Maury Wills: The Thief o’ Bags Dad 

He brought speed back to the game. Up until he was called up to replace Don Zimmer as the Dodgers SS, his career was one long, 9 years, minor league bus ride. He was a decent hitter, .276, with no power, 40 HR’s total in 9 seasons.

His stolen base percentage in the minors was excellent, 281 steals and only caught 13 times. He did not walk a lot, but he did not strike out much either. He wasn’t the best defender at SS, but he was more than adequate. He would earn two gold gloves in the majors.

Maurice Morning Wills, born in Washington D.C. on October 2, 1932. His father, Guy, worked in the D.C. Navy yard as a machinist and also was a part time minister. His mom, Mable, worked as an elevator operator.

He had 12 siblings, four brothers and eight sisters. They all lived together in the Anacostia neighborhood. Maury began playing organized baseball at 14 with a local semi-pro league. He starred in baseball, basketball and football at Cardozo High School in D.C. He earned all-city honors in all three sports his sophomore, junior and senior years.

As a baseball player, Wills pitched and played third base. He was the quarterback and safety on the football team and several colleges wanted him for his football skills.

He also married his high school sweetheart his senior year, Gertrude Elliot, they would have six children and later divorce.

But Wills loved baseball and decided to try for a pro career in that sport. Maury was signed by the Dodgers scouts, Rex Bowen and John Curry. He had hoped for a 6000 dollar bonus, but they offered a new suit of clothes. Negotiations continued, finally the scouts got up to leave, Bowen offered 500 dollars, take it or leave it.

After a few seconds, Maury’s father Guy said, we’ll take it. Maury reported to Hornell, of the Class-D PONY League in 1951. He hit .280 and stole 54 bases. He was promoted to Class-C, Santa Barbara of the California League for 1952, but he felt comfortable in NY and asked to stay another year. He stole 54 again and hit .300.

In 1953, He was promoted to Pueblo, the Dodgers Class-A team in the Western League, but also spent time at Class-B Miami. Combined he hit .286 in 111 games and had 28 steals.

He spent 54 in Pueblo and had a good season, .279 and 28 more steals. In 55, he was sent to AA Fort Worth, but he struggled badly and was sent back to Pueblo for 1956. His confidence had taken a hit with his .220 performance at Ft. Worth. But he rebounded in 56 and hit .302.

His contract was purchased by the Seattle Rainiers, a AAA team in the PCL, on a conditional basis. He hit .267 there in 57 and stole 21 bases. The Dodgers exercised their claim on the journeyman prospect and sent him to AAA Spokane in 1958.

His manager at Spokane was former big leaguer Bobby Bragan. Wills later said that Bragan was a mentor. He took a huge interest in me and made my baseball life worth living. He also encouraged the 25 year old Wills to switch hit. Left-handed hitters are closer to first base, so why not try it?

Wills hit .253 at Spokane and stole 25 bases. Seattle was part of the Reds organization, so on Maury’s transaction page, it shows he was sent back to the Dodgers before the 58 season in an unknown transaction. We do know that his purchase by Seattle was conditional and the condition was probably the Dodgers right to reclaim him.

The winter of 58 saw Maury sent to the Tigers in October on a conditional deal. He probably thought he was going to get a chance at a major league job with the Tigers. So Maury went to spring training as a Tiger.

Playing mostly in B games, he hit over .400 and stole 8 bases. But unfortunately, the Tigers had just traded for Rocky Bridges, and Wills was returned to the Dodgers and sent to Spokane again on April 2nd.

Wills was not despondent. He said that being in spring training with the Tigers with a chance to play in the majors was his best life experience up to that point.

This is not related to this story, but how would the Dodgers 59 championship run have been without Wills stepping in for Zimmer?

Maury went back to Spokane and was doing well, hitting .313. Bob Lillis had been the starting SS, but started off slowly, Zimmer took over but in June, he broke a toe. Bragan told the Dodgers that Wills was ready and he was called up.

Maury would start 70 games at short for the Dodgers and play 82 games at the position. His fielding pct was .960. He made 12 errors in 353 chances. But take that with a grain of salt as the fields were not as manicured as they are today, and the gloves were smaller.

Maury hit .260 with no homers and 7 driven in. He stole 7 and was caught 3 times. He would hit .250 with one steal in the World Series. Not a great debut, but considering who had been playing the position before he arrived, he was an improvement.

The Dodgers made Wills the de facto starting SS the following April when they traded Zimmer to the Cubs, bringing back 3 players, one a SS, John Goryl, and a pitcher, Ron Perranoski, who would impact Dodger teams in the future.

Wills started off slowly. Alston had started pinch hitting for him as early as the third inning. In frustration, he went to batting coach, Pete Reiser, and asked for help. Reiser told him to meet him at the coliseum early the next morning.

Under a blazing sun, the two men worked alone, with Reiser throwing pitch after pitch and telling Wills to hit it to the opposite field. At one point, Wills began to complain about the heat. Reiser replied” Would you rather take the heat here in L.A., or go back to the bus and wool shirt circuit?”

Wills kept working and they did it for two weeks straight. It did not happen right away as Reiser had told him, but then he began to hit, his BA climbed and he earned his starting job back. He finished with 50 steals, a .292 BA, and was 17th in the MVP voting.

He made 40 errors in 1960. He was also caught 12 times trying to steal. But the 60 Dodgers were not contenders. They finished in 4th place, 13 games behind.

Wills had another good season in 61, his BA dropped a little to .282. But he was named to both All-Star squads, MLB played two All-Star games in 61 and 62. He also hit his first career homer. He earned his first Gold Glove, even though he had 29 errors. And he was 9th in the MVP vote.

LA moved up to second, and finished four games back of eventual World Champion Pittsburgh. The Dodgers moved out of the coliseum to their new Dodger Stadium home for the 1962 season. There were now 10 teams in the NL with the expansion Mets and Astros joining the league, and the season expanded to 162 games.

The AL had expanded the year before with the addition of the new Angels franchise and the new Senators team taking over in DC for the team that went to Minnesota and became the Twins. Controversy over the new length of the season popped up when Roger Maris hit 61 homers to break Babe Ruth’s record, but the commissioner said that he had not broken the record in 154 games, so an asterisk was added.

But in LA, the Dodgers were happy to be in a real ballpark again. Led by Tommy Davis, who would win the first of two batting titles, Frank Howard, Wills, who would set a new stolen base record, and the pitching of Podres, Koufax and Drysdale, the Dodgers were in first place for much of the year.

In Dodger Stadium, chants of go go go would echo every time Wills got on base. And the steals kept piling up. It looked as though the Dodgers were going to cruise to the pennant.

Koufax had matched his 18 strikeout game with a similar performance against the Cubs on April 24th. He had his first no-hitter over the Mets in June, and he hit his first MLB homer off of Warren Spahn in June. And unbeknownst to most, he was doing all of this with an injured hand.

He had been jammed on a pitch in April. And his fingers would get numb. By July, his whole hand was getting numb. His index finger was cold and white. But since he was pitching so well, he ignored the problem.

But in a start in Cincinnati, his finger split wide open after one inning. A vascular specialist determined that he had crushed an artery. 10 days of treatment with an experimental medicine cleared up the problem and avoided the possibility of amputation.

He returned in September, but was rusty and ineffective, and the Giants caught LA forcing a playoff. We all know and remember what happened then.

With the season over, Wills finished with a .299 average, 104 steals and only caught 13 times. He had 208 hits and hit 6 homers. Fairly or unfairly, he won the NL MVP award over Willie Mays by 7 points. Mays had hit .304 with 49 homers and 141 driven in for the pennant winning Giants.

Wills Steals #104 Against The Giants

He also won his second Gold Glove, despite 36 errors, and was elected to both All-Star teams. For his efforts, the Dodgers gave him a 10,000 dollar raise to 45,000 dollars.

Off the field, Wills enjoyed playing his banjo. He also later wrote in his book that he and Doris Day had been dating. Day was a huge Dodger fan, and attended many games. Wills said they met there and began dating.

Well the problem was that both Day and Wills were married. The other problem was that Day was white and Wills, black. This was a problem in the early 60’s. Bavasi ordered Wills to stop seeing Day. Wills complied and kept on running during the season.

In reality, stealing all of those bases took a toll on Wills physically. His hamstrings burned from all the starting and stopping. His thighs and legs were bruised from what we used to call strawberries you would get when sliding into a base.

Wills would say later that the physical beating he took was something he did not want to endure again. He would hit .302 in 63 and steal 40 bases, but he was caught 19 times and only played in 133 games. But the Dodgers, a more pitching reliant team, with some new players, won the pennant behind Koufax and Drysdale and then swept the Yankees in four. Maury had a forgettable series hitting .133 with one bag and one run scored.

Maury regressed some in 64, although he did steal 53 bases and led the league for the fifth straight year. The Dodgers, with Koufax again sustaining an injury that curtailed his season, dropped to 6th place, 13 games back of the Cardinals.

Now 32 entering the 1965 season, Wills expected better things in 65. He got his wish. Koufax again led the charge, he won 26 games and struck out 382 batters. A mark that would stand until Nolan Ryan struck out 383. Drysdale won 23. The Dodgers overcame the loss of Tommy Davis and a huge power drop and won the pennant over the Giants by two games.

Maury had a very good season with a .286 average, 94 steals to lead the league for the sixth straight and last time in his career. He also scored 92 runs. In the World Series, he hit .367 against the Twins, he stole three, but was caught twice. Koufax was brilliant going 2-1 with a 0.38 ERA as the Dodgers prevailed in 7 games.

1966 was another pennant winning year for the Dodgers. But the pitchers and catchers were getting wise to Maury’s running ability. Wills himself admitted that strong armed catchers like Jerry Grote and Randy Hundley curtailed his running game with their accurate throws.

Maury hit .273, and he stole 38 bases, but he was caught 24 times. He never did walk a lot, but his OBP dropped to .308. Wills and the rest of the Dodgers had a terrible World Series and were swept by the Orioles.

Few knew at the time that it would be the last series as a Dodger for Wills or Koufax. Koufax retired in November, irking the Dodger front office who had asked him to postpone his announcement so they could trade for a replacement.

Walter O’Malley had arranged a goodwill trip to Japan. Several players asked permission to skip the trip including Wills. His legs ached and he wanted them to be checked by doctors in Los Angeles.

O’Malley told the SS he had to go. So Wills went. He played in a few games and then left without permission. But instead of going straight back to the mainland, he stopped in Hawaii and played a few shows with Don Ho and Sammy Davis Jr.

He said ” Right now I am here relaxing and I do not know when I will return to the mainland. He then added, rather brazenly, ” The Japanese trip was important to Mr. O’Malley, and I suppose he is bitter at me for leaving.”

That was an understatement. O’Malley was already fuming over Koufax announcing his retirement on the 18th of November, ordering Bavasi to ship Wills out of Los Angeles.

Quoting O’Malley,

” He not only embarrassed the Dodgers, he embarrassed the nation of Japan. On December 1st, following O’Malley’s orders, Bavasi traded Wills to the Pirates for third baseman Bob Bailey and SS, Gene Michael. Wills was stunned. ” I have been a Dodger all my life, I do not want to be traded.” 

Maury would play in Pittsburgh for two seasons. He hit .290 in those two seasons and stole 81 bases, including 50 or more for the fifth time in his career with 52 in 68.

After the 68 season, the NL expanded again adding Montreal and San Diego. Wills was the 11th pick by the expansion Expos. Wills did not like playing in Montreal and it showed. He played like he did not care. The owner, Steven Bronfman lit into the SS. Wills even retired from the team for a short time. But by June, fed up with him, the Expos traded him back to the Dodgers on June 11th along with outfielder Manny Mota for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich.

Dodgers GM Al Campanis had campaigned to bring back Wills. O’Malley wasn’t as sure. Maury was ecstatic. He heard the news while the Expos were in San Diego to play the Padres. He jumped in his car and drove to Los Angeles for that night’s game

Apparently all was forgiven. There was a note from O’Malley waiting for him in the clubhouse that read “Welcome Back Maury”. He was also welcomed back by Don Sutton.

” The minute he walked into the clubhouse, there was a different air in the room. We knew we had a guy who would take charge and bust his tail for us.”

Back in his comfort zone, Wills did not disappoint. He hit .297 in LA, and stole 25 more bases to give him 40 for the season.

The 69 team finished fourth, 8 games back, but had their first winning season since 66. In 70 the team finished 2nd, 14.5 games back, Maury hit .270 with 28 steals. But he was 38 now, and played in 132 games. When Maury did not start, it was prize prospect Billy Grabarkewitz who took his place. Grabby was the heir apparent.

In 71 the Dodgers finished second, one game behind the Giants. Dick Allen, Willie D., Sutton, Osteen, and Parker led the way. There was a young outfielder from Kansas who played in 91 games, Bill Russell. He was now the heir apparent as they traded Grabarkewitz to the Angels after the season in the Frank Robinson trade.

They held a Maury Wills day late in the season, and Wills told the crowd he did not plan on retiring. But in 1972, they basically paid him to sit on the bench. He played in only 71 games and hit a paltry .129. He got the news of his release that winter from a newsman while playing golf. He was shocked, he felt he could still play.

Instead, he took a job with NBC’s Game of the week. Wills final stat line was 1942 games, 7588 at bats, 1067 runs scored, 2134 hits, 177 doubles, 77 triples and 20 home runs. He drove in 458 and batted .281 for his career. He stole 586 bases and was caught 208 times.

His son Bump, broke into baseball with the Texas Rangers in 1977 playing six years in the majors. Maury let it be known that he wanted to manage in the majors. Buzzie Bavasi encouraged him to start in the minors. But in 1980, the Seattle Mariners thought he was ready.

They hired him to replace the fired Darrell Johnson in August. Seattle was mired in last place and had lost 20 of their last 24 games when Wills took over. He felt it would not take more than 10 days to see what he had to work with. But the losing continued.

It did not get any easier in 81. It was a bad team, he said. They did not play sound baseball. Wills was let go after a brutal 6-18 start. Many of his players were relieved. Several made their feelings known to the press including Richie Zisk who said the atmosphere in the clubhouse was depressing and something needed to change.

He was also chastised for some of his strange decisions. One time he called for a relief pitcher, but no one was warming up in the pen. On another occasion, he said Leon Roberts was his starting center fielder. The problem? Roberts had been traded a month earlier.

What compounded this was that Maury blamed his mistakes on others. Later he would reconsider Bavasi’s advice. I should have really started in the minors to learn how to organize and delegate authority.

But there was a deeper problem. Maury had descended into a life of drug and alcohol abuse. Sometimes he was high for as much as 10 days at a time. He spent over 1 million dollars on cocaine and he would lock himself into his room alone for months.

He was arrested by LAPD in December of 1983 for suspicion of car theft and cocaine possession. He went in and out of rehab several times. He would write in one of his books, I did not care if I died.

Former Dodgers, Tommy Davis, and Don Newcombe, along with Fred Claire, encouraged him to get sober. The Dodgers invited him to spring training in 2001 as a baserunning and bunting instructor. He would serve in that capacity for 15 years.

He also coached and served as a broadcast analyst for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, an independent team. The D.C. Sports Hall of Fame honored him in 2013 and a field in his hometown was named after him.

Wills said he was no longer worried about making it to baseball’s Hall of Fame. He had been on the ballot for 15 years and never received more than 40.6% of the vote. In 2014 he missed out making the hall on the ballot of the Golden Age committee which had replaced the old veterans committee.

As of 2018 he was living in Sedona Arizona. He was at peace after all the decades of turmoil which had plagued him. He told an LA Times reporter,

“Through my program of recovery, I have learned to be grateful for where I am, and I now have a wonderful life.”

Maury died on September 19th, 2022, at his home in Sedona, surrounded by family. He was 89. Dave Roberts remembered Maury as a friend and mentor. He taught him the art of base stealing until he was traded to the Red Sox in 2004.

On a personal note, I saw Maury play many times and the excitement in the ballpark was always high when he got on base. I also believe Maury belongs in the Hall of Fame. My reasons are simple. He revitalized the stolen base and made it once again a feared weapon. He inspired players like Lou Brock, Vince Colemand and Ricky Henderson to up their game.

But I also feel if a guy like Bill Mazeroski, who is in because of his glove and not his bat, and for winning one championship, Maury, who played on three championship teams, won an MVP award, and was the teams on field leader and spark plug, should be there too.