Maury Wills

Maurice Morning Wills

Bats Both, Throws Right
Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.
High School Cardozo High School
Debut June 6, 1959
Final Game October 4, 1972
Born October 2, 1932 in Washington, DC USA
Died September 19, 2022 in Sedona, AZ USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Maury Wills was a record setting 1960s-era shortstop who had a noteworthy 14-year big league career, mainly with the Los Angeles Dodgers. For six years running from 1960-1965 he led the National League in stolen bases. In 1962 he had a season for the ages, breaking Ty Cobb's seemingly invincible 47-year-old major league mark of 96 with a spectacular 104 swipes, enough to run off with the 1962 National League MVP Award.

When he retired his 586 steals were #10 on the all-time list, the most by anyone since 1929. So big an impact did Wills have on the game that the five-time All-Star got as high as 40% of the BBWAA vote for the Hall of Fame during his years of eligibility. This was matched in the 2007 Veterans Committee election, good for fifth on their ballot. He is the father of Bump Wills.

Early years[edit]

Wills was born in Washington, DC and went to high school there. He spent 1951-1958 and part of 1959 in the minors. Except for one year, he always hit at least .250, and three times broke .300. He pitched in two games, showing a good ERA. Mostly, though, he played second base, then third, and finally a lot at shortstop. However, Pee Wee Reese was the Dodgers' regular shortstop through 1956 and then Charlie Neal and Don Zimmer won the job in 1957-1959. Both Neal and Zimmer were two years older than Wills.

Majors[edit]

Wills had been signed in 1951 by the Brooklyn Dodgers but when he came up to the majors in 1959, they had moved to Los Angeles. He played in 83 games in the regular season, and then 6 more in the Dodgers' winning effort against the Chicago White Sox in the 1959 World Series.

He began his noteworthy base stealing efforts in 1960, when he hit .295 (10th in the NL) and stole 50 bases. In 1961, his batting average and stolen base count dropped, but he was named to the first of his All-Star games and also won his first Gold Glove at shortstop.

In 1962 he repeated both and bagged the MVP. During his incandescent 104 steal campaign he was only caught only 13 times, a fantastic 89% success rate over so many attempts.

In 1963 his stolen base production dropped off sharply, but he hit .302, placing in the top ten in the league. He rebounded some in 1964 but dropped to .275 before bouncing back strong with a prolific 94-steal 1965 season.

With Wes Parker (first base), Jim Lefebvre (second base) and Jim Gilliam (third base), Wills was part of perhaps baseball's first all switch-hitting infield.

Wills featured a strong arm from shortstop. He is also a rare example of a successful batter who became a switch-hitter relatively late in his long minor-league days. Although he hit just 20 home runs in his major league career, Wills would very occasionally try to muscle up and bat right-handed, his natural side, against a right-handed pitcher. He was a rarity, a banjo hitter who also played the instrument.

Wills appeared in four World Series with the Dodgers, in 1959, 1963, 1965 and 1966, topping out at .367 in a busy seven-game 1965.

After another downward-trending season in 1966 he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The NL Champion Dodgers plummeted to 8th in 1967 without Wills, who hit .302 for the Bucs, good for ninth in the league. The Pirates used him as a third baseman because they already had the outstanding fielding Gene Alley at short.

Wills was left unprotected by the Pirates in the 1969 expansion draft and selected by the Montreal Expos. He played shortstop and was the team's lead-off hitter in the Expos' first-ever game on April 8, 1969 at Shea Stadium in New York. He stole 15 bases for the Expos (a team record until Mike Jorgensen swiped 16 in 1973) before a June 12, 1969 trade brought him home to L.A. Wills finished up his career there from 1969 to 1972. He continued to hit for a good average for them in 1969-1971, but fell off sharply in his last season at age 39 when he lost his starting job early in the season to future longtime Dodger fixture Bill Russell.

Overall, Wills' batting averages were pretty high by second dead-ball era standards, a career .330 OBP revealing he didn't draw a lot of walks. It's an indication of how much the game has changed that this was not regarded as an issue at all for a base-stealing lead-off man in his days.

Manager and coach[edit]

After his playing days Wills became a baserunning guru, working for a number of teams, and managed in the winter leagues. He was hired by the Seattle Mariners to succeed Darrell Johnson as manager in 1980, but his stay at the helm was disastrous. Distracted by off-field problems, he led the Mariners to a lusterless 20-38 record to finish the 1980 season. With rumors of discontent running rife during spring training in 1981, he was picked by Sports Illustrated as the manager most-likely to be fired in its season-preview issue, and made that prediction a reality by leading the team to a 6-18 start that spelled the end of his tenure. The team improved noticeably under his successor, Rene Lachemann. Still, Wills was only the third African-American to manage in the major leagues, after Frank Robinson and Larry Doby.

Wills' 165-game 1962[edit]

When the 1962 season ended the San Francisco Giants and the Dodgers were tied with a 101-61 record. Under the rules of the day, they played a best-of-three playoff series. The series went all three games, with the Giants winning the pennant. Wills played in all 162 regular season games and the 3 tie-breaker games, which are counted as regular season games, much like today's one-game playoffs are counted as regular season contests.

To date, six players have played 164 games in a season but no one has tied Wills' 165-game mark.

Dodging an asterisk[edit]

In setting the mark for stolen bases in 1962, Wills avoided the "asterisk" controversy that surrounded Roger Maris when he hit 61 home runs in 1961 to top Babe Ruth's 60 in 1927, but with the schedule advantage of eight more games. Maris had 59 homers after the New York Yankees's 154th game.

Commissioner Ford Frick followed the precedent he set the prior year and ruled that Wills must steal his 97th base by the 156th game to break Ty Cobb's record of 96 in 1915. The number was 156 instead of the usual 154 because the Detroit Tigers tied the St. Louis Browns in two games that May. The games were replayed later, but the players' statistics from the tied games were counted.

In any event, Wills stole his 97th base in the Dodgers' 156th game, dodging an asterisk and sparing the game and its fans no small awkwardness.

Personal life[edit]

Wills was a sometimes stage performer, singing and accompanying himself on the ukulele. He got himself in trouble after the 1966 World Series, when he left an All-Star team touring Japan supposedly to get a knee injury looked after, but instead stopping in Hawaii to perform with famous Hawaiian singer Don Ho. General Manager Buzzie Bavasi was vacationing in Hawaii at the time and caught a performance of the act. He was livid, and Wills was traded to the Pirates shortly afterwards.

Wills was known for dating Hollywood actresses, not a rarity among baseball players in L.A., but in his case the interracial nature of these relationships raised a lot of hackles. He became a heavy drinker in the late 1960s, and fame got to his head. His stay in Montreal was cut short because he wanted to be treated like a superstar on the expansion team, with rules applying to others not applying to him. His extravagant dress and love of the limelight did not go down well on a team full of players fighting to justify their major leaguer status. His drinking was still not under control when he was named the Mariners manager, and his stay at the helm is generally considered disastrous as a result. It became worse in the following years, and was combined with consumption of cocaine, turning him into a paranoid recluse until he managed to lick the bad habits at the end of the 1980s.

After he straightened up, he famously became a mentor to Dave Roberts, both as a player and as a manager, as Roberts had the successful managerial career Wills had dreamt about, but could not achieve due to his own mistakes. He also dedicated himself to drug and alcohol education, trying to prevent others from making the mistakes he had made.

Wills passed away on September 19, 2022, only a couple of weeks shy of his 90th birthday.

Notable Achievements[edit]

5-time NL All-Star (1961-1963, 1965 & 1966)
NL MVP (1962)
1962 All-Star Game MVP
2-time NL Gold Glove Winner (1961 & 1962)
2-time NL At Bats Leader (1961 & 1962)
NL Triples Leader (1962)
6-time NL Stolen Bases Leader (1960-1965)
4-time NL Singles Leader (1961, 1962, 1965 & 1967)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 2 (1961 & 1962)
200 Hits Seasons: 1 (1962)
50 Stolen Bases Seasons: 5 (1960, 1962, 1964, 1965 & 1968)
100 Stolen Bases Seasons: 1 (1962)
Won three World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1959, 1963 & 1965)

NL MVP
1961	1962	1963
Frank Robinson	Maury Wills	Sandy Koufax

Preceded by
Darrell Johnson

Seattle Mariners Manager
1980-1981

Succeeded by
Rene Lachemann

Year-By-Year Managerial Record[edit]

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs	Notes
1980	Seattle Mariners	American League	20-38	7th	Seattle Mariners		replaced Darrell Johnson (39-65) on August 4
1981	Seattle Mariners	American League	6-18	--	Seattle Mariners		replaced by Rene Lachemann on May 6

Records Held[edit]

Games played, season, 165, 1962

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