The charges inflamed the town . The 64-year-old baseball player was born in San . Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Willie McGee (c. 1916 - May 8, 1951) was an African American man from Laurel, Mississippi, who was sentenced to death in 1945 and executed on Tuesday, May 8, 1951, after being controversially convicted for the rape of a white woman on November 2, 1945. He also used his speed to become a better-than average shortstop, not a small thing considering his big size for the era. The execution brought to an end an international campaign to free McGee on the grounds that his conviction was racist and grossly irregular. November 2, 1958 Before Trout even made it to the majors, some baseball insiders said he would be the fastest player in the MLB. Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people. 8:22 p.m. Willie's son Lukas is nailing his dad's signature vocal tone (if not quite his one-of-a-kind guitar-playing) in a solo take on one of Willie's most beautiful songs, "Angel Flying . 6 on the MLB career list. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1936, Cobb is firmly entrenched in Americana lore for his life and career. Willie McGee put himself in the conversation as one of the best players in baseball as a rookie in 1982, when he helped lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series championship. Willie McGee is stepping down as St. Vincent-St. Mary athletic director to take a job with the LeBron James Family Foundation. In summary, Willie McGee looked like a man with 300-year-old joints running downhill in a hailstorm. Hamilton began to grab headlines for his baseball speed in the minor leagues. While his stolen base numbers may be stunted by poor hitting, Hamilton was a force on the base paths for quite a few seasons. McGee was arrested in November 1945 after Laurel housewife Willette Hawkins accused him of crawling through an open window and raping her as she lay next to her sick child while her husband and two other children slept in nearby rooms. However, in his prime, he competed annually with Henderson or Coleman for the league-leader title. Now, all of us know what happened in that 1985 year, the call during the I-70 World Series. Families depend on it. Lofton played for a whopping 10 teams in 17 MLB seasons, including three different stints with the Cleveland Indians. That frustration and disappointment was expressed in poetry and in taking to the streets to avenge him. When Willie McGee was jailed, it was his mother Bessie McGee who first reached out to the Civil Rights Congress desperate to help her son. Among the most memorable stolen bases in history, Dave Roberts is remembered for his daring in the 2004 American League Championship Series. Free shipping on many items | Browse your favorite brands | affordable prices. Born: Nov. 2, 1958 (San Francisco, California), Teams: St. Louis Cardinals (1982-90), Oakland Athletics (1990), San Francisco Giants (1991-94), Boston Red Sox (1995), St. Louis Cardinals (1996-99), Career highlights: World Series champion (1982), National League MVP (1985), four-time All-Star (1983, 1985, 1987, 1988), three-time Gold Glove Award winner (1983, 1985, 1986), Silver Slugger Award (1985). Black Women, Systemic Barriers and COVID-19 Project. Whether or not they indeed were (or are) the fastest is up for debate. 10/3/99: Willie McGee is removed from his final Major League game and receives an ovation from the Cardinals crowdCheck out http://m.mlb.com/video for our fu. Hi! 50 National Guardsmen kept watch at the Laurel courthouse to preserve order during the first trial. As famed civil rights reporter John Popham wrote in The New York Times: The first verdict was reversed by the State Supreme Court and a change of venue was granted because of local public feeling. Boston went on to win the game in extra innings, then took that series and the next, the World Series. He is from . Had Deion Sanders focused all of his attention on baseball, he'd probably be No. The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937). During a third trial in 1948, lawyers affiliated with the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), a legal defense organization with ties to the Communist Party, put McGee on the witness stand, where he testified that he had been tortured into confessing. Glad he was able to shake the Willie McRoids nickname: But we do know the one metric that seems to have stuck with him is that he was once timed at 3.1 seconds from home plate to first base. Hamilton's 303 career stolen bases in essentially just six full-time MLB seasons jump off the page, but so do his struggles at the plate with just a .241 career batting average. Dyson's speed can be quantified, too. July 14, 2000. When he died, he was one of the richest men in the South, with an estate worth in excess of $100 million in today's money. I think he was faster than (Mickey) Mantle. He stole 104 bases in 2011 and set the minor league record with 155 stolen bases in 2012. At the time of McGees electrocution, news outlets across the United States, Europe and Asia covered what was dubbed a legal lynching., In life and in death, Willie McGee assumed a newfound function as an icon of southern injustice. Baseballscouter.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. He ranks 12th all-time in steals, and his speed was involved in every area of his overall play including hitting and rangy outfield play. Few if any analyses of fastest MLB players would be complete without including The RIckey the MLBs all-time leader in stolen bases (1,406), most runs scored (2,295), and most seasons leading the league in stolen bases (12). A second trial the following year was moved to Hattiesburg, but McGee was again found guilty after the jury deliberated for a mere eleven minutes. McGee did begin and end his career as a Cardinal, and were all sure glad he did. Ichiro set the single-season MLB record with 262 hits in 2004 and is the only player in MLB history with 10 consecutive seasons of 200-plus hits. High School. All Rights Reserved. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. Trusted seller, fast shipping, and easy returns. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and . Willie Dean McGee (born November 2, 1958) is an American professional baseball coach and former outfielder who is an assistant coach for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). We actually have some solid numbers on exactly how fast Orlando is because he was also a track star at one point. He's doing that with speed as well. In football, speed is essentially judged by how fast you can run in a straight line. He starred in the Negro Leagues but failed to crack the majors once Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947. Then, Willie McGees fictional wife Rosalee McGee (the real Eliza Jane Patton was long gone to Las Vegas) took up the torch. His running style? He's been clocked rounding the bases in a blazing 14.7 seconds and another time moving at 29.58 feet per second on the basepaths. Just minutes after midnight on 8 May 1951, Willie McGee, an African American laborer, was executed in the Jones County courtroom where he had been convicted of raping a white woman more than five years earlier. Jose Reyes made his debut with the Mets when he was just 19 years old and became the franchise's career leader in both triples and stolen bases. The case proved an embarrassment to the United States, which was growing increasingly concerned about its image abroad. Coleman was a two-time All-American punter and kicker at Florida A&M. Teams: Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays (2002-10), Boston Red Sox (2011-12), Los Angeles Dodgers (2013-16), Career highlights: Four-time All-Star (2004, 2007, 2009, 2010), Gold Glove Award (2010), Silver Slugger Award (2010). In his first at-bat, Willie swung at every pitch to give him an LMQ of 1.000. He is one of only two people to play in the Final Four and the World Series and is the MLB career leader in postseason stolen bases. We have estimated Willie McGee's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets. From there, the McGee family migrated westto Las Vegas, Nev.,, an arguably easier place to be Black in the world in the late 1940s. In 1958, Gracie Lee Curtis, just 22 years of age, died from a gunshot wound after attempting to break up a fight. Which is all kinds of fast. Learn more - Top Rated Plus - opens in a new window or tab. I coached fast-pitch softball . The experimental rule states hitters can steal first base on a pitch not caught in flight; and that the batter also may be thrown out while trying. Willie's swiping swing almost looked. The second verdict was reversed by the United States Supreme Court on the ground that Negroes had been systematically excluded from Mississippi juries. We are reader supported. Just minutes after midnight on 8 May 1951, Willie McGee, an African American laborer, was executed in the Jones County courtroom where he had been convicted of raping a white woman more than five years earlier. October 3, 1999 How much did Willie McGee weigh when playing? Teams: Montreal Expos (1979-90, 2001), Chicago White Sox (1991-95), New York Yankees (1996-98), Oakland Athletics (1999), Baltimore Orioles (2001), Florida Marlins (2002), Career highlights: Two-time World Series champion (1996, 1998), seven-time All-Star (1981-87), Silver Slugger Award (1986), NL batting champion (1986). Hurdice worked as a machinist in the Oakland Naval Yards while Jessie raised the children at home. He could have easily played in the NFL as well. No, Willie McGee was never the homerun machine. When arguments for McGees innocence reached a national and international fever pitch in 1950 and 1951, Rosalee spoke across the United States to win him clemency and sound a warning call to disenfranchised Americans everywhere. The modern Billy Hamilton has amazed with his speed ever since cracking the majors in 2013. Born: June 11, 1983 (Villa Gonzalez, Santiago, Dominican Republic), Teams: New York Mets (2003-11, 2016-18), Miami Marlins (2012), Toronto Blue Jays (2013-15), Colorado Rockies (2015), Career highlights: Four-time All-Star (2006, 2007, 2010, 2011), Silver Slugger Award (2006), National League batting champion (2011). It is hard not to speculate about the fate of the McGee family. Meanwhile, all the world is his friend. As Cardinals fans, well, baseball fans, we all know that there are certain players in the history of every team that hold a special place in the fans hearts. The Mississippi Supreme Court again overturned the decision and returned the case to the lower court because African Americans had been excluded from the jury pool. He set the single-game steals target for Rickey Henderson a hundred years later, with 7. May 10, 1982 The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, Salaries may not be complete (especially pre-1985) and may not include some earned bonuses, Note, this is done in an automated way, so we apologize for any errors, & please. Career highlights: World Series champion (2017), American League MVP (2017), ALCS MVP (2019), Gold Glove Award (2015), six-time All-Star (2012, 2014-18), five-time Silver Slugger Award winner (2014-18). (the real Eliza Jane Patton was long gone to Las Vegas) took up the torch. Willie Dean McGee was born in San Francisco, California, on November 2, 1958. McGee, who won National League MVP honors three years later in 1985, combined elite hitting ability and speed to rack up doubles and triples throughout his career. He was imperfect to be sure; the bulk of the research Ive consumed suggests he was a philanderer. In the fall of 1945, in the small town of Laurel, Miss., McGee, a young black man, was arrested on charges of raping a white housewife. Willie Wilson (1976-1994) Part of a stolen base renaissance in the 1970s, Wilson used his elite speed to propel the fledgling Kansas City Royals into constant contention from his arrival in 1976, continuing for many years thereafter including a World Series appearance in 1980 and world title in 1985. Rickey Henderson was as dynamic and complete a baseball player who ever lived. Just a noteJack Clark,Terry Pendleton & Vince Coleman were NOT members of the 1982 World Series team. Given their commitment to exposing heinous but not uncommon cases of Jim Crow injustice, the CRC considered McGees case as prime organizing fodder for spreading its message of Black freedom and human rights. For all of his accomplishments, Reyes never got a chance to play in the World Series in 16 seasons. Dee Strange-Gordon's dad may have actually gotten the nickname that was more appropriate for his son. We must remember that to forget is to repeat history today. In most recent history, a couple of different players come to mind. Altuve has led the American League in stolen bases twice and has been clocked at a blazing 3.3 seconds from home plate to first base. Founded in 1946, the CRC was composed of former far-left civil rights organizations including the International Labor Defense and the National Negro Congress. He was a 6-time All-Star and 8-time stolen base leader. 14,591st in major league history) I first learned about Willie McGees story from a broadcast on National Public Radio, in which his granddaughter, Bridgette McGee-Robinson, narrated her Mississippi travels. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Part-timer Lonnie Smith stole 12, and so on down the line.. Deshields has two children who also became professional athletes. There has been some talk about retiring McGees number, 51, for the Cards. The incipient fatherhood of Daunte Wright is but one example. 1. vs. CHC 1 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB, Rookie Status: He is popular for being a Baseball Player. Losing Willie McGee became a symbol of the uphill battle Cold War civil rights . 51. }, Cronkite School at ASU So, how much is Willie McGee worth at the age of 65 years old? And Willie McGee? 6/23/84: Willie McGee becomes the first Cardinals player since Lou Brock in 1975 to hit for the cycleCheck out http://MLB.com/video for more!About MLB.com: F. Having the advantage of living in KC, you know I never hear the end of that one, but hey, what else have those fans got? Together with William Patterson, a dedicated black reformer, Abzug risked her . Perhaps what is most haunting about Willie McGees case is the ordinariness of it all. Born: May 31, 1967 (East Chicago, Indiana), Teams: Houston Astros (1991), Cleveland Indians (1992-96, 1998-2001, 2007), Atlanta Braves (1997), Chicago White Sox (2002), San Francisco Giants (2002), Pittsburgh Pirates (2003), Chicago Cubs (2003), New York Yankees (2004), Philadelphia Phillies (2005), Los Angeles Dodgers (2006), Texas Rangers (2007), Career highlights: Six-time All-Star (1994-99), four-time Gold Glove Award winner (1993-96). A Black 36-year-old truck driver, Willie McGee, became an important part of Mississippi history just after midnight on May 8, 1951, in the same courtroom where he was condemned to death. While some Mississippi segregationists boosted their political careers by pandering to the fear and outrage among the states white voters, McGees highly publicized trials and execution complicated American efforts to appeal to nonaligned nations in Asia and Africa. And while there are metrics in baseball to measure speed, sometimes you just have to believe what your eyes are telling you and throw away the numbers. McGee's legal case became a cause clbre that attracted worldwide attention, as it was roundly decried as a miscarriage of justice in the . But baseball speed is different than football speed (it's more nuanced), and Sanders does have a few peers in MLB history when it comes to flying around the bases, although not many. At 12:10 am, McGee was dead, and his body immediately taken away by two Negro stretch-bearers. We must remember Willie McGees name and the tragedies left in the aftermath of his electrocution. With your gift, we can do even more important stories like this one. The US Department of State closely monitored world reaction to the case, and the 1952 Republican nominee for vice president, Richard Nixon, recounted that while traveling in Switzerland his car had been pasted with bumper stickers protesting the legalized lynching of Willie McGee. Nixon complained that the incident provided evidence that southern racism undermined the American case for democracy. Watson, threw the switch. Teams: Montreal Expos (1990-93), Los Angeles Dodgers (1994-96), St. Louis Cardinals (1997-98), Baltimore Orioles (1999-2001), Chicago Cubs (2001-02), Career highlights: National League Rookie of the Year runner-up (1990). Maury Wills led the National League in stolen bases six times and set the MLB single-season record with 104 stolen bases in 1962 the same year he was named National League MVP. REGISTRATION OPEN FOR 18TH ANNUAL CARDINALS KIDS CLINICS, http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2005-02-23/news/willie-mcgee-denies-ever-using-steroids/. is but one example. High School Sports; Akron East hires LeBron James' high school teammate Willie McGee as boys basketball coach. 0. Part of a stolen base renaissance in the 1970s, Wilson used his elite speed to propel the fledgling Kansas City Royals into constant contention from his arrival in 1976, continuing for many years thereafter including a World Series appearance in 1980 and world title in 1985. The third verdict was affirmed by the State Supreme Court. The organization argued against the racist application of the rape law, under which no Mississippi white man had been executed, and alleged that Hawkins and McGee had been involved in a romantic relationship until McGees threats to end the affair drove Hawkins to charge rape. His storymuch like the names we encounter todayis one of ordinary humanity, names not of public record until their lives were cut short and too soon on the basis of unequal structures. Among them was the novelist Howard Fast. He set the MLB rookie record with 72 stolen bases in 1984. If you are interested in signing this petition, look it up on your favorite search engine and complete the thought. Only the likes of Ozzie, Schoendienst, The Man, Slaughter, Boyer, Dizzy Dean, Lou Brock, Whitey Herzog, Jackie Robinson (in all of baseball), Sutter, Bob Gibson, August Busch and Jack Buck. FOCUS: 2022 Elections Housing & Evictions #MSWelfare Scandal Jackson Water Abortion Race & Racism Policing Incarceration. Willie McGee was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 7th round of the 1976 MLB June Amateur Draft from Ells HS (Richmond, CA) and the New York Yankees in the 1st round (15th) of the 1977 MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase from Diablo Valley College (Pleasant Hill, CA). Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Some of the best base runners were those who knew how to go from first to third base the best, or score from first on a drive to the outfield. More recently, Ive had the opportunity to speak with Bridgette about her grandfathers case and her role as the family historian.. The event was broadcast live on the radio. Teams: Kansas City Royals (1976-90), Oakland Athletics (1991-92), Chicago Cubs (1993-94), Career highlights: World Series champion (1985), two-time All-Star (1982, 1983), Gold Glove Award (1980), two-time Silver Slugger Award (1980, 1982). . The case was barely noticed until Bella Abzug, a young New York labor lawyer, was hired to oversee Willie McGee's appeal. 1985 National League MVP who helped the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series in 1982. (Not to be confused with todays Billy Hamilton). Many thanks to him. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers (1959-66), Pittsburgh Pirates (1967-68), Montreal Expos (1969), Los Angeles Dodgers (1969-72), Career highlights: Three-time World Series champion (1959, 1963, 1965), National League MVP (1962), seven-time All-Star (1961-63, 1965, 1966), two-time Gold Glove Award winner (1961, 1962). That said, what are the top 10 fastest MLB players ever? Billy Hamiltons electric debut #SpeedKills #RunBillyRun pic.twitter.com/SV9jUCla8a. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Willie McGee - 1987 Donruss Autographed Baseball card # 84 - Cardinals - OF at the best online prices at eBay!
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