Glen Buckley

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• School Belhaven College

• Born May 12, 1974 in South Africa

Biographical Information

Glen Buckley played in Germany and for the Great Britain national team and coached and managed in South Africa.

Buckley hit .409/.486/.710 for the 1994 Leonberg Lobsters in Germany's Bundesliga and was 1-0 with a save and a 6.14 ERA. The 20-year-old finished among the Bundesliga-1 south leaders in average (9th), RBI (37, tied for 2nd), hits (38, 4th), doubles (8, tied for 7th), runs (34, tied Hans-Peter Jäger for 7th), HBP (4, tied for 8th), lowest strikeout rate (3.2%, 3rd) and slugging (10th). In '95, he batted .422/.481/.667 with 18 runs in 20 games; had he qualified, he would've been 3rd in average, 7th in slugging, 8th in OBP and 7th in OPS. Moving to the Mainz Athletics the next year, he was at .411/.500/.600 with 28 runs in 28 contests and was 4-1 with four saves and a 3.32 ERA. He was 7th in average, tied for 4th in hits (37), tied for 4th in runs, tied Olaf Dreesen for 3rd in HBP (6), had the 4th-lowest K rate (5.6%), was 8th in OBP and tied for 5th in assists (55).

Switching clubs again, he posted a .506/.587/.851 batting line with the 1997 Paderborn Untouchables, with 32 runs and 40 RBI in 28 games. He fielded .968. He was second in the Bundesliga-1 in average (.055 shy), was third in home runs (7), tied for the RBI lead, led with 44 hits (6 ahead of Stefan Pößl and Alex Baham), tied for 7th in runs, was 5th in K rate (6.9%), was second in OBP (.090 shy), was second in OPS and was 6th in fielding percentage (regardless of position; he was the top middle infielder). He won the MVP.

His offensive numbers were nearly as impressive in 1998 - he hit .536/.634/.786 with 41 runs and 33 RBI in 30 games, going 14-for-17 in steals. He was 2-0 with two saves and a 0.71 ERA, but his fielding fell to .916. He won the batting title handily (.050 ahead of #2 Brian Kooiman), tied for 7th in RBI, was 10th in hits, tied for 4th with 3 triples, tied Marc Marsch for 9th in runs, had the third-lowest K rate (4.8%), led in OBP (.009 ahead of Kooiman), was third in OPS and tied for 6th in saves. While he won Best Batter, Kooiman got the MVP.

Glen was 2-2 with a save and a 2.38 ERA for the '99 Untouchables. He also batted .464/.534/.696 and scored 29 times in 27 games as the team won the title (he was 5-for-10 with 3 walks, a double, 2 steals, 2 runs and 2 RBI in the postseason). He made leaderboards in average (4th), doubles (9, 6th), runs (tied Mark Gnutzmann for 8th), K rate (5th, 7.2%), slugging (6th, between René Herlitzius and Thomas Riedner), OBP (5th, between Jason Doll and Markus Gienger), OPS (6th, between Herlitzius and Riedner) and assists (47, 9th). In the 1999 European Championship, he hit .522 for Britain and was 1-1 with a 5.79 ERA (beating Slovenia). In the round-robin, he tied Andrea Castri and Claudio Liverziani for 5th in average (.467) and tied for 10th in OBP (.500, even with Tomáš Ovesný, Andrea Evangelisti and Valeri Platonov.

With the 2000 Untouchables, he saw limited action, going 4-for-17 with two doubles, a homer, five walks, five runs and six RBI, with a 12.26 ERA and a save. He did not play in the Bundesliga-1 in 2001 but again did well in the European Championship, getting a hit in every game for the second straight Euros. He batted .333/.412/.400 for the Brits, with a team-high seven RBI in seven games. He stole two bases in two tries and fielded .912. He tied for 8th in hits (10) and tied for 10th in the event in RBI.

Back in the Bundesliga-1 in 2002, he helped Paderborn to a title, hitting .415/.529/.723 with 23 runs in 25 games (.316/.536/.421 with 9 runs in 8 postseason games). He allowed one unearned run in six innings but was 0-1 and fielded .941, splitting time between 1B, 3B and SS in addition to pitching. He was 4th in average (between Dominik Wulf and Philipp von Soosten), tied for 5th in dingers (3), was 7th in runs, tied for 9th in walks (16), trailed only Carlos Sanchez and Wulf in slugging and was 4th in OBP.

The next summer, he repeated with the Untouchables. He was at .379/.500/.455 with 24 runs in 24 games, going 11-for-13 in steals (in the postseason, he batted .257/.366/.314). He fielded .976. He was 5th in runs, tied for 8th in hits (25), tied Ole Drews for 9th in walks (13), was 5th in OBP, tied for 4th in swipes, was 7th in putouts (96) and 9th in fielding percentage. He hit .240/.367/.400 with 8 runs in 7 contests in the 2003 European Championship and fielded .892. He tied Nick Theodorou for third in the tourney in runs (behind Peter Maestrales and Sharnol Adriana), led in triples (2),

His last season was with the 2004 Untouchables. They won the 2004 European Cup. In the Bundesliga, he hit .413/.484/.663 with 30 runs and 29 RBI in 22 games, fielding .964. When they won another title, he batted .480/.576/.640 with 9 runs and 8 RBI in 8 postseason contests. He was 4th in average, 3rd in home runs, tied Norman Eberhardt for the RBI lead, 5th in hits, led in doubles (11, two more than Eberhardt), trailed only Octavio Medina and Wulf in RBI, was 3rd in slugging, ranked 8th in OBP and was third in OPS.

For his Bundesliga career, he had hit .437/.528/.685 with 264 runs and 237 RBI in 214 regular season games, with 74 doubles, 9 triples, 27 homers, 125 walks and 78 steals in 92 tries. For the British national team, he had batted .346 in three European Championships. Through 2024, he was 10th in team history in hits (28, between Maikel Azcuy and Brant Ust).

He managed South Africa in the 2016 U23 Baseball World Cup and coached for them in the 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier.