Wills precedes Henderson again

by Bob Wirz
Published on June 19, 2003 under Central Baseball League (Central League)

Once again, Maury Wills started it, long before there was a Rickey Henderson.

In the height of their major league headline-grabbing days, Maury Wills set the tone with a record-smashing 104 stolen bases for the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers. Twenty years later Henderson posted the best of his three 100-steal seasons with an unreal 130 for the Oakland Athletics on his way to 1,403 career thefts.

Rickey has only been in Independent baseball since May (Newark, Atlantic League), but once again he is following Wills. The 70-year-old Wills has three baseball jobs these days. He works for the Dodgers on baserunning and bunting from spring training right through the season. His other two jobs are with Independent league clubs.

Wills has been a fixture at Fargo-Moorhead in the Northern League for seven years. The most visible parts are working on the broadcast team, and as the namesake for the Maury Wills Knothole Gang and the Maury Wills Museum. The museum, filled with the speedsters' trophies and memorabilia, opened one year ago at Newman Outdoor Field in the North Dakota city after the RedHawks had seen the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at Yogi Berra Stadium, home of the Northeast League's New Jersey Jackals, when they were hosting the Northern League All-Star Game.

And he is Vice President for Special Projects for the Carl Bell Group, which owns the Central League clubs in Fort Worth, TX, Jackson, MS and Shreveport, LA. "I was the first black player in Fort Worth (1955), now I visit the three teams," Wills says. "I talk to the fans, I recently went into the inter-city in Jackson and I tutor on base stealing."

"I enjoy my life, and I want to do this," says Wills, who still lives in Los Angeles. Independent Baseball "is good professional baseball. It brings baseball to the smaller areas, and it gives kids (players) a chance, which some of them might not receive otherwise. There are some ‘late arrivals'; they have a chance and don't have to go through life wondering (what would have happened if they only had an opportunity).

"In the bigger picture, kids (youngsters) can't get in trouble if they are at the ball park."

(The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners, runs his own sports PR/marketing company, Wirz & Associates, in Orange, CT (203 877-5800), and was an Independent League team president for four years.)

Central Baseball League Stories from June 19, 2003

• Wills precedes Henderson again - OSC Original by Bob Wirz
• Aces News - Alexandria Aces

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.