The legacies of Bill Buckner and Bart Starr: “For what shall we live?”

If your life ended this week, for what would you be remembered?

Bill Buckner played twenty-two seasons in the major leagues, winning a batting title with the Chicago Cubs in 1980 and playing in the All-Star Game the next year. He retired with a lifetime batting average of .289.

But it was a single play that defined his career for many. Buckner was hobbled with ankle injuries but playing first base for the Boston Red Sox when his team was one strike from winning the World Series in 1986. After three singles and a wild pitch, the game was tied.

Then a grounder went under Buckner’s glove, leading to his team’s loss. The Red Sox then lost the deciding seventh game and the Series. Buckner endured boos and even death threats from Red Sox fans.

However, years later, the city forgave and even embraced him. After Boston won the World Series in 2007, Buckner was invited back to Fenway Park to throw out the first pitch at the team’s home opener in 2008. He received a standing ovation.

Bill Buckner died yesterday at the age of sixty-nine.

Bart Starr and Amanda Eller

Bart Starr, the legendary quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, died Sunday at the age of eighty-five. He was best known for the 1967 “Ice Bowl.” Fighting a wind chill of minus 48 degrees, Starr led his team to victory over the Dallas Cowboys and then won that year’s Super Bowl.

In other news, hiker Amanda Eller was rescued Friday after spending seventeen days lost in a Hawaiian forest. She survived on wild fruit and water from creeks. Eller suffered a leg fracture and abrasions, but when searchers found her, she was otherwise in good shape.

While Starr and Eller are likely to be remembered for a particular event that made national headlines, other public figures are less easily identified.

When you think of Theresa May, who announced her resignation as British Prime Minister last Friday, you think immediately of Brexit. When you think of Benjamin…