On July 30th, 1959, future Hall-of-Famer Willie McCovey had four hits in four at-bats in his Major League debut with the San Francisco Giants. He had two triples in a 7-2 win over Philadelphia.

When I think of Willie McCovey, I always think of my father. When I was a kid and I would say something like, “Reggie Jackson’s great.” My dad’s response would always be “He is no Willie McCovey.” It became a standard joke with my brother Paul and my cousins.

I have mentioned here before at ClimbingSky that my parents moved to the Bay Area in 1957 after they got married in Eastern Washington. That meant they arrived in Northern California at the same time the Giants arrived from New York. Hence, both my parents were big San Francisco Giants fans. Obviously McCovey was my dad’s favorite.

Willie McCovey could hit. He finished his 22-year, Hall of Fame career in 1980 with 521 homers. He was National League Rookie of the Year in 1959 and was a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. Here is the link to his Baseball Reference page.

I will end with a quote that I’m sure my dad would have liked:

“This is the question I posed to Willie McCovey: You’re the manager of the other team in a tie game with two outs and nobody on in the ninth. The batter is Willie McCovey, now… before I could finish, Willie broke in, ‘I’d walk him.’ Then he laughed. It’s really no laughing matter to the San Francisco Giants’ slugging first baseman, however. Because a lot of other managers would do the same thing.” –
(Markus, Robert. Sportswriter. Baseball Digest: Willie McCovey – Baseball’s Most Feared Batter. June 1971. Page 32.)