Willie McCovey
Willie McCovey
Willie Lee McCovey, nicknamed "Mac", "Big Mac", and "Stretch", is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. He played nineteen seasons for the San Francisco Giants, and three more for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics, between 1959 and 1980. He batted and threw left-handed and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth10 January 1938
CityMobile, AL
CountryUnited States of America
I've always had a connection here in the city from the first day I arrived. I stayed in the city. I made San Francisco my home. I was seen in the offseason at a lot of different functions, and people liked that.
I had talked for years about doing a restaurant with Rocky Dudum, who's been my friend since I first came to San Francisco. Then Rocky's son, Jeff, said he wanted to design it, so he traveled around the country to sports restaurants like Mickey Mantle's and Michael Jordan's, and he came up with a great concept.
In my first year, when I was driving in runs, winning games and making headlines, there was an old man who came to games at Seals Stadium, and one day he called me over, introduced himself and told me not to believe anything written about me or think too much of all the accolades.
It doesn't seem like it's been 50 years. I don't even feel like I'm 50 years old yet, though I've had all these knee and back operations.
I was doing what I love to do: play baseball. Not going to complain about that.
I had pain in both knees my whole career. Not many athletes play pain-free. Mine was just more than normal.
Even during my career, when I read all those great things about me, it's almost like I was reading about someone else. It's almost like there was another person.
I loved coming up with players in scoring position and I had to drive them in.
I could run like a gazelle, couldn't I?
Ballplayers, like everyone else, like to get told they did something right.
I enjoyed hitting in the Major Leagues more than in the Minor Leagues. I didn't want to tell anybody it was easier, because I didn't want to sound cocky. But Major League pitchers had better control, and most of them were around the plate.