Willie McCovey

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Willie McCovey

Personal Info
Birth	January 10, 1938, Mobile, Alabama
Professional Career
Debut	July 30, 1959, San Francisco Giants vs. Philadelphia Phillies, Seals Stadium
Team(s)	San Francisco Giants (1959-1974, 1977-1980) San Diego Padres (1974-1976) Oakland Athletics (1976)
HOF induction:	1986
Career Highlights
National League Rookie of the Year (1959) NL MVP Award (1969) 6-time All-Star (1963, 1966, 1968-71) MVP of All-Star Game (1969) 3-times led NL in home runs (1963, 1968-69) 2-times led NL in RBI (1968-69) 3-times led NL in slugging average (1968-70) 3-times led NL in OPS (1968-70) 4-times led NL in Intentional Walks (1969-70, 1971 and 1973) 5-times led NL in At Bats per Home Run (1963, 1967-70) 18 grand slams in his career (ranking fourth to Lou Gehrig's 23, Manny Ramirez's 20 and Eddie Murray's 19 and tied with Robin Ventura's 18. 3-times named Player of the Month.

Willie Lee McCovey (born January 10, 1938 in Mobile, Alabama), nicknamed "Big Mac" and "Stretch", is a former slugger and first baseman who played Major League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics between 1959 and 1980. He batted and threw left handed.

In his first game as a Major Leaguer on July 30, 1959, he went 4-for-4 against Hall Of Famer Robin Roberts en route to a .354 batting average that year, in which he won National League Rookie of the Year Honors while playing in just 52 games. Three years later, the Giants were in the World Series against the New York Yankees. In the bottom of the 9th of Game 7 with 2 outs, Willie Mays on second and Matty Alou on third, and the Giants trailing 1-0, McCovey slapped a hard liner that was caught by the Yankees' second baseman Bobby Richardson. That would turn out to be the closest McCovey would get to playing on a world championship team.

McCovey's best year statistically was 1969 when he hit 45 Home Runs, knocked in 126 RBIs and batted .320 to become the NL MVP.

In 1974, McCovey was traded to the San Diego Padres and without him the Giants fortunes declined. But after three mediocre seasons as a Padre, and appearing in 11 games for the Oakland Athletics at the end of the 1976 season, he returned in 1977 to the Giants. That year, during a June 27 game against the Cincinnati Reds, he became the first player to hit 2 home runs in 1 inning twice in his career (the first was on April 12, 1973). One was a grand slam and he became the first National Leaguer to hit seventeen. At age 39, he had 28 home runs and 86 Runs Batted In and was named the Major League Baseball Comeback Player Of The Year.

On June 30, 1978, at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, McCovey hit his 500th home run, and 2 years later, on May 3 at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, his 521st and last home run.

In his 22-year career (19 with the Giants), McCovey batted .270, with 521 home runs and 1555 RBI, 1229 runs scored, 2211 hits, 353 doubles, 46 triples, a .374 on base percentage and a .515 slugging average.

Willie McCovey is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

McCovey was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986, his first year of eligibility. In 1999, he ranked Number 56 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. McCovey Cove behind the outfield wall of the Giants' AT&T Park was named after him. The Giants retired his uniform number 44, which he wore in honor of Hank Aaron, a fellow Mobile, Alabama native.

In September 2003, McCovey and a business partner opened McCovey's Restaurant, a baseball-themed sports bar and restaurant, located in Walnut Creek, California.

[edit] See also

• MLB players who have hit 30 or more home runs before the All-Star break
• 500 home run club
• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• McCovey Cove
• Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame

[edit] Trivia

• McCovey wasn't the first player to triple against Robin Roberts in his major league debut. Curt Roberts, the first black player in Pittsburgh Pirates history, did it five years earlier. {Forbes Field -- April 13, 1954}
• Shortly after the 1962 World Series ended, Peanuts cartoonist and Giants fan Charles M. Schulz drew a comic strip with Charlie Brown sitting glumly with Linus, lamenting in the last panel, "Why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball just three feet higher?" Later, he drew an identical strip, except in the last panel Charlie moaned, "Or why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball just two feet higher?"
• In Street and Smith's Baseball Magazine in the 1960s is a picture of Willie McCovey, fielding a ball in the outfield. Standing nearby is teammate Willie Mays, yelping in pain as McCovey steps on his foot.

[edit] External links

• Baseball Hall of Fame
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• Baseball Almanac
• Baseball Library
• McCovey's Restaurant
• McCovey rated among the Top 10 Leftie Homerun Hitters
• The Sporting News' Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments: McCovey Lines Out

Preceded by Don Drysdale	Major League Player of the Month August 1959 (with Vern Law)	Succeeded by Eddie Mathews
Preceded by Orlando Cepeda	National League Rookie of the Year 1959	Succeeded by Frank Howard
Preceded by Ron Santo	Major League Player of the Month July 1963	Succeeded by Willie Mays
Preceded by Willie Mays	National League Home Run Champion 1963 (with Hank Aaron)	Succeeded by Willie Mays
Preceded by Hank Aaron	National League Home Run Champion 1968–1969	Succeeded by Johnny Bench
Preceded by Orlando Cepeda	National League RBI Champion 1968-1969	Succeeded by Johnny Bench
Preceded by Steve Blass	Major League Player of the Month April 1969	Succeeded by Ken Holtzman
Preceded by Bob Gibson	National League Most Valuable Player 1969	Succeeded by Johnny Bench
Preceded by Willie Mays	Major League Baseball All-Star Game Most Valuable Player 1969	Succeeded by Carl Yastrzemski
Preceded by Tommy John	NL Comeback Player of the Year 1977	Succeeded by Willie Stargell