McCovey’s Last Bomb

Sometimes you witness history and don’t even know it. That was the case for the 18,622 people in attendance for the Giants/Expos game in Montreal on May 3rd, 1980. At the time, Willie McCovey was in the twilight of what would become a Hall of Fame career.

McCovey was born on January 10^th, 1938 in Mobile Alabama, which has produced its share of great baseball talent, including Satchel Paige, Henry Aaron, and Ozzie Smith among others. One of the most feared sluggers of his era, McCovey’s name fits comfortably among those of his fellow Mobile natives. How good was the man they called “Stretch?” None other than Bob Gibson once called him the scariest hitter in baseball.

After batting .372 with 29 homers in 95 games for the 1959 Phoenix Giants of the AAA Pacific Coast League, McCovey got the call to the big leagues and made his debut on July 30^th. While many rookies are eased into the lineup, Giants skipper Bill Rigney threw McCovey right into the fire, batting him 3^rd in the order between Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda. Unfazed, he went 4-4 with two triples against Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts and the Philadelphia Phillies. Three days later, he hit his first career home run off of Pirates pitcher Johnny Antonelli. McCovey would finish the 1959 season with a .352 batting average and 13 homers in just 52 games en route to winning Rookie of the Year honors. No position player has ever won Rookie of the Year honors while playing in fewer games.

Willie McCovey spent 15 seasons with the Giants before being dealt to the San Diego Padres in October of 1973. There, he teamed with a young outfielder named Dave Winfield and  they became fast friends. On one occasion, McCovey was hitting and noticed the opposition was playing him deep. He took a huge cut on the first swing and then laid down a bunt for a single on the next pitch. He later told Winfield he did it so Winny could knock him in, which he did. “I learned as much about strategy in the one moment as I had in the twenty-one years preceding it,” Winfield said in his autobiography.

Stretch spent two and a half years in San Diego and played 11 games for the Oakland A’s before returning to the Giants in 1977 where he won the comeback player of the year award, batting .280 with 28 homers.

In the 4^th inning of the Giants game on May 3rd, 1980 against Montreal, McCovey homered off of Scott Sanderson to give San Francisco a 1-0 lead. The shot was the 521^st and final of his career and moved him into a tie with Ted Williams on the all-time home run list. He also joined Williams as the only players at that point to homer in four different decades. He retired mid-season and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1986 along with Ernie Lombardi and Bobby Doerr.