Former Major League Baseball great Bill Buckner was married to wife, Jody Buckner. Together, Bill Buckner and his wife had three kids.
On the baseball field, Bill Buckner was known for his tenaciousness; as the Society for American Baseball Research put it, he “played the game of baseball as hard as any player of his generation.” Off the field, Jody formed a defensive line around him after the criticism he endured following the 1986 World Series, when a ball went through his legs. He was also a great hitter, though, leaving baseball with 2,715 hits, putting him at number 66 on the all-time hitting list.
Sadly, Buckner, the former Red Sox baseball player and all-star, has died, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap. Schaap confirmed the sad news on Twitter. It was a sad week for American sports; the day before Buckner died, football great Bart Starr passed away.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Jody Buckner, Who Was a Strident Protector of Her Husband, Has Two Daughters & a Son With Bill Buckner
Bill Buckner’s wife, Jody: “Life went on for the Buckners and it went on very nicely.” http://t.co/b8YdBh7ihp #redsox
Jody Buckner and Bill Buckner are the parents of two daughters named Brittany and Christen. They also have a son together named Bobby. Throughout the years, Jody took great care of her husband, shielding him from journalists’ questions.
Newsday reported that Jody Buckner, who grew up in Westbury, was a firm defender of her husband throughout the years. She had “essentially has become her husband’s defensive replacement over the years,” the article noted.
It quoted her as saying: “Bill doesn’t want to talk to [reporters]. It’s same, same old, there’s nothing left to say, we’re beating a dead horse. Let it go. Just say the Buckners are alive and well. There’s just nothing left to say about it. It was just a baseball game, an error in a baseball game. Life went on for the Buckners and it went on very nicely.”
That was back in 2015. Theirs was a long-term marriage lasting decades.
2. Bobby Buckner Also Played Baseball
Buckner’s son Bobby followed in his dad’s footsteps. He was a member of the Texas A&M–Corpus Christi Islanders baseball team.
A 2006 article in the Houston Chronicle reported, that “the younger Buckner is a second baseman/shortstop at Boise (Idaho) High School.”
That article added that Bobby Buckner “is the second member of UT’s recruiting class with major-league ties.”
3. Buckner’s Wife Said They Moved to Idaho to Get Away From the Criticism
RIP Bill Buckner. Here’s a tear-inducing clip of him returning to Fenway on Opening Day in 2008 to thunderous applause.
Bill Buckner will forever be known, of course, because of the ball that went through his legs in the 1986 World Series.
The Society for American Baseball Research article reports that his wife, Jody, said the family moved to escape the critics.
In the summer of 1993, “Bill and his wife moved their three children, daughters Brittany and Christen and a son, Bobby, to a ranch in Meridian, Idaho. Buckner’s wife, Jody, described one of the primary benefits of the location, pointing out that Meridian ‘isn’t a sports town. Nobody in this town would talk about Willie in a derogatory way,'” according to the article.
The article was excerpting a portion of the biography “The 1986 Boston Red Sox: There Was More Than Game Six,” edited by Bill Nowlin and Leslie Heaphy.
4. Buckner’s Wife Jody Confirmed His Death, Praising His ‘Grit’ & ‘Courage’
The wife of former #Cubs 1B Bill Buckner Jody told @JeremySchaap the following regarding the passing of her husband.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap, Buckner’s wife, Jody, gave him a statement confirming her husband’s death and praising the way he lived his life.
Bill Buckner passed away early the morning of May 27th surrounded by his family. Bill fought with courage and grit as he did all things in life. Our hearts are broken but we are at peace knowing he is in the arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Bill was 69.
The statement from Jody Buckner confirmed that “the great Bill Buckner, one of the finest men I’ve known,” had died on the morning of May 27, 2019. She told Schaap that Buckner died “after battling the disease of Lewy Body Dementia.”
“Bill Buckner passed away early the morning of May 27th surrounded by his family. Bill fought with courage and grit as he did all things in life. Our hearts are broken but we are at peace knowing he is in the arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Bill was 69,” read the statement.
5. Bill Buckner’s Family Saw Heartbreak Early on
Bill Buckner, forever remembered for this play, actually had a stellar baseball career with 2,715 hits. Only 65 players (of 19,528 total) have had more base knocks. Rarefied air. Rest easy, Sir.
Bill Buckner’s childhood was not without struggle.
According to the Society for American Baseball Research, William Joseph Buckner “was born on December 14, 1949, in Vallejo, California.”
His parents were Leonard and Marie Katherine Buckner. His father died, though, when he was in his teens, according to the site.
Buckner’s mother worked for a stenographer for the California Highway Patrol and his stepdad Harold Eugene McCall was a CHP officer. Bill Buckner had three siblings, the site reports.