Next up in my 1971 "Minor League Days" thread is "Stretch" Willie McCovey, who was terrorizing Minor League pitching while playing for the Phoenix Giants before getting the call up to the Majors in 1959:
McCovey was tearing the cover off the ball while at Triple-A, hitting .372 with 29 homers and 92 runs batted in over just 95 games, posting a ridiculous .759 slugging percentage while scoring 84 runs as a 21-year-old.
When he got called up later that year, all he did was continue to tear the seams
off the ball by hitting .354 with 13 homers and 38 runs batted in along
with 32 runs scored in only 52 games, copping a Rookie of the Year
Award and setting the tone for his 22-year career.
By the time he retired in 1980, he crushed 521 home runs, collected
over 2000 hits, drove in over 1500, and left his mark as one of the
most feared sluggers of his generation.
In 1986, his first year of eligibility, he was voted into the Hall of Fame with 81.4% of the ballots cast.
Man, what a threesome McCovey, Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda made back in the 1960's for San Francisco, huh?Just incredible.
