Bucky Dent: Is Baseball Still America’s Pastime?

Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent is a retired Major League Baseball player and manager widely remembered by fans for his tenure with the New York Yankees … and his famous tie-breaking home run versus the Boston Red Sox at the end of the 1978 season. The St. Louis Cardinals originally selected Dent in the 1st round of the 1970 amateur draft but he did not sign with the team, allowing the Chicago White Sox to take him the 1st round (6th overall) of the June Secondary later that year. The right-handed shortstop spent four seasons (1973-1976) in Chicago, finishing second in 1974 Rookie of the Year balloting (behind Mike Hargrove). Bucky also appeared on the first of what would be three All-Star Game rosters (1975, 1980, 1981) while with the team. However, Dent had trouble successfully succeeded Luis Aparicio at short, compiling a .239 batting average and 209 RBI, and eventually was traded to the Yankees (1977-1982), where he became part of Bronx Bomber history. Dent hit a three-run homer that gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the 1978 AL East division play-off game versus the BoSox … an unlikely event as Dent had hit only 40 home runs in a dozen seasons in the big leagues. Dent batted .417 in that year’s World Series, earning MVP honors as New York topped the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the end of his professional career, Bucky spent time with the Texas Rangers (1982-1983) and the Kansas City Royals (1984) before retiring with a .246 batting average and 423 RBI. He compiled a 36-52 record managing the Yankees at the end of the 1989 and beginning of the 1990 seasons.

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