Oct. 31, 2018

Mobile native Willie Lee McCovey (1938-2018) was a leader of the San Francisco Giants throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The first baseman amassed 521 home runs, was a six-time All-Star and Major League Baseball’s National League Most Valuable Player in 1969. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986 as a first-ballot selection. The seventh of 10 children, he fell in love with baseball listening to games on the radio. His success on Mobile playgrounds caught the attention of a New York Giants scout, who got McCovey a tryout in Florida in 1955. He made his major league debut in 1959 and played 22 seasons for the Giants. Beset by health problems after retiring, he died at Stanford, California.

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)

Baseball great Willie McCovey attends the 2012 World Series Champions Parade for his former team, the San Francisco Giants. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of Creative Commons; photo by Holly Hickman)

For more on Alabama’s bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.