Willie McCovey

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 4 in · 198 lb

BornJanuary 10, 1938 · Mobile, AL, USA

MLB debutJuly 30, 1959

Final gameJuly 6, 1980

Seasons22 (1959–1980)

San Francisco Giants 1959–1973; San Diego Padres 1974–1975; Oakland Athletics 1976; San Diego Padres 1976; San Francisco Giants 1977–1980

Percentile snapshot

1977 season — qualified batters

141

23.3

548

20.5

478

13.7

4.8

134

21.2

22.6

85.6

RBI

69.2

70.5

106

13.7

21.9

98.6

.280

48.6

OBP

.367

77.4

SLG

.500

79.5

OPS

.867

80.8

wRC+

128.4

76.7

OPS+

131.5

79.5

wOBA

.378

78.1

sWAR

2.5

47.9

of 147 qualified 1977 batters (min 502 PA)

Career, era-adjusted

wRC+

146.5

OPS+

148.1

97.6

sWAR

66.4

99.6

wRC+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; OPS+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1959	52	219	192	32	68	9	5	13	38	22	35	2	0	.354	.429	.656	1.085	194.5	192.1	.469	2.9
1960	101	307	260	37	62	15	3	13	51	45	53	1	1	.238	.349	.469	.818	129.3	128.8	.363	1.5
1961	106	374	328	59	89	12	3	18	50	37	60	1	2	.271	.350	.491	.841	124.9	125.2	.369	1.7
1962	91	261	229	41	67	6	1	20	54	29	35	3	3	.293	.368	.590	.957	153.8	155.5	.416	2.2
1963	152	627	564	103	158	19	5	44	102	50	119	1	1	.280	.350	.566	.915	164.8	161.7	.403	6.1
1964	130	434	364	55	80	14	1	18	54	61	73	2	1	.220	.336	.412	.748	112.2	109.5	.339	1.4
1965	160	639	540	93	149	17	4	39	92	88	118	0	4	.276	.381	.539	.920	159.8	155.6	.408	5.4
1966	150	588	502	85	148	26	6	36	96	76	100	2	1	.295	.391	.586	.977	168.8	166.5	.423	5.6
1967	135	539	456	73	126	17	4	31	91	71	110	3	3	.276	.378	.535	.913	160.9	161.9	.403	4.5
1968	148	608	523	81	153	16	4	36	105	72	71	4	2	.293	.378	.545	.923	177.6	176.4	.411	6.0
1969	149	623	491	101	157	26	2	45	126	121	66	0	0	.320	.453	.656	1.108	199.3	210.5	.471	7.8
1970	152	638	495	98	143	39	2	39	126	137	75	0	0	.289	.444	.612	1.056	172.7	182.1	.450	6.3
1971	105	402	329	45	91	13	0	18	70	64	57	0	2	.277	.396	.480	.876	143.7	149.0	.386	2.5
1972	81	304	263	30	56	8	0	14	35	38	45	0	0	.213	.316	.403	.719	101.9	102.2	.329	0.4
1973	130	495	383	52	102	14	3	29	75	105	78	1	0	.266	.420	.546	.966	157.8	161.6	.422	3.9
1974	128	442	344	53	87	19	1	22	63	96	76	1	0	.253	.416	.506	.922	164.5	161.1	.426	4.0
1975	122	475	413	43	104	17	0	23	68	57	80	1	0	.252	.345	.460	.805	125.9	127.1	.368	2.0
1976	82	251	226	20	46	9	0	7	36	24	43	0	0	.204	.283	.336	.619	72.8	81.5	.281	-0.6
1977	141	548	478	54	134	21	0	28	86	67	106	3	0	.280	.367	.500	.867	128.4	131.5	.378	2.5
1978	108	389	351	32	80	19	2	12	64	36	57	1	0	.228	.298	.396	.694	91.8	96.5	.313	0.0
1979	117	393	353	34	88	9	0	15	57	36	70	0	2	.249	.318	.402	.720	102.4	101.7	.330	0.6
1980	48	130	113	8	23	8	0	1	16	13	23	0	0	.204	.285	.301	.586	62.8	66.3	.272	-0.4

Career totals

2,588

45th-most career G

9,686

108th-most career PA

8,197

132nd-most career AB

1,229

171st-most career R

2,211

188th-most career H

353

310th-most career 2B

521

20th-most career HR

RBI

1,555

46th-most career RBI

1,345

36th-most career BB

1,550

68th-most career SO

.2697

OBP

.3744

241st-highest career on-base percentage

SLG

.5147

82nd-highest career slugging percentage

OPS

.8891

83rd-highest career OPS

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	TB
1963-09-22	NYM @ SF Gameday	4	4	3	0	3	5	0	12
1964-04-22	SF @ ATL Gameday	4	3	3	0	3	4	0	12
1966-09-17	NYM @ SF Gameday	4	3	3	0	3	4	1	12
1966-07-09	CIN @ SF Gameday	5	2	4	1	2	6	1	11
1962-07-04	NYM @ SF Gameday	3	2	3	0	2	7	0	9

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 1986 (BBWAA)

1× Rookie of the Year1× All-Star Game MVP1× Most Valuable Player6× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.