous headlines proclaiming Thursday "Valentine's Day" is the possibility Bobby Valentine is open to bringing Bill Buckner in as his hitting coach.

"I respect his every opinion, in baseball and worldy matters," the new Boston skipper said of the former Red Sox first baseman.

But if Valentine and Buckner happen to be paired up in the Red Sox dugout, it won't be the first time they've occupied the same space.  The two were college roomates and fraternity brothers while at the University of Southern California as well as teammates in the Dominican Republic and with the Ogden Dodgers in 1968.

Of course, Valentine also told reporters at Thursday's press conference that if he hired Buckner, it wouldn't be about their nearly lifelong friendship...it would be about "who's best for the job".

And qualified Buckner is.

In his 22-year big league career, the mustached one collected 2715 hits, a .289 batting average and never struck out more than 39 times in a season.

Oh, he's also the current manager of the Brockton Rox of the Cam-Am League.

And like that...an entire post about Bill Buckner without once mentioning the 1986 World Series.

Shit.