The Sports Report: Farewell to Bill Buckner

Hello everyone. My name is Houston Mitchell and let’s get right to the news.

Baseball

Bill Buckner, 69, died Monday. He had Lewy Body Dementia. While many fans will remember as a gimpy, slow first baseman, longtime Dodger fans remember him as a fast outfielder. Unfortunately, multiple ankle injuries robbed him of his speed. Buckner stole 31 bases for the 1974 Dodgers and 28 for the 1976 team.

The Dodgers traded him to the Chicago Cubs before the 1977 season along with Jeff Albert and Ivan DeJesus for Rick Monday and Mike Garman.

I’m not going to talk about what most fans remember him for, except to provide this quote from Buckner about it:

“Life is a lot of hard knocks,” Buckner told USA Today in 2016. “There are a lot worse things happening than losing a baseball game or making an error, so it puts things in perspective. You learn forgiveness, patience — all the things you have to do to survive.”

The Dodgers released a statement Monday that said, “The Dodgers are saddened to hear about the passing of Bill Buckner, who died this morning after battling a long illness. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Buckner family.”

Buckner had 2,715 hits in his career, hit .289 and won a batting title with the Cubs in 1980, when he hit .324. He was a good player for a long time and may he rest in peace.

You can read more about Buckner by clicking here.

Stanley Cup Final

There aren’t a lot of writers honored in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Helene Elliott is one of the few, and she is covering the Stanley Cup Final. Most of the time, I like to riff on topics myself, but I find it hard to compete with a Hall of Famer, so I won’t even try. Here’s some of what she had to say about Game 1. You can read the rest here.

“The Boston Bruins’ timing was off Monday and their brains were cobwebbed. They were victims of their own success, pushed into a tedious 10-day layoff between their sweep in clinching the Eastern Conference title and the start of the Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues. Practice had made them perfectly antsy, and their rust showed as they slogged through a sluggish first period and fell behind by two goals a minute into the second period.

“Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy shook off the mental rust before his players did, making a decision that gave his lethargic team new life in the second period and launched the Bruins toward a 4-2 comeback victory at a rollicking TD Garden.

“Unhappy with the performance of his top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak against the Blues’ top unit centered by Brayden Schenn, Cassidy moved his chess pieces around. He assigned his fourth line of Joakim Nordstrom, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari to match up against the Schenn line in hopes Schenn, a former Kings first-round draft pick who had scored the Blues’ first goal and set up Vladimir Tarasenko for the other, would be neutralized by the Kuraly line’s unwavering work ethic and basic north-south style.

“Not only were Schenn and Tarasenko stifled the rest of the way, Kuraly set up the Bruins’ first goal and scored the game-winner when he took a pass from Acciari and whipped a shot past St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington at 5:21 of the third period. “I thought Bergie’s line had a tough time finding their game tonight. The other guys were a little bit ahead of them in terms of their puck possession,” Cassidy said. “We’ve used Kuraly’s line all year against good lines and we decided to go that route. It worked out for us tonight.”

“No kidding. “We know what our job is when we’re out against a line like that,” Kuraly said. “It’s to make it difficult for them to create any offense and they’re a great line, so it’s tough. But the expectation from us was just play them hard and play them honest and make them earn every inch, and if they beat us with their skill — which will definitely happen at times, then so be it, but we’re not going to let them beat us with something silly that is a mistake by us.”

“Marchand clinched the victory with an empty-net goal, leaving the Blues winless in four Stanley Cup Final appearances. They were swept by Montreal in 1968 and 1969, and by Boston in 1970.

““I thought the first period was good. I thought we did a lot of good things,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “Second period, we stopped skating, stopped moving the puck, turned it over and gave them momentum. And then, plus, the penalties didn’t help.”

“The Bruins, who had a playoff-best 34% power-play success rate, had five advantages and converted one when Charlie McAvoy’s shot glanced off the stick of Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and got past Binnington to bring the Bruins even at 2-2 at 12:41 of the second period. “They were aggressive more in the second period and I don’t think we were aggressive enough skating with the puck,” Pietrangelo said of the Bruins’ revival. “So it wasn’t a great combo for us.”

Stanley Cup Final

All times Pacific

at Boston 4, St. Louis 2

Wednesday, 5 p.m., St. Louis at Boston, NBC

Saturday, 5 p.m., Boston at St. Louis, NBCSN

Monday, June 3, 5 p.m., Boston at St. Louis, NBC

*Thur., June 6, 5 p.m., St. Louis at Boston, NBC

*Sun., June 9, 5 p.m., Boston at St. Louis, NBC

*Wed. June 12, 5 p.m., St. Louis at Boston, NBC

*-if necessary

NBA Finals

The NBA Finals don’t start until Thursday, and Dan Woike isn’t in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but in the interest of fairness, we’ll let him tell you about this year’s matchup uninterrupted by me. You can read the whole thing here:

“One team is four wins away from us knowing what we’ve tried to figure out since the very first game of this NBA season.

“The whole point of the 82-game marathon and the month-plus of playoffs is to figure out the best team in the league this season.

“Over the next two weeks we’ll have a clearer picture of the two teams still fighting, their places in history, their inner-workings and their superstars.

“As we take a first look at the NBA Finals, here are the five questions we’re most interested in answering:

“1. When will we see the full Warriors?

“Maybe never again?

“We know forward Kevin Durant won’t be on the court Thursday when the Warriors open the Finals in Toronto, his injured calf still hurt enough to keep him from doing on-court work with his teammates.

“While the elongated schedule of the Finals ups the chances we see Durant on the court — there will be two days off between every game of the series except for Games 3 and 4 — it’s still far from a given.

“The odds are much better that we’ll see DeMarcus Cousins for the first time since the first round of the playoffs.

“I feel better each and every day,” Cousins said last week. “That’s my whole goal, to make sure I get better with each day that comes. Like I said, hopefully, that opportunity comes and I’m able to get on the floor and help my teammates and try to help them win a championship.”

“The Warriors have beaten three teams without a full and healthy starting lineup. But a fourth? That’ll be even tougher.

“2. What will we make of Durant’s last three seasons?

“Let’s answer the question sports talk shows have used to get hours and hours of content — the Warriors are not a better team without Durant on the court…..”

NBA Finals

All times Pacific

Thursday, Golden State at Toronto, 6 p.m., ABC

Sunday, Golden State at Toronto, 5 p.m., ABC

Wed., June 5, Toronto at Golden State, 6 p.m., ABC

Fri., June 7, Toronto at Golden State, 6 p.m., ABC

*Mon., June 10, Golden State at Toronto, 6 p.m., ABC

*Thur., June 13, Toronto at Golden State, 6 p.m., ABC

*Sun, June 16, Golden State at Toronto, 5 p.m., ABC

*-if necessary

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Odds and ends

Dianne Feinstein renews call for suspension of Santa Anita races…. Angels victimized by another poor start, this time by Trevor Cahill…. Kobe Bryant knows the truth: ‘The WNBA is a beautiful game to watch’…. Serena Williams lets out a scream, then dominates at French Open…. UCLA baseball regional is close to home for Loyola Marymount…. Sports Illustrated is sold to Authentic Brands for $110 million…. Dodgers support Clayton Kershaw with tons of runs in win over Mets.

Today’s local major sports schedule

(All times Pacific)

New York Mets at Dodgers, 7 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570

Angels at Oakland, 7 p.m., FSW, KLAA 830

Born on this date

1887: Athlete Jim Thorpe

1922: Boxing trainer Lou Duva

1938: Laker great Jerry West

1955: NHL player Mark Howe

1957: Baseball player Kirk Gibson

1957: College basketball coach Ben Howland

1967: NBA player Glen Rice

1986: NFL player Michael Oher

Died on this date

1994: Golfer Julius Boros, 74

And finally

Vin Scully calls Kirk Gibson’s home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Watch it here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email us here. If you want to subscribe, click here.