Bleacher Bums Forum

Good article Curt...I always figured Wills was already in the HOF...dummy me

With Ron Santo, you didn't have to make his case by comparing him to the low tier Hall of Famers.

If it is aggregate performance, then Wills doesn't really come close.  If it is peak year value, he really only gets a tepid argument.  If it is impact on the game itself, Wills is a first ballot HOFer.

I can go along with that.  I think Bruce Miles made a good point a long time ago, in saying it's the Hall of Fame and not the Hall of Stats when he making his case for voting for Jack Morris. 

Overall for his career statistically, Wills has just a marginal case.  Statistically, his career is most similar to guys like Luis Castillo, Larry Bowa, and Steve Sax.  Still, people will probably remember Wills a lot longer than they will Castillo or Sax because of his impact on the game in bringing the stolen base back and having a pretty strong peak career.   That's probably where the Hall of Fame vs. Hall of Stats argument comes in, and it's not a horrible argument for including Wills.

If he ever does make the Hall, he'd be pretty far from the most outrageous choice for induction, and I'd go along with it if it ever happens.  Still, his case isn't a strong one either and not nearly as comparable to someone like Ron Santo's.  Wills being left out of the Hall isn't nearly the travesty that leaving Santo out for all of those years was.

EDIT:  Bad choice of words about Wills only having a "very borderline case at best".

That's all I can say.

If only that was true . . .

Having never seen Wills play, how was his impact on the game different than, say, mid-late 80's Vince Coleman?

Dave23, I remember Wills as being one of the only weapons the Dodgers had.  Not true, they had the Davis boys and stellar starting pitching, but it was so frustrating to see Wills walk, steal second, steal third and then Junior Gilliam, Willie Davis, or Tommy Davis would single or hit a fly or whatever, Koufax would throw a shut out, and the Dodgers would go home with yet another 1-0 win.  I'm sure it only happened on occasion but it seemed like every game.

I don't recall Henderson or Coleman or Brock ever having that impact.  Brock won the Cards a lot of games and Henderson did the same for the A's and Yankees, but there was this thing about the Dodgers that the first thing you thought of for several years was...oh, yeah, Maury Wills.

Good point, but, like davep said, Wills, in the modern era was key to a team who proved first it was another way to score...often.