When Jackie Robinson re-integrated baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he changed how the game was played, not just by whom: He brought the stolen base back as a weapon. But it would be a Los Angeles Dodger who raised the bar on that: Maury Wills.
Maurice Morning Wills was born on October 2, 1932 in Washington, D.C. He attended Cardozo High School there, to be followed a few years later by singer Marvin Gaye. In 1948, he quarterbacked their football team to an undefeated, untied, and un-scored-upon season. In 1950, he pitched a one-hitter and struck out 17 batters in the same game. He was named All-City in baseball, football and basketball.
After graduating, he signed with the Dodgers, but it took until 1959, by which point they had moved to Los Angeles, for him to make the major leagues. The key was learning how to switch-hit: A natural righthander, Wills was reminded that, with his speed, having one less step to 1st base as a lefthanded hitter would make him a better hitter.
His debut came on June 3, 1959, at Milwaukee County Stadium. He batted 8th, played shortstop, and wore the Number 30 he would wear throughout his career. He went 0-for-4 against Bob Rush of the Milwaukee Braves. Sandy Koufax pitched for the Dodgers, and he hadn't yet become a star, either, and the Braves won, 3-2.
Wills played 82 games in the 1959 season, and was on the roster when the Dodgers won the World Series. In 1960, he became the Dodgers' starting shortstop, and led the National League in stolen bases with 50. In 1961, he won the 1st of back-to-back Gold Gloves.
But nothing prepared anyone for the performance Wills put on in 1962. At age 29, he put together one of the most spectacular seasons baseball had ever seen. He batted .299, hit 6 home runs, and had 48 RBIs, typical for a leadoff hitter at the time. What was not typical is that he stole 104 bases, a new major league record, and was caught stealing only 13 times.
As with Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox on the Chicago White Sox in their Pennant-winning season of 1959, before losing the World Series to the Dodgers, fans would chant, "Go! Go! Go!" when Wills was on base, expecting him to steal. Danny Kaye, the entertainment legend who moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (or, more accurately, from Broadway to Hollywood) years before the Dodgers did, recorded a novelty song about the Dodgers, a reworking of "Ragg Mopp" in which Wills featured -- but was, perhaps incorrectly, called out.
At 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, he was built not only like most middle infielders of the era, but seemingly just the right way for stealing bases. "Stealing is a matter of confidence, even conceit," he told The New York Times that September. "It's more than getting a good jump, a big lead. It's being in the right frame of mind. I run with the thought that the pitcher will make a perfect throw, and the catcher will make a perfect throw, and I'll still beat them. I don't have a doubt."
Wills posing with 97 bases, symbolic of the new record
The previous major league record had been 96, by Ty Cobb in 1915. Wills broke that record on September 23, in a 12-2 Dodger loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.
It was the Dodgers' 156th game of the season, the 1st with the expanded National League, and thus going from 154 games to 162, so, as with Roger Maris and his 61 home runs the year before, there would be 2 records in the book, Wills' 104 and Cobb's 96, until Lou Brock got his 97th in his 126th game, his 104th and 105th in his 134th, and his 118th and last in his 152nd. In 1982, Rickey Henderson would break all records, stealing 130.
Because the Dodgers finished in a tie for 1st place with the San Francisco Giants, a 3-game Playoff was required under the rules of the time. This enabled Wills to play in 1965 regular-season games, a record that has never been broken. Due to being traded to a team that had played fewer games, there are 4 players who have played in 164, but never again 165.
Wills also led the NL in plate appearances with 795, at-bats with 695, and triples with 10. Wills was named the NL's Most Valuable Player, despite his teammate Tommy Davis having a better season, Willie Mays of the Pennant-winning Giants having a better season, and Frank Robinson of the Cincinnati Reds, the previous season's MVP, having an even better season statistically than he had the year before.
How popular was Wills with Dodger fans? California was electing a Governor, the choices being the Democratic incumbent, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown and the Republican former Vice President Richard Nixon. James Reston, Washington columnist for The New York Times, wrote, "If, after the season, Maury Wills were to run for governor, neither Brown nor Nixon would have a chance."
(Brown won in a landslide, leading Nixon to blame the media for his loss, saying, "Just think how much fun you'll be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." It wasn't the first promise Nixon broke, and it wouldn't be the last.")
Wills stole "only" 40 bases in 1963, but he batted .302, his 1st time over .300, and, this time, the Dodgers went all the way, and so he got his 2nd World Series ring. He got a 3rd in 1965, in which he stole 94, at that point 2nd in NL history behind his own 104 in '62. It would be the 6th straight season in which he led the NL in stolen bases.
It would also be the last time he led the NL, despite stealing 52 in 1968 and 40 in 1969. The Dodgers won the Pennant again in 1966, with Wills making the All-Star Game for the 5th and last time, but lost the World Series.
After the 1966 season, the Dodgers traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Bob Bailey and Gene Michael. (Yes, Yankee Fans, the Stick himself.) After 2 years with the Bucs, he was taken by the Montreal Expos in the expansion draft, but was traded back to the Dodgers the following June, with Manny Mota, for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich. He batted .281 as late as 1971, turning 39 by the end of the season. But he struggled in 1972, was replaced as the starting shortstop by Bill Russell, and was released on October 24 -- the day Jackie Robinson died.
He finished his career with a .281 batting average, 2,134 hits, and 586 stolen bases. At the time, the total ranked 10th in baseball history, 5th among players who had played all or most of their career in the 20th Century, and far and away the most of anyone whose career began after 1910. He now ranks 20th all-time.
For the next 5 seasons, he was a broadcaster for NBC. But he really wanted to be a manager. He had won a Pennant in the Mexican Pacific League in the Winter of 1970-71. When Frank Robinson was named manager of the Cleveland Indians for the 1975 season, making him the 1st black manager in the major leagues, Wills thought he had a chance, and wrote a book touting himself as manager, titled How to Steal a Pennant. He wrote, "Give me a last-place club, and after three years we would be strongly in contention, and by the fourth year we'd go all the way."
After Larry Doby became the 2nd black manager in MLB, with the 1978 Chicago White Sox, Wills was named the 3rd, by the Seattle Mariners, on August 4, 1980. They were an expansion team in their 4th year, and they were terrible, going 20-38 under his tutelage. In mid-September, they had a 6-game winning streak, but this was immediately followed by an 8-game losing streak.
Things would get worse in 1981. Wills hired ex-teammate Tommy Davis as hitting instructor. He also told the media that he had great hopes for his new center fielder, Leon Roberts. He had forgotten that Roberts had been traded a few days earlier. He once made out a lineup card that had 2 3rd basemen and no center fielder. He once signaled to the bullpen for a relief pitcher, without having ordered one to get warmed up. He once held a game up for 10 minutes while looking for a pinch-hitter.
On April 25, the Oakland Athletics had come to the Kingdome, and their manager, Billy Martin, noticed that the batter's box looked too long. He talked to home plate umpire Bill Kunkel, who had it measured. Sure enough, it was one foot longer than the rules allowed. Kunkel talked to the head groundskeeper, who admitted it, saying that Wills had ordered it, because the A's had several pitchers who specialized in curveballs and sliders, and that this would give them an advantage. Kunkel ordered the box relined to specifications, and Wills was suspended for 2 games and fined $500.
On May 6, with the Mariners are 6-18, Wills was fired. In his 1992 memoir On the Run: The Never Dull and Often Shocking Life of Maury Wills, he admitted, "Contrary to what I thought, I really needed managing experience below the major league level, to learn how to organize, how to delegate responsibility, and how to deal with the press." He also admitted that he then had a crazy girlfriend, who was demanding attention that he might have been able to give to baseball. He also admitted that he had developed serious addictions to alcohol and cocaine.
It was another Dodger legend, Don Newcombe, whose experience with recovery from alcohol led him to point Wills in the same direction. Wills said, "He was a channel for God's love for me, because he chased me all over Los Angeles trying to help me, and I just couldn't understand that. But he persevered, he wouldn't give in and my life is wonderful today because of Don Newcombe."
Maury's son, Elliott Taylor "Bump" Wills, was also a switch-hitter who reached the major leagues, a 2nd baseman with the Texas Rangers from 1977 to 1981, the Chicago Cubs in 1982, and the Hankyu Braves of Nishinomiya, Japan in 1983 and '84. In the American majors, he batted .266, and stole 196 bases.
Maury and Bump at the Kingdome, 1980
Bump was 1 of 6 children Maury had, all from his 1st marriage, to Gertrude Elliott, the others being son Barry, and daughters Mauricia, Anita, Wendi and Susan. He lived to see 7 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Between getting clean and writing his lurid memoir, he married a woman named Carla, who survives him.
In 1993, Wills played himself as the Dodger 3rd base coach in the "present" section of the film The Sandlot, most of which takes place in 1962, the year of his 104 steals. He also served as a member of the Dodgers Legends Bureau, a team ambassador role.
Current Dodger manager Dave Roberts
and Maury Wills, both wearing Number 30
In 1996 and 1997, Maury was a coach for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, who have operated in various independent leagues. From 1998 to 2017, he was a broadcaster for them. Over that stretch, their ballpark, Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo, North Dakota, housed the Maury Wills Museum. When Wills retired as a broadcaster, the museum was closed down, and he took his memorabilia back to his home in Sedona, Arizona. Roger Maris had grown up in Fargo, and a museum honoring him is still there, in the West Acres Mall.
Maury Wills died yesterday, September 19, 2022, at his home in Sedona. He was 13 days short of his 90th birthday. He has never been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite his achievements and influence in baserunning. He has his supporters, but not enough of them on the voting committees. Perhaps now, at the next available meeting, they will reconsider his role in the game's history.