Every Dodger fan who has not been living under a rock knows who Maury Wills was. He was undersized but bigger than life. He was not a great hitter, but he won the MVP. He revolutionalized the running game while remaining immensely popular. Maury debuted in 1959, but 1960 was his first full season when he hit .295 and stole 50 bases. The next year (1961), he hit .282 and stole 35 bases. That really gave no indication of what was to come because in 1962, he hit .299 and stole 104 bases (he was caught 15 times), and scored 130 runs. That earned him the NL MVP! That would prove to be his greatest year.
Maury played 14 seasons… 12 with the LA Dodgers and two for the Pirates, His career Batting Average was .281 with a .330 OB%. He led the league in stolen bases in six consecutive seasons, won two Gold Gloves at shortstop, and still holds the club record with 490 stolen bases. His career OPS was .661, but of course, the game has changed in that regard. Maury Will’s Career WAR was 39.6. Bill Mazeroski got into the Hall with a 36.5 WAR based upon one World Series and great defense. Maury revolutionalized the running game and brought excitement to the game that was missing. He also fell into the abyss of drug use and somehow pulled himself out of pure oblivion. You can’t write about the good and ignore the bad. Maury Wills should be in the Hall of Fame, but there was a time when he was in the Hall of Shame. From Maury’s lips:
“I’m a recovering addict. I don’t say that with pride or in shame. It’s just something that happened to my life.”
In his 1976 book, How to Steal a Pennant, he predicted that he could turn a last-place club into a pennant contender in three years. “Give me a last-place club, and by the fourth year, we’d go all the way. Give me a club that finished in the middle of the division standings, and–I’ll state it flatly–we win it all within three years. I’ll guarantee pennants.” Well, the Seattle Mariners took him up on it, and it was an absolute disaster.
At the time of his hiring, Wills became only the second black manager in baseball history, behind only Cleveland’s Frank Robinson. This is the only slightly positive thing that can be said about Wills’ brief tenure in Seattle.
Simply put, Wills was not as prepared as he thought he was, and likely it was because of his drug abuse. His tenure as Mariners’ manager was a comedy of errors. During one game, he called for a relief pitcher even though no one was warming up in the bullpen. He once penciled a player into his starting lineup whom the team had traded a month earlier.
The low point of Wills’ managerial career came on April 25, 1981, when before a game against the Oakland Athletics, he ordered the grounds crew at the Kingdome to paint the batter’s box one foot longer than regulation. Billy Martin noticed and pointed the discrepancy out to umpires. The American League suspended Wills for two games. Wills lost his job on May 6, with the team sporting a horrid 6-18 record.
Maury Wills had a cocaine addiction so strong that it forced him to live like a hermit for several years. He lost all his money and his car, but the Dodgers kept reaching out to him. They would send Don Newcombe to his house, but Maury wouldn’t answer the door, so Big Newk would sit in his car for hours, waiting for Maury to leave so that he could talk to him. The Dodgers offered him a job if he would clean up his life. Eventually, he did, using “vitamin therapy” to beat the habit. Maury Wills went to the edge of hell and lived to tell the tale because the Dodgers take care of their own and Big Newk’s persistence.
As I said, Maury went on the beat the drugs, and since the late 80s, he was a fixture at Spring Training for the Dodgers. Maury said: “We have a saying: “Once a Dodger, always a Dodger. You can put several Dodgers from each era together, and we all are teammates. Nobody’s a big-shot, and everybody gets along just well.”
One day in 2010, at Camelback Ranch, Logan White let me shadow him as he walked around the complex. It was understood that conversations I heard were private, and I was a “fly on the wall.” In other words, I was sworn to secrecy and did not participate in the conversations. The sequence below lasted about half an hour as Logan talked with Dodgers admin staff, Don Newcombe, and Maury. It’s hard to believe that Newk and Maury are both gone. What they talked about is forever in my brain. I had a baseball autographed by Maury and Newk, but I gave it away a few years ago. It was quite a fascinating conversation. Here’s the photo sequence.
Maury will get into the Hall of Fame … someday! He was a “game changer.” Maury loved to talk golf, and if I were telling the truth, I would have to say the conversation between Logan, Newk, and Maury was at least 50% about their golf games. That’s all I have to say about it! We will miss you, Maury. I wonder if he got to the Pearly Gates and St. Peter told him that he couldn’t steal there?
Dodger News & Notes
- Well, you can’t win them all!
- To those of you who aren’t sure about Miguel Vargas, I have to respectfully say: “Are you outta’ your Rabbit-Ass Mind?” He is not going to be on the playoff roster (barring a disaster of some sort), but the kid is the next Dodger star. I don’t think he is a Hall of Famer, but I do think he is a guy who will hit .300 and be an occasional All-Star. He is working hard on his fielding all over the infield and in LF, and he has a good arm. Did you see him drill the runner on the Melon from LF? He has gotten a lot of bad press about his fielding. He is not a butcher in the field and is very athletic. Most importantly, he works hard. This kid is going to be fun to watch.
- The OKC Dodgers beat the El Paso Chihuahuas like rented chihuahuas last night to the tune of 16-1.
- Everyone had at least one hit… many had 2 or 3.
- Mike Busch now has 31 HR and 106 RBI and is hitting .279 with a .888 OPS, yet Miguel Vargas was the Dodger Minor League Player of the Year.
- Gavin Stone went six innings, allowing three hits and 1 ER while striking out seven and walking 1.
- Victor Gonzalez pitched one scoreless inning.
- Tulsa lost their first playoff game by the margin of 17-1. YIKES! Never mention this again!
- TREVOR BAUER WATCH: If Trevor Bauer can establish that the time, content, and circumstance of this video are as represented, this is a game-changer. It could even result in criminal charges for the accuser and lay the foundation to have his suspension TOTALLY overturned. I think Rob Manfred and MLB are about to get what they have coming. This is the Smoking Gun! This case is going to blow up like you will not believe. Was MLB grossly negligent and/or deliberately indifferent? There are a lot of other text messages that tend to absolve him. Stay tuned.
Read the comment… the Court of Public Opinion is changing…
Discussion (16)
Disagree, not disagreeable
You know you’re bored when you can’t hit BUMgarterbelt!
better now than October.
Here kitty kitty! Here kitty kitty. Hurry back Tony!
10:10 PM ET
Diamondbacks (69-80)
Dodgers (103-45)
SP M. Bumgarner L
6-15 5.01 ERA 152.2IP 48BB 107K
SPDustin May R
2-2 3.46 ERA 26IP 12BB 25K
Confirmed Lineup
RF Mookie Betts R
SS Trea Turner R
1B F. Freeman L
DH J. Turner R
2B Chris Taylor R
CF T. Thompson R
C A. Barnes R
LF M. Vargas R
3B H. Alberto R
Clear-night
0% Rain
73° Wind 7 mph L-R
I’ve said for a while, if things are as they seem, Bauer has a solid case. But only one side is releasing info. MLB is not a party in the civil actions. I still believe MLB has to have something more on him. The relative punishments for other players just doesn’t add up. Despite my distain for Manfred, I can’t believe he is that stupid. I will wait for this to play out before I form a strong opinion.
I remember when I really couldn’t stand Ned Colletti. At the time, I lumped him in with McCourt and the entire upper levels of the Dodger org. The media blasted Colletti right along with McCourt at every turn. Years later, with new ownership and a lot of good (non LA) journalism on the subject I realized I got it all wrong. Ned did an excellent job managing the organization with an impossible owner who used the Dodgers as his own personal piggy bank. Sending them so deeply in debt as to eventually bankrupt the whole team. In hindsight, Ned deserves a medal for doing what he did under near impossible circumstances and endless negative media attention. McCourt was so hated that Ned was almost black listed by local writers for not throwing his boss under the bus at every opportunity. Ned stayed classy.
All the facts will come out. And if they remain as they are today, Bauer will eventually get his pound of flesh from MLB. That said, I can’t pretend to understand the mind numbing complexity of the CBA and baseball’s anti-trust exemption. MLB seems to be able to do whatever the hell they want with impunity, at times. We will see.
Maury was one of a kind. I thought I was the only one with some time alone to talk with Maury Wills, but based on the comments posted, I see he gave a lot of his time to fans.
I was at Vero Beach, probably 2003 or so. I noticed Maury sitting alone watching the game below the press box behind the plate, late in the game. Most fans had left as it was the prospects playing by then.
I said hello and chatted with him for probably ten minutes. He actually invited me to sit down.
I’m glad I got the chance to thank him for being the spark plug on those 60s teams.
Earlier I watched him working in “Maury’s Pit” on bunting techniques with a dozen or
so players. All those fields were accessible and you could watch and see everything.
He was a complete gentleman from start to finish and when I said goodbye there was no autograph request, just a simple handshake.
He certainly had his demons in life, but Newk stuck with him and was persistent in getting him help. Otherwise his obituary would have been much sooner.
Another Dodger great we have lost. He certainly changed the game, but modern sabermetric reviews killed his chances for the HOF. It is a shame because everyone that followed the game in the 60s knew how valuable Wills was.
Exactly the same thing that happens when the HPU gets a facial and has to leave the game. Another ump suits up, steps in and takes over. Everybody understands and the game goes on.
Why would we expect the ABS to break down any more then the current K-Zone or Pitch Trax systems?
The umpiring for our double-header was not the best – and not the worst. Angel Hernandez actually had a pretty good outing for him. He still has an interesting spray pattern. And DJ Rayburn just won’t calls strikes north and south.
I have not heard much conversation lately about implementing the ABS System. While I do not see any improvement in the quality of balls and strikes umpiring, the push to take it out of the umpires hands has died down. Perhaps the playoffs will start the clamor anew.
Instead, I have heard more conversation about a “challenge system” to overturn missed balls and strike calls. That’s slowly becoming the popular choice by the announcers promoting it as a way to remedy missed calls.
Let’s look at the situation and the unintended consequences on both sides.
I believe there is a need to eliminate poor umpiring behind the dish. I see way too many balls called strikes and strikes called balls based on the little superimposed rectangle provided on my TV screen. Obviously some umpires are more accurate and consistent than others. But there are the usual cast of characters who are notably terrible. Every team has the book on umpires strengths and weaknesses. Pitchers and catchers who are smart know these tendencies and pitch to that. But when I look at sites like UmpireScorecard, I see too much disparity that can change games.
Until technology changed everything with the superimposed rectangle strike zone on the screen, we all had to guess along with the HPU, what was a strike and what was a ball. And it was excepted that each guy had his own personal strike zone regardless of the rule book strike zone. That’s still the case with the book on each ump. Some zones are tall or short, some big, some dinky and some move around. But it was the umps personal interpretation of the zone. Complaints came for inconsistency.
But technology has exposed “errors” when they added the little rectangle. Now we have two different strike zones in play. So the question is: What is the “real” strike zone? Is it the HPU’s zone that day based on his interpretation OR, is it what the technology shows on my TV screen? Those are sometimes different. A there is the rub.
It seems the “right” zone that’s accepted, as what the rectangle, calibrated to each hitter, says it is. So if an umpire has generous rivers but tight north as his zone, he is now wrong based on technology. He is being reviewed and graded on information that he doesn’t have. He can’t see what we see at home. It’s a very unfair evaluation system.
Most reports say the ABS System can correct all of this seamlessly. The technology is here to seamlessly get it right. So just use it. I have seen it in action and didn’t even notice it. It just works. No bitching, no arguments and no delays. The HPU hears the verdict instantly in his earbud and he calls the pitch without delay. It couldn’t be more simple. It will take some adjustments as high corners or balls across the plate are traditionally called balls and they are in the rectangle. The HPU can also over rule when a pitch bounces through the zone and reads strike.
So, what’s preventing the implementation? Is ABS inaccurate? If so, why?
So now, to convolute the issue, there’s talk of 3 pitch challenges per 9 innings. Another delay and decision having to me made by whomever to challenge or not.
And which of the strike zones is used as the “correct” one for the challenge? Are we using the HPU’s personal zone that’s been used all day without the benefit of the information provided by the little rectangle on the TV screen? Or are we suddenly going to use the technology provided by the ABS Zone, which hasn’t been used all day, until now?
We switch when it matters most? It’s apples compared to oranges for NO good reason.
Just use the ABS System – or don’t. Don’t try to compromise for some unknown reason to please WHO? A camel is a horse designed by a committee. That’s what a challenge system will do.
So use ABS or don’t. If you don’t, I support getting rid of the superimposed rectangle on the TV screen entirely. It is unfair to hold the HPU to information that he doesn’t have. Everyone needs to understand that a strike is what the ump says it is, as his interpretation of the zone. Just forget the new technology and sit back and enjoy the old rhubarbs that are inevitable. If you use it, use it 100% for every pitch, every day. Get it right without the burden of having to challenge anything and incorporate 2 completely different methods to get to an answer.
This doesn’t have to be so complicated.
Nice tribute to Maury Wills. Thanks for that.
* Bring on the dancing Bears.
In yesterday’s 2 games for the Dodgers, 2 errors on 1 play, 3 errors in the inning, 4 errors in game 2, and 6 on the day day. It was actually fun to watch in a weird sort of way. Sort of like watching Demolition Derby.
Players look mentally tired in addition to all of the aches and pains at this time of year. Guys can’t play catch and the ball’s rolling around in outfield cut plays like bad Little League. Certainly not what you expect from the best players in the world. It is a long grinding season especially when you are a D-Back with nothing to play for but pride and next year. (Which isn’t actually nothing)
* Trea needs some rest. The defensive game is fast for him right now. Lots of transfer issues.
* CT3’s bat must have a “For Display Purposes Only” sticker on it right now. He looks totally flummoxed.
* Game 1 exemplified the thinking that states, it’s not really how you play but if you win the game. The “All’s Well That Ends Well” mentality. That is a mind set for the fans. Not the people playing and teaching the game.
It’s not satisfying for players, coaches and a manager who understand winning. It may go unspoken but winning teams understand that it’s about the process, the journey, that’s important. It’s not necessarily the scoreboard. You want your guys to play at a consistently high level. If everyone plays to a high standard, your chances of winning are good. Especially if you have the good players like we do. Sometimes you play great and get beat. Other times you play so-so and still find a way to win. Other times like yesterday, you just stink. But that isn’t the process. The satisfaction comes from a team that competes and tries to be the best every day. That is what the Dodgers do and why they are never out of it. There are lots of veteran winners in this roster. It’s the process that leads to the final destination of winning the World Series. Anything less for this team will be a major disappointment and a bitter pill.
* Az has some nice young arms and players. I like McCarthy and Varsho. I like what I see from this group for their future..
* Marte is so Bush. I guess the fake mound charge was comedy. Who knows. He’s always been a clubhouse dog, starting in Seattle where he was Cano’s little Rumb Ranger. Grow up !
* Fire up the calliope, the circus is in town – In one of the oddest plays of the year, Mookie short hops Muncy at 3rd. Muncy deflects the ball by Anderson backing up of 3rd, Andy retrieves it and short hops Smith who can’t handle it. He retrieves in time to throw to 3rd again. The only missing piece is if Smith’s throw would have gone into left field for a Little League home run, where everyone scores. Yeah, Mookie’s throw to Muncy was a tough short hop but the main culprit to start this fiasco, was Muncy. You have to slide over, abandon the tag attempt and block the baseball. Everything ends there and we live for another play.
* At the end of the this double-header, I was looking around to see if Rod Serling was doing the post game.
Play better today.
I got to sit next to Maury Wills for a few innings at Camelback Ranch back when Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier were up and coming stars. He was trying to teach them the art of stealing bases however he told me that the youngsters didn’t want to listen to him. Darrell Thomas was sitting on the other side of him trying to get his attention to sign some photo’s he had but Maury was more interested in talking with my brother in law and myself about Dodger Baseball. I could tell Darrell was a little irritated because he really wanted Maury to sign the photo’s but Maury would rather talk with the fans about baseball. Maury signed a baseball for me and even Darrell signed one for me to get me the hell out of there. This was a great memory that I will never forget.
Mark –
Great article on Maury Wills – the ups and downs and ups again of his life. Maury was one of my favorites when he first came up after being in the minor leagues for 10 years. I liked him initially because I liked his name – Maurice Morning Wills. Early on I would check the LA Times for the box score every morning to see how Maury did the night before. I was rooting for him just to stick in the big leagues after 10 years of kicking around in the minors. His first year in 1959 he hit .260 – the lowest of his career. Not only did he stick in the majors for 14 seasons but he was league MVP in 1962 when he stole 104 bases. He was the Dodgers most important offensive weapon and Lou Brock told me once that Maury’s contributions to the excitement and popularity of the game were under appreciated. RIP Maury….
Mark, very nice tribute to Maury Wills. He had a tremendous impact on the game with his base stealing. The fans chanting of “go, go, go” whenever he got to first base is something I’ll never forget. Also, at the Coliseum the trumpet urging the fans for a “charge” response during a Dodger rally. It’s a shame that the analytic nerds help to eliminate that aspect of the game. Fortunately, we are seeing an uptick in the stolen base with the Dodgers contributing to the increase.
The past couple of years we have lost Tommy Lasorda, Don Sutton, Norm Sherry, Mike Marshall (reliever), Stan Williams, Don Demeter, Tommy Davis, Vin, and now Maury among others. With many of the contributors here we are at the time of our lives where many of our Dodger and baseball favorites from our childhood are passing on. Although sad, it can give us a chance to reflect on our childhood and the joy those players brought to us.
Carry on.
Great story about Wills, Mark! What an honor to be a fly on the wall.
I’m not too worried about Miguel or Michael for the matter. Did you see Busch’s oppo bomb last night? I think Vargas would have fared much better with consistent playing time. But, the experience in getting MLB ABs will serve him well. It’s got to be tough to be a Dodgers prospect with all the talent on the big club, opportunities are scarce.
Ultimately, Vargas is going to be the next JT. He’ll have some big years, but he’ll consistently hit in 300’s with a lot of doubles and twenty something homers. Michael Busch is no slouch, he’s also going to be a very good Major Leaguer. He’s got serious pop for a middle infielder and is looking a lot like Chase Utley if he can get his batting average up a bit. If Miguel didn’t win the award, Busch probably would have.
V-Gone is back on another rehab assignment. Apparently, he isn’t done quite yet. He’s just down a couple of rungs on the depth chart.
Everyone should be infuriated with what happened to Bauer. This is what happens when people think with their emotions and jump on the next thing bandwagon. Molly Knight already lost her job. I would like to see more dishonest reporters held to account for their actions.
The D-Backs rebuild is coming a long. This team will be good in a couple of years. They’re good enough to win a game from time to time.
I sure would like to see Tio Albert hit number 700 this weekend. I hope he gets 699 out of the way against the Padres.
AA-ron Judge is about to break Maris’ non-steroid home run record. He’s sitting on 60 after last night.
What a special season we’re witnessing this year.
Thanks for the Maury tribute. A lot of great detail and the photos are nice. Newk was a class act and Dodgers a class organization.
I’d never heard the story about Maury trying to stretch the batter’s box as a manager. Pretty dumb but kind of funny. If he added just two or three inches, maybe Billy Martin wouldn’t have noticed!
Yes, Maury spent time in the “Hall of Shame,” and I suspect that prudish sportswriters of that era counted that as a big strike against him in the HOF votes. To me Maury was more deserving than many HOFers who were very good for many years but never achieved the greatness that Maury achieved. He and Sandy were the quintessential Dodgers of my childhood.
Six Teams Set To Pay Luxury Tax In 2022
By Steve Adams | September 20, 2022 at 11:59pm CDT
Six teams are set to pay penalties under the newly restructured competitive balance/luxury tax for their 2022 payrolls, per a report from the Associated Press. Each of the Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies, Padres and Red Sox is currently over the threshold. That marks just the second time since the luxury tax’s inception that six teams will pay the tax.
This will be the second straight year paying the tax for both Los Angeles and San Diego. Each of the other four clubs was under the threshold in 2021 and thus counts as a first-time luxury tax offender.
The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement not only saw the tax thresholds increase by a relatively significant margin — it also implemented a newly created fourth tier of penalization. For a reminder, the new thresholds are as follows:
Tier One: $230-250MM (teams pay a 20% overage)
Tier Two: $250-270MM (32%)
Tier Three: $270-290MM (62.5% for first-time payors; 65% thereafter)
Tier Four: $290MM+ (80%)
For second-time payors (i.e. Dodgers, Padres), those rates jump to 30%, 42%, 75% and 90%, respectively.
While those sound like substantial penalties at first glance, the actual amounts to be paid by most teams in excess of the luxury tax is relatively minimal. Those clubs are only taxed on dollars over the threshold, leading to often trivial sums of money (by the standards of a Major League franchise, anyhow). The Padres, for instance, are less than $3MM over the threshold, per the AP, so even with an increased 30% tax rate they’re only set to pay a bit more than $800K. The Red Sox are roughly $4.5MM over the threshold, putting them in line to pay about $900K in fees. The Phillies ($2.6MM) and even the Yankees ($9.4MM) are also looking at generally small sums, relative to their annual payroll marks.
The only two teams set to pay substantial sums are the Dodgers, who fall just shy of the fourth tier of penalization, and the Mets, who exceeded that tier by nearly $9MM. The Mets are in line to pay as much as $29.9MM in taxes, per the AP, while the Dodgers check in just slightly behind that sum at $29.4MM.
What the AP’s report does not delve into, however, are the other penalties associated with the luxury tax — which some teams view as more detrimental than the fiscal penalizations. Any club that exceeds the first tax threshold by $40MM or more will see its top pick in the following year’s draft pushed back 10 slots, for instance. With regard to the 2023 draft, that applies to both the Mets and the Dodgers.
Tax payors are also subject to stiffer slaps on the wrist when signing free agents who have rejected a qualifying offer and to diminished returns when losing such free agents. CBT payors who sign a “qualified” free agent stand to lose their second- and fifth-highest selections in the draft as well as $1MM from their league-allotted bonus pool for international free agency (which typically represents anywhere from roughly one-sixth to one-quarter of the total pool). That’s in contrast to revenue-sharing recipients, who forfeit only their third-highest pick, and to non-revenue sharing recipients/non-CBT-paying teams, who lose their second pick and $500K from that international pool.
More interesting with respect to this year’s group of luxury payors is the fact that a CBT-paying club who extends a qualifying offer to a free agent only stands to gain a compensatory pick after the fourth round of the 2023 draft. For a team that does not receive revenue sharing and does not pay the CBT, that pick would fall after Competitive Balance Round B — roughly 60 picks higher.
I think Manfred already see’s himself unsuitable to judge knowing he’s no more than a rube with too much power for his own good. He allowed himself to be sold at his first glance and acting harshly on the wrong side of right. I’ve never been a great fan of Bauer but to not look how his accusers could be in it for personal gain is criminal when he had Millions taken from him during the the most important part of what’s a very short career. Instead of looking that Bauer might be being set up MLB chose to substantiate Bauer’s accusers with efforts to ruin his means of making a living using public opinion as their weapon. As her morning after selfies came from her phone her phone also recorded date and time. And if date and time proves her accusations as being false public opinion will change and bite MLB in the ass. Like I said, I’m not a great Bauer fan, but I’ll bet he will be a better commissioner than Manfred.