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RIP Willie McCovey

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by 2muchcoffeeman, Oct 31, 2018.

  1. maumann

    maumann Well-Known Member

    I came of baseball age in Redlands, where you either were a Dodgers fan or kept your mouth shut (although the Angels with Fregosi, Knoop, Reichardt and Johnstone were getting some support by then). I got a Jim Lefebvre glove for my eighth birthday -- and didn't even know who he was or how to pronounce his name. Maury Wills? Willie Davis? All I knew was their rotation was Koufax, Drysdale, Claude Osteen (my grandfather's first name) and a young Don Sutton.

    However, Gene Autry broadcast most of the Angels spring training games from Palm Springs, and I got to see a ton of the Casa Grande-based Giants. (Remember, the Dodgers were still in Vero Beach in March). So I turned to the Dark Side. When tossing the ball in the backyard, I imagined I was Hal Lanier or Jim Ray Hart, scooping up hot shots and making the turn at second where McCovey would stretch to nip Wills by a step. It didn't hurt that our Sages Markets uniforms were orange and black that year.

    Sadly, by the time I finally got to a game at Candlestick Park in 1973, the Giants were the June-swoon, Charlie Fox-led shells of their glory days. Johnnie Fricking LeMaster, fur chrissakes!

    About that time, someone swiped my Jim Lefebrve glove, so I replaced it with a Joe Rudi model, which I still have in my basement office, even though I've carried four decades of hatred of all things Green and Gold and Charley O.
     
  2. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    Damn, I’ll miss you Stretch. Willie Mac was the most imposing lefty in MLB when I was a kid; I idolized Willie 24 but also admired Stretch.
     
    HanSenSE likes this.
  3. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Funny how the 60s were dominated by right handed batters as much as they were. Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Killebrew, Cepeda, Allen. Mantle and Rose were switchers. Leaves McCovey. Yaz and Oliva.
     
    misterbc likes this.
  4. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Giants held a Celebration of Life for Willie on Thursday. It was posted on YouTube and thought I'd share the link here. You can skip through the slide show for the first 16 minutes, and the sound cuts out for the final five minutes or so (how do you do that to Tony Bennett?), but it captures the spirit of the thing. And thank goodness they didn't cut off Mike Krukow.

     
  5. misterbc

    misterbc Well-Known Member

    Not to mention Frank Robinson. I agree with your premise that there were mostly right handed pitchers in the era yet the big hr. and rbi guys were right handed hitters. Most of the top relievers were righties, too. Not that they were used as they are now.....just amazing how many CG were pitched in that era.
     
  6. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    You can look it up. It wasn't until the late '80s that CGs went down. Not so very long ago.
     
  7. misterbc

    misterbc Well-Known Member

    CG numbers are far lower in 80s vs. 60s. There is a drop off in the late 80s but Perry, Koufax, Jenkins, Marichal, Drysdale, Tiant, Gibson, Lolich et al are among all time modern era (say post early 60s expansion) leaders and were better than 50/50 to throw a CG every time out.
     
  8. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    I'd add Frank Howard, Al Kaline, and pre-beaning Tony C to that list of righties. Tony Horton too, had he been able to stay healthy; he was a budding star.

    Roger Maris from 1960-65, Norm Cash and Vada Pinson throughout that decade were pretty effective lefties, but on the whole you are spot-on.

    Vada Pinson was an outstanding player who is often overlooked. Definitely a first-rounder for the Hall of Awfully Good.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2018
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