(Via San Francisco Giants)
San Francisco Giants legend and Hall of Famer Willie McCovey passed away peacefully Wednesday afternoon at the age of 80, after losing his battle with ongoing health issues.
Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow both idolized and played against McCovey as a young man, before getting to know the legend as a member of the Giants organization. Following news of McCovey’s passing, Krukow hopped on with Tolbert & Lund to share stories of the man they called Stretch.
“He was bigger than life to me,” Krukow began. “When I was 12 years old I was raised in Los Angeles, and the only games we got were the Dodgers and the Giants. So we knew McCovey, and he was scary. My guy was (Don) Drysdale, I loved him, and McCovey wore his ass out. When I finally got a chance to meet Drysdale later on in life — he was a broadcaster when I was a player — and I asked him about that and he goes, “Scariest guy ever, I had no chance against him.”
Krukow himself did have a chance against McCovey when the Hall of Famer was towards the end of his career. As a member of the Chicago Cubs, Krukow had the unfortunate task of facing McCovey with the bases loaded.
“As luck would have it I got a chance to play against him,” Krukow said. “I was with the Cubs, and the first time I ever played against him was Candlestick. I gave up 196 home runs in my life, never gave up a grand slam, but McCovey comes up and bases are loaded and I throw a pitch down and in which was dumb. He yanks it right down the right field line.
“Now it was fair by 10 feet, but he hit it so far that it hooked around the foul pole and landed to the right side of the foul pole. As I turned I see the first base umpire. He goes down the line and he stumbles, so he doesn’t see where it wraps around the foul pole, but he sees where it lands in the upper deck 10 feet to the right, and he says foul ball. It was a fair ball, it was a grand slam.
“McCovey never said a word, he just shook his head with a smile. He went back in the box, I threw about a 56 hopper curveball and he swung at it, and it was strike three and I kind of got out of it.
“When I got traded over to the Giants, he was one of the first guys that I saw, and the first thing that he said was, ‘You know I got a grand slam off ya,’ and we had kind of a joke about that.
“He was just bigger than life, and he was as good a human being as he was a player.”
To hear these stories and more, listen to the full interview below.