RIP Willie McCovey

[Michael_ Gee]

Mays is the 3rd-oldest living Hall of Famer, after Tommy Lasorda (91) and Whitey Ford (90).

Hank Aaron will be 85 in February.

Well, I think it's time for me to get off the board and watch Matlock now.

 

[User 149557]

Well, I think it's time for me to get off the board and watch Matlock now.

Wanna feel older? There an online explainer about what Matlock was so that young people watching old Simpsons episodes can get the Matlock jokes.

 

[User 149557]

I appreciated a lot of the stuff written about McCovey the last couple days, because I had no concept of him as a player. I knew he was great, but he was overshadowed by Mays and so many others of his generation. He was the guy who hit a lot of home runs and had a cove named after him for someone my age.

Posnanski is still great for these sorts of things.

Baseball 89: Willie McCovey - Joe Posnanski

And he linked to a Ray Ratto piece that was great, too.

Ratto: McCovey was baseball's last word-of-mouth superstar

 

[ChrisLong]

If you grew up as a Dodgers fan, you hated McCovey ... the ultimate sign of respect.
RIP to a great one.

 

[maumann]

If you grew up as a Dodgers fan, you hated McCovey ... the ultimate sign of respect.
RIP to a great one.

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.

 

[qtlaw]

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.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

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.

 

[HanSenSE]

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.

 

[misterbc]

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.

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.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

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.

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

 

[misterbc]

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

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.

 

[micropolitan guy]

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.

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.