Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — We’ve lost another Dodger great this summer. Former Dodger Maury Wills, who was recently honored at Dodger Stadium with his own bobblehead night, has passed away at his home in Arizona. He was 89 years old.
Wills spent the better part of a decade in the minor before joining the Dodgers, but when he arrived, he almost single-handedly changed the direction of the game. With Wills in the lineup, speed became a weapon in baseball again, and Wills stolen base totals set the bar for the likes of Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson in the years that would follow.
Manager Dave Roberts, who as the Dodgers manager wears No. 30 as a salute to Wills, was full of emotion as he spoke about his former coach and mentor before Tuesday’s game with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“He just loved the game of baseball, loved working and loved the relationship with players,” Roberts told the LA Times. “We spent a lot of time together. He showed me how to appreciate my craft and what it is to be a big leaguer. He just loved to teach. So I think a lot of where I get my excitement, my passion and my love for the players is from Maury.”
Wills was the sparkplug for the Dodgers of the 1960s, leading the National League in steals six times, earning two gold gloves for his fielding and beating out the likes of Willie Mays for the league’s Most Valuable Player award in ’62, when he shocked the baseball world by setting a record with an at-the-time unheard of 104 stolen bases, surpassing the 47-year-old mark of 96 by the legendary Ty Cobb.
Batting leadoff, he hit .299 that season, gathering in 208 hits, all but 29 of them singles. But with Wills at first, a single turned quickly into a double. At the just-opened Dodger Stadium, chants of “Go! Go! Go!” filled the air and Wills would burst into stealing mode, swiping base after base after base that summer.
In his later years he was a coach and advisor for the team, and it was in that capacity he would have a profound influence on the young Dave Roberts during Roberts’ tenure with the Dodgers.
Roberts said he “probably” wouldn’t be managing the Dodgers if not for Wills and his influence on him.
Though he would have struggles with drugs and alcohol after his playing days were over, the main who ran fast and lived faster, spent his final days with his family in Arizona, a man content with his place on the baseball landscape.
“I’m feeling free,” he told the LA Times in 2008. “Totally free. No ill feelings, no resentments. … Peace.”
He is survived by his wife, Carla, and six children — Barry Wills, Micki Wills, Bump Wills, Anita Wills, Susan Quam and Wendi Jo Wills.
