| Willie Wilson | |
|---|---|
 Wilson in 1978 | |
| Outfielder | |
| Born: (1955-07-09)July 9, 1955 (age 70) Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. | |
Batted: Switch Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 4, 1976, for the Kansas City Royals | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| May 16, 1994, for the Chicago Cubs | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .285 |
| Hits | 2,207 |
| Home runs | 41 |
| Runs batted in | 585 |
| Stolen bases | 668 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Willie James Wilson (born July 9, 1955) is an American former professionalbaseball player. He played 19 seasons inMajor League Baseball for theKansas City Royals,Oakland Athletics, andChicago Cubs. He was anoutfielder known for his speed and ability as an effective leadoff hitter. Wilson's career total of 668stolen bases currently ranks him in 12th place all-time among major leaguers.[1]
Wilson was born inMontgomery, Alabama, but moved toSummit, New Jersey, at seven years old.[2] He was a highly regarded high school baseball, football, and basketball player atSummit High School.[3] In his senior year, hehit .436 andstole 28 bases in 28 attempts.[2]
Wilson was drafted out of high school after signing a letter of intent to playcollege football atMaryland.[2] The Kansas City Royals picked him in the first round (18th overall) of the1974 Major League Baseball draft.[4] He started his professional career with theGulf Coast Royals, batting .252 with a home run, 14 RBI and 24 stolen bases in 47 games.[5] He moved up to Single-A in 1975 for theWaterloo Royals, leading the 1975 Midwest League champions in both RBI (73) and stolen bases (76).[6] In 1976, Wilson played for the Double-AJacksonville Suns, batting .253 with a home run, 35 RBI and 37 stolen bases in 107 games.[5] He earned a September call-up in 1976, playing in 12 games. He was mostly used as apinch runner or defensive replacement, but did start one game on the penultimate day of the season. He had just sixat bats, getting onehit andstealing two bases.[7]
Wilson began the 1977 season with the Triple-AOmaha Royals. In what turned out to be his last minor league action (not counting a stunt appearance in 2009), he batted .281 with four home runs, 47 RBI and 74 stolen bases in 132 games.[5] He was again called up in September, this time receiving more substantial playing time,batting .324 in 34 at bats with six stolen bases.[7]
1978 was Wilson's first full season in the majors. He split theleft field job withTom Poquette,Clint Hurdle andJoe Zdeb, getting the most playing time at the position among the four, while also backing upAmos Otis incenter field. Overall, he played in 127 games, but had just 198 at bats while batting .217 with 16 RBI.[7] Despite his limited playing time, he finished fifth in theAmerican League with 46 stolen bases.[8] He also appeared in three games in the1978 American League Championship Series against theNew York Yankees, going 1-for-4 (.250) in the series.[7] He also earned a start in left field in Game 4, finishing the game 1-for-3.[9]
Wilson started the 1979 season as the Royals' fourth outfielder, but by mid-May he had established himself as the team's starting left fielder. In 154 games, he batted .315 with six home runs and 49 RBI.[7] Wilson led the league in stolen bases (83) andsingles (148) while also finishing seventh in hits (185) and third intriples (13).[10] On defense, he led the league inrange factor andputouts and finished second inassists among left fielders.[11]
In 1980, Wilson started the year as the starting center fielder when Amos Otis opened the season on the disabled list, and acquitted himself well, posting an above-average range factor and making just oneerror in 195total chances for the year in center. He moved back to left when Otis returned in late May, and wound up leading the league in several categories. Wilson finished with a .326 average, three home runs, 49 RBI and 79 stolen bases (in 89 attempts) in 161 games.[7] His 705 official at bats were a major league record until it was surpassed byJimmy Rollins in 2007.[12] He also led the league in hits (230),runs scored (133), triples (15), and singles (184). Wilson finished second in stolen bases, and had at least 100 hits from both sides of the plate. He won both theGold Glove andSilver Slugger Awards, and was fourth in the AL MVP voting, his best finish.[7]
During Game 2 of the1980 ALCS, the Yankees'Willie Randolph was on second base in the top of the eighth with two outs and the Royals up by just one run.Bob Watson hit a ball to the left field corner ofRoyals Stadium. The ball bounced right to Wilson, but Yankee third base coachMike Ferraro waved Randolph home. Wilson overthrewU L Washington, thecut-off man, butGeorge Brett was in position behind him to catch the ball, then throw toDarrell Porter, who tagged out Randolph in a slide. TV cameras captured Yankee ownerGeorge Steinbrenner fuming immediately after the play. The Royals won 3–2.[13] Wilson batted .308 and tiedGeorge Brett for the team lead inruns batted in with four during the series as the Royals swept theYankees in three straight games.[14] In the1980 World Series, Wilson batted just .154 and struck out againstTug McGraw for the final out of the Royals' Game 6 loss to thePhiladelphia Phillies.[15] This strikeout was Wilson's 12th of the Series, breaking the record of 11 held jointly byEddie Mathews andWayne Garrett in the1958 and1973 World Series, respectively.[16]Ryan Howard would break Wilson's record by striking out 13 times in the2009 World Series.[17]
Wilson's batting average slipped to .303 in the strike-shortened 1981 season, and most of his other numbers were off from the previous two seasons as well. In the1981 American League Division Series against theOakland A's, he batted .308, but failed to score a run, steal a base, or get an extra-base hit in the three-game sweep.[7]
In 1982, Wilson bounced back to bat .332 with three home runs and 46 RBI in 136 games.[7] He won the AL batting title, the firstswitch hitter to do so sinceMickey Mantle in 1956.[18] Although the Royals missed the playoffs for the first time since 1979, Wilson made his first American League All-Star team that year and winning his second Silver Slugger Award.[7] He led the league in singles (157) for the fourth year in a row and in triples (15) for the second time in three seasons.[19]
In 1983, Wilson moved to center field in June when the club decided to shuffle their outfield, moving long-time center fielder Otis toright field, and movingPat Sheridan andLeon Roberts, who had been sharing right field, over to left. In the midst of the shuffle, Wilson had his worst season at the plate to date, batting .276 with two home runs and 33 RBI in 137 games.[7] Although he still finished third in the league with 59 stolen bases and made the All-Star Team for the second time, hison-base percentage andslugging percentage also hit what were to that point career lows at .316 and .352 respectively.[7] However, Wilson's problems in 1983 were not limited to on-field issues.
After the end of the 1983 season, Wilson found himself in a drug scandal along with teammatesWillie Aikens,Vida Blue, andJerry Martin. All four pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug charges (attempting to purchasecocaine) on November 17.[20] They became the first active major leaguers to serve jail time,[21] serving 81 days at theFort Worth, Texas, Federal Correctional Institution. He was suspended by commissionerBowie Kuhn for the entire 1984 season, but the suspension was reduced on appeal and he was able to return on May 15.[20] The Royals traded or released the other three,[22] with only Wilson returning to the Royals. He hit .301 with two home runs and 44 RBI in 128 games, and stole 47 bases in 52 attempts.[7]
In 1985, Wilson batted .278 with four home runs, 43 RBI and 43 stolen bases in 141 games. He led the league in triples for the third time with a career-high 21.[7] Wilson also gained a measure of redemption from his 1980 World Series performance, hitting .310 (9-for-29) against Toronto in the1985 ALCS and .367 (11-for-30) against theSt. Louis Cardinals in the1985 World Series. Likely his most notable hit was in Game 5, where he hit a two-out triple to give Kansas City a 4-1 lead in an eventual 6-1 victory in the first of three games the Royals won on their way to their first World Championship.[7]
Wilson remained a fixture in the outfield for the Royals over the next five seasons. Although his hitting was not what it once was, he still hit a career-high nine home runs in 1986, led the league twice more in triples (1987-88) and continued to finish in the top ten in steals, a run of 11 seasons that lasted until 1988, and may have continued had he not missed chunks of the 1989 and 1990 seasons to injuries. He also continued to play well defensively, leading the league in fielding percentage among center fielders in 1987, and among all outfielders in 1990, when he finished the year without a single error.[7]
Wilson left the Royals following the 1990 season as a free agent, and he was signed by the Oakland Athletics on December 3, 1990.[7] He replacedFélix José, who had been traded late in 1990, as the fourth outfielder behindRickey Henderson,Dave Henderson andJose Canseco. He played 113 games, including at least 19 at all three outfield positions, and batted .238 with 28 RBI and 20 stolen bases.[7]
In 1992, Dave Henderson missed most of the season with a hamstring injury,[23] leaving Wilson as the starting center fielder. He played in 132 games, his most since 1988, and batted .270 with 37 RBI and 28 stolen bases.[7] In his first playoff action since the 1985 World Series, he stole seven bases in the1992 ALCS against theToronto Blue Jays, tyingLou Brock's record for steals in one post-season (Brock stole seven bases each in the1967 and1968 World Series). He batted just .227, however, and the A's lost the series in six games.[7]
Wilson became a free agent again after the 1992 season, and he signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Cubs on December 18, 1992.[24] He started 1993 in a center fieldplatoon withDwight Smith, later splitting time withSammy Sosa when the latter wasn't playing in right field. He batted .258 with one home run and 11 RBI in 105 games, but managed just seven stolen bases—a career-low for a full season.[7] Wilson began the 1994 season on the bench behindTuffy Rhodes. After playing just 17 games that year and recording a .238 batting average, he was released on May 16, ending his major league career.[7]
Wilson retired with a .285 career batting average and 668 stolen bases, which ranks 12th all-time.[1] For his career, Wilson hit 13inside-the-park home runs, the most of any major league player playing after 1950.[25] He topped a .300 batting average five times and also led the league in triples five times, being one of only four players to accomplish the feat. Wilson posted a .987 fielding percentage as an outfielder in the majors.
Wilson coached in theToronto Blue Jays system in 1995 and 1997. He was elected to the Royals Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2003, Wilson was namedmanager of theLondon Monarchs of the fledglingCanadian Baseball League, but the league folded halfway through the season. Wilson also came out of retirement in 2009, signing a one-day contract with theKansas City T-Bones, a team playing in theindependentNorthern League.[26] He currently runs the Willie Wilson Baseball Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri.[25]
NFL draft day found Willie Wilson in New York with baseball's K.C. Royals, and the Associated Press remarked that if the erstwhile Summit, N.J., prep football flash had gone on to play with Maryland after signing a letter of intent, he might have gotten rich as a No. 1 pro football draft pick.
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