In 1974 there was a short stop on the Chicago White Sox named BB Richard. As was customary to me in those days I would take ground balls with the short and second baseman from both teams.
I got friendly with BB and I remember that he was not a happy camper because this new shortstop named Bucky Dent had taken his job.
I remember that BB said can you believe that a Bucky Dent has taken my job?
I asked him… What’s a Bucky Dent?
Well three years later me and all of New York would know what a Bucky Dent was.
He would get traded to the Yankees for Oscar Gamble.
He would help guide the team to our first World Series championship in 15 years. The following season he would hit one of the most famous homers in baseball history. The following spring for reasons semi unknown I would become Bucky’s spring training roommate by order of the Boss George Steinbrenner. That spring Bucky gave me the nickname… The Spy Who Loved Me!
That spring the Boss got upset with me when I told him that me and Bucky were having a great time. The Boss in a controlled voice said I didn’t pay you to have a good time.
Perception in sports and in life can be harmful. This was actually a lesson that Mr. Steinbrenner had taught me among many. The problem was that when Bucky hit the homer in Fenway and then was the World Series MVP against the Dodgers he instantly became New York’s media darling. He did a Movie and TV shows. He even did a fur coat commercial. He was on top of the world. The Boss was already tired of following everything that Reggie Jackson was doing media-wise, now he had Bucky Dent too.
Every teenie bopper in America was in love with Bucky so I took the Spring assignment as a way to protect our teen idol. Bucky and some of the players took it as a way of the Boss spying or controlling our teen idol.
Whatever the label all I can say is that I really got to know one of the best people I have ever known. In a period of my life that I was actually using all the Yankees as mentors I can actually say that Bucky was a big part of that core of Yanks that was always there for me at that time. Bucky was a very giving person. He always understood how blessed he was and like me and Thurman Munson, his father was not around. I remember telling the Boss that Bucky liked hanging out in the evening with one of his best friends who was actually a catholic priest. The Boss thought that I was protecting Bucky but I was telling the truth. Father Joe was actually good friends with a few of the guys including me. For me the best part of Bucky Dent was how the kids loved him. Whether Bucky realized it or not he had a great impact on them. Through Bucky, you would never know because he was so very modest.
In 1984 I actually got to do a movie with Bucky called The Sluggers Wife. It was a Neil Simon comedy. We had a scene where I was sliding into second base and Bucky was supposed to tag me out. Bucky took it one step further. He tagged me in the face. I was so upset that I bounced up and a full-scale brawl erupted. When things settled down the director Hal Ashby said that’s a take. The scene made the film. I was just happy that he didn’t ask for another take because my jaw was already hurting.
I always wondered if Bucky did that as payback for me being the Spy who loved him!
