Blast From The Past: Willie McCovey 1959

Here's a fun fact:  The Giants signed Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda at the same tryout camp in  1954.  Cepeda made the Majors first in 1958 and immediately had a huge season winning ROY and contending for MVP.  Both players were first basemen which left Willie Mac blocked from here to there.  McCovey forced the issue the following season by destroying the PCL with a .372 BA with 29 HR in just 95 games.  The Giants brought him up on July 30 and tried to find another position for Cepeda because he still had better wheels than Mac who battled foot and knee issues almost from the beginning of his pro career.

The Giants were facing the Phillies in Seals Stadium on July 30 with their ace, Robin Roberts, on the mound.  The Giants 2,3 and 4 hitters in the lineup were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. Wow!  McCovey played 1B and Cepeda started at 3B.  Willie Mac got the Giants only hit of the first inning, a single to RF with 2 outs.  Mac came up again in the 3'rd inning with 2 outs and Ed Bressoud at 3B and Mays at first.  Mays stole 2B drawing an overthrow that allowed Bressoud to score but Mays got thrown out at 3B trying to advance on the error, leaving Wille Mac to lead off the 4'th inning.

Willie McCovey led off the 4'th inning with a triple to CF.  He later scored on a Fielder's Choice error to make the score 2-0.  After the Phillies evened the score in the top of the 5'th inning, the Giants struck back with 3 runs in the bottom of the inning which included RBI singles by both Willie Mays and McCovey who also scored on a wild pitch after moving to 3B on a single by Cepeda.

Willie Mays led off the 7'th inning with a double and advanced to 3B on a passed ball.  McCovey followed with his second triple of the game to drive in Mays and later scored on a single by Daryl Spencer.  Willie Mac missed out on a chance for a 5 for 5 when Mays made the final out of bottom of the 8'th inning.  The Giants won the game 7-2 behind Mike McCormick.  Willie McCovey's final line was 4 for 4, 2 3B, 3 Runs 2 RBI's.  Now THAT is how you announce yourself to the major leagues!

The Giants were 0.5 games out of first place but coming off a 4-game losing streak.  McCovey continued to tear the cover off the ball getting a hit in each of his first 7 games while batting .467.  He later started a 22 game hit streak on August 17.  The Giants led the NL by 2 games with 8 to play, but lost 7 of those 8 to finish in third place, 4 games behind the Dodgers who would go on to beat the White Sox in the World Series.  McCovey finished the season with a BA of .354 and 13 HR's while winning Rookie of the Year after Orlando Cepeda won the same award the previous season.

Willie McCovey had to struggle for playing time over the next 3 seasons as Cepeda understandably thought he deserved first dibs on the regular 1B job.  Mac did not help himself by struggling against lefthanded pitchers and found himself mostly platooning and occasionally playing out of position in LF.  Still, he hit 51 HR's in 943 PA over those three seasons.  In the category of What Might Have Been, Mac could easily have hit another 50 HR's had he played full time those three seasons.  When he was finally given 627 PA in 1963, he crushed 44 HR's to equal the number on his jersey.  With Orlando Cepeda injured most of 1965 and traded early in 1966, Willie McCovey finally became the undisputed starting first baseman for the Giants and reeled off 6 consecutive seasons with more than 30 HR's including 45 and an MVP in 1969.  His 4 hit game with 2 triples in his MLB debut remains one of the more remembered parts of San Francisco Giants lore among longtime Giants fans.