The 100 Greatest in 100 Days: #79 Willie McCovey

Coming in at #79 on our list is Giants slugger Willie McCovey. To get an idea of how feared McCovey’s bat was, consider that he was intentionally walked 260 times in his career which is the 5th highest total in history behind only Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, Stan Musial, and Hank Aaron. That’s some stellar company. Before Bonds rewrote the history books on intentional walks from 2002-2004, McCovey held the single-season intentional walks record (45). In fact, McCovey still has the highest non-Bonds single-season mark and he’s the only non-Bonds player to reach 40+ intentional walks in a season twice. McCovey led the National League in slugging % and OPS+ for three consecutive seasons. He led the league in home runs three times and finished in the top-5 seven times. He took home the National League MVP in 1969 and was 8th on the all time home run list when he retired in 1980.