On this day in Alabama history: Willie McCovey made Major League debut

July 30 feature
Willie McCovey attempts to tag Cincinnati Reds' shortstop Dave Concepcion out at first base, 1980. (Sheldon Dunn, Wikipedia)
July 30, 1959
Willie Lee McCovey, born in Mobile, was a Major League Baseball player with phenomenal hitting power. The San Francisco Giants mainstay was Rookie of the Year, a six-time All-Star, the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1969 and hit 521 home runs. At his Major League debut against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959, he hit two singles and two triples in his four at-bats. McCovey was a first-ballot selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Mobile native Willie McCovey (1938-2018) played five years of minor league ball before his Major League Baseball debut in 1959 with the San Francisco Giants. He earned the Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year award and went on to play 19 seasons for the Giants in a career that spanned 22 years. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Sports Hall of Fame)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.