American professional baseball player and manager Maurice Morning Wills (October 2, 1932 – September 19, 2022) was born in the United States.
He was primarily a shortstop and switch-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Major League Baseball from 1959 through 1966 and from the second half of 1969 through 1972.
He also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1967 and 1968 and the Montreal Expos in the first half of 1969. Wills is credited with reintroducing the stolen base as a baseball tactic and was a crucial element of the Dodgers’ championship teams in the mid-1960s.
In 1962, Wills was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), breaking Ty Cobb’s 1915 record of 96 base steals with a record-breaking 104.
He played in seven All-Star Games and five seasons as an All-Star. In 1962, he won the Most Valuable Player award at the first MLB All-Star Game.
He was also the 1961 and 1962 Gold Glove winner. Wills batted for fourteen years in his career. A total of 1,942 games saw 281 with 20 home runs, 458 RBI, 2,134 hits, 1,067 runs, 177 doubles, 71 triples, 586 stolen bases, and 552 bases on balls.
Wills served as a representative of the Dodgers Legend Bureau for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization from 2009 until his passing in 2022.
Wills initially appeared as a candidate on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Golden Era Committee election ballot in 2014 for consideration for induction into the Hall of Fame in 2015, which required twelve votes.
Wills was three votes short of being elected. Every other contender on the ballot also came up short of winning.
In the period between 1947 and 1972, the Committee met and decided on ten nominees every three years (this was replaced in 2016 by the Golden Days Era, which covered 1950–1969).
He appeared on the Golden Days Era ballot once again in 2022, but he did not obtain enough votes to be inducted.
Maury Wills Family, Parents, Wife, Ex Wife, Children, Siblings
Maury Wills Family
| Parents | Guy O. Wills and Mabel Wills |
| Wife | Carla Wills |
| Ex-Wife | Gertrude (Elliot) Wills and Angela George |
| Children | Barry, Micki, Bump, Anita, Susan Quam and Wendi Jo Wills |
| Siblings | Updating. |
