Maury Wills, who intimidated pitchers with his base-stealing prowess as a shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers on three World Series championship teams, has died. He was 89.
Wills died Monday night at home in Sedona, Arizona, the team said Tuesday after being informed by family members. No cause of death was given.
Wills played on World Series title teams in 1959, 1963 and 1965 during his first eight seasons with the Dodgers. He also played for Pittsburgh and Montreal before returning to the Dodgers from 1969 to 1972, when he retired.
During his 14-year career, Wills batted .281 with 2,134 hits and 586 stolen bases in 1,942 games.
He was the National League MVP in 1962, led the NL in stolen bases 1960-65, was a seven-time All-Star selection and won Gold Glove Awards in 1961 and 1962.
Wills had an ill-fated stint managing the Seattle Mariners from 1980 to 1981, going 26-56 with a winning percentage of .317.
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1. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: September 20, 2022 at 01:58 PM (#6097066)In hindsight his MVP award seems a huge stretch, but at the time it wasn't that controversial, and it was probably due to the fact that his more traditional rivals (Mays, Tommy Davis and Frank Robinson) split the votes among them, while a 4th rival (Drysdale) wound up with the CYA as a consolation prize.
"But Wills did spark a lot of excitement when he ran with abandon in the 1960s. All in all, Maury Wills was a below-average hitter with almost no power. He was probably about average as a defender. It is his impact as a pioneering base stealer that defines his case for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
That impact is hard to define and hard to prove. So it is wonderful the Wills did have a clear and documented impact on one of the most famous baseball plays of the last 50 years."
Not the best description of a Hall of Famer I've seen. Lou Brock, himself a weak HOF, is a better version of Maury.
Ozzie got to 6.6 in 1988.
Not shabby at all. Wills had +19 baserunning runs that year. Even Ichiro never did that!
He was even better the following year: 7.3 with a 97 OPS+
Others to have more than 6:
Kevin Kiermeier in 2015 - 7.1, 99
Darin Erstad in 2002 - 6.3, 86
Devon White in 1992 - 6.2, 90
Pee Wee Reese in 1942 - 6.2, 98
He could have...
Dorktown covered him briefly in their Mariners series starting here.
Anyway, RIP!
My first visit to the Polo Grounds came on Memorial Day in 1962, the initial revisit of the Dodgers (or SF) to NYC, and the place was utterly packed. When Wills came up in the top of the 5th, he'd hit one lonely HR in his first 1,727 PA. Batting left, he lined one into the gap that rolled to the right-center corner about 450' away and he easily circled the bases, just the kind of HR one might expect from the little speedster. In the 9th against an LHP, he jacked one into the nearby LF seats (not a cheapie as it went way up into the 2nd deck) and so tripled his lifetime dingers with switch HRs.
That game was also notable as perhaps Sandy Koufax' worst CG win. He allowed 13 hits and walked 3 (had 10K), facing 43 batters in the 13-6 victory. (Then in the middle of G2 the Dodgers led off an inning with 3 straight scorched LDs. Mets SS Elio Chacon snagged the 3rd one in his webbing, flipped it to Charlie Neal, thence to Hodges for a TP that had the whole stadium shaking. Mets lost that one, too.)
FWIW Wills was also likely the best player ever to come out of Washington, D. C. (Cardozo High School) Not that that's saying a whole lot.
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That game was also notable as perhaps Sandy Koufax' worst CG win.
This reminds me of a record I just discovered earlier today: In 1951 Don Newcombe threw 18 complete games, and his record in them was 18 and 0. Too bad he didn't get to finish his last game of that year.
He's also the first manager to go this year
Not that another 1000 PA and 5 WAR would make much difference to his HoF case. But if the HoF has room for Maz's glove (and one famous HR) and Hodges' consistency (and one managerial miracle), I guess I won't mind if they decide to find roome for Maury's legs (and one famous record-breaking season).
I figured "that there gots ta be a record or sumpin'", but, no, there were a lot of guys who hit less than 13 doubles in a year they were double digits in triples, especially in the dead ball era (Highie Jennings had just three doubles in 1899 to go with his twelve triples). More recently, Deion Sanders had only six doubles (fewest in this category since WW2) and 14 triples in 1992.
Wills was also likely the best player ever to come out of Washington, D. C.
The All-DC team:
1B: Lu Blue
2B: Bump Willis [yes, really]
3B: Art Devlin
SS: Maury Willis [also (gulp) manager]
LF: Algie McBride
CF: Milt Thompson
RF: Bubba Morton
C: Ryan Hanigan [one of only two on this squad to play in the 21st Century]
DH: Don Money
SP: Doc White [also backup OF], Billy Taylor, Bill Wise
SP/RP: Johnny Klippstein [the only player on the team who actually played for Washington, with the expansion Senators in '61]
RP: Clay Kirby, Brendan Donnelly [see Hanigan above]
"watchoo talkin' about, Willis - Wills?"
;)
...........
a "1962 Wills Topps card" from a 1970s set
Topps had a "1951-75 MVPs" 25-card set-within-the-main-set, but halfway thru they had this Wills conundrum - so they made one up to go with 1962 AL MVP Mickey Mantle
hey, it's in the K-mart set, too !
if you look real close, there are a couple of differences, though
and I see Wills is in the 1963 Fleer set that gave you a cookie instead of gum !
Topps sued and won, so only the 66-card first series went public....
Wills in the 1963 Fleer set
He may not have been the deserving MVP in 62 but that is the most valuable base stealing season, at least among the seasons we have full stats for.
Others to have more than 6:
Kevin Kiermeier in 2015 - 7.1, 99
Darin Erstad in 2002 - 6.3, 86
Devon White in 1992 - 6.2, 90
Pee Wee Reese in 1942 - 6.2, 98
We did a similar exercise a few months ago looking for the best seasons from guys with OBP below .300.
Andrelton Simmons in 2013 had 5.8 WAR with a 90 OPS+, two more years with over 4 WAR and under 100 OPS+.
Devon White, as noted above, had a bunch of good WAR seasons with sub-100 OPS+ and/or sub-.300 OBP.
Mark Belanger in 1976 had a career-best OPS+ of 100 (I don't know if it was rounded up or rounded down -- it might count!) and a career best 6.5 WAR.
A 10% increase in attempts in 2021 would have been a whopping 10 more attempts per team with give or take 7.5 more SBs. Obviously folks can apply their own standards of whether one more SB every 20 games or so constitutes "many more."
Even back in, say, 1977, a 10% increase in attempts would have been about 19 per team with about 12 successful.
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