Maurice Morning Wills (October 2, 1932 – September 19, 2022) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop from 1959 to 1972, most prominently as an integral member of the Los Angeles Dodgers teams that won three World Series titles between 1959 and 1965. He also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Montreal Expos. Wills is credited with reviving the stolen base as part of baseball strategy.
Wills was the National League Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1962, stealing a record 104 bases to break the old modern-era mark of 96, set by Ty Cobb in 1915. Wills was an All-Star for five seasons and seven All-Star Games, and was the first MLB All-Star Game Most Valuable Player in 1962. He also won Gold Gloves in 1961 and 1962. In a fourteen-year career, Wills batted .281 with 20 home runs, 458 runs batted in, 2,134 hits, 1,067 runs, 177 doubles, 71 triples, 586 stolen bases, and 552 bases on balls in 1,942 games. Wills briefly managed the Seattle Mariners in parts of the 1980 and 1981 seasons. From 2009 until his death in 2022, Wills was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, serving as a representative of the Dodgers Legend Bureau.
Wills was born in Washington, D.C., to Guy and Mabel Wills, the seventh of 13 children. His parents were originally from Maryland; his father, born in 1900, worked as a machinist at the Washington Navy Yard and was a part-time Baptist minister. His mother, born in 1902, worked as an elevator operator.
He began playing semi-professional baseball at age 14. At Cardozo Senior High School, Wills starred in baseball, basketball, and football. He earned All-City honors in each sport in his sophomore, junior, and senior years. On the baseball team, he played third base and also pitched.
Wills signed with the then-Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950, after graduating from high school. He spent eight years in the minor leagues for them. Before the 1959 season, the Detroit Tigers bought his contract for $35,000, but they returned Wills to the Dodgers after spring training because they did not think he was worth that salary.
Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers' shortstop, retired after the 1958 season. The Dodgers began the 1959 season with Bob Lillis at shortstop, but he struggled and the team went to Don Zimmer. When Zimmer broke his toe in June, the Dodgers promoted Wills from the minor leagues. He played in 83 games for the Dodgers, batting .260 with 7 RBI. In the 1959 World Series, he played in each of the six games, hitting 5-for-20 with one stolen base and two runs in the Dodgers' victory. Before the 1960 season, the Dodgers traded Zimmer. In Wills's first full season in 1960, he hit .295 with 27 RBI and a league-leading 50 stolen bases in 148 games, becoming the first National League (NL) player to steal 50 bases since Max Carey stole 51 in 1923.
In 1962, Wills stole 104 bases to set a new MLB stolen base record, breaking the old modern era mark of 96, set by Ty Cobb in 1915. Wills also stole more bases than any team that year, the highest total being 99 by the Washington Senators. Wills was caught stealing just 13 times. He finished the season batting .299 with six home runs and 48 RBI, and led the NL with 10 triples and 179 singles. Late in the 1962 season, San Francisco Giants Manager Alvin Dark ordered grounds crews to water down the base paths, turning them into mud to hinder Wills's base-stealing attempts. In 1962, Wills played a full 162-game schedule, plus all three games of the best-of-three regular season playoff series with the Giants, giving him a total of 165 games played, an MLB record that, as of 2025, still stands, and would be almost impossible to break under current rules. His 104 steals remained a major league record until Lou Brock stole 118 in 1974. He won the NL Most Valuable Player Award over Willie Mays, with teammate Tommy Davis finishing third.
In the 1963 World Series, Wills batted 2-for-16 (.133) with one stolen base in the Dodgers' four-game sweep of the New York Yankees. In the 1965 World Series, he played in all seven games and went 11-for-30 (.367) with three runs and three stolen bases in a hard-fought Dodger victory, his third and last World Series title.
While playing for the Dodgers, Wills was a Gold Glove Award winner in 1961 and 1962, was named a NL All-Star five times (5 seasons), and was selected seven times for the All-Star Game (two games were played in 1961 and 1962).
In the 1966 season, Wills had 38 stolen bases and was caught stealing 24 times. He batted 1-for-13, an .077 average, with one stolen base, in the 1966 World Series, as the Dodgers were swept in four games.
After the 1966 season, the Dodgers went on a postseason exhibition tour of Japan. During the tour, Wills, who was nursing bad knees and felt he was unable to perform, left in the middle and went back home. His leaving was seen as abandonment and disloyalty by Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley who was already irked at losing pitcher Sandy Koufax who had recently retired. Hence, almost as a punishment, the team traded Wills to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Bob Bailey and Gene Michael.
In the 1967 season, he played in 149 games, recording 186 hits, 29 stolen bases (his lowest since having 35 in 1961), three home runs, 45 RBI, and a .302 batting average. In the following season, he played in 153 games, getting 174 hits, 31 RBI, and 52 stolen bases, although he was caught stealing 21 times, with a .278 batting average.
On October 14, 1968, the Montreal Expos selected Wills from the Pirates as the 21st pick in the expansion draft. Wills batted first in the lineup for the inaugural game of the Expos on April 8, 1969. He went 3-for-6 with one RBI and one stolen base in the 11–10 win. He played just 47 games for the team, getting 42 hits, 8 RBI and 15 stolen bases on a .222 batting average. An exchange with Ted Blackman of the Montreal Gazette on May 19 made headlines when Wills struck Blackman in the mouth due to not liking what Blackman had put in the paper, and loose play by Wills later that month led to boos in Montreal. Unhappy in Montreal, Wills briefly retired on June 3 but returned to the Expos 48 hours later.
On June 11, 1969, the Expos traded Wills to the Dodgers along with Manny Mota for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich. In 104 games with Los Angeles, he batted .297 with four home runs and 39 RBI while stealing 25 bases. After the season, Wills finished 11th in NL MVP voting. In the following year, he played in 132 games while having 141 hits, 34 RBI 28 stolen bases, and a .270 batting average. For 1971, he played in 149 games while having 169 hits, three home runs, 44 RBI, 15 stolen bases, and a .281 batting average, resulting in a sixth-place finish in NL MVP voting. However, Wills failed to work out during the 1972 Major League Baseball strike, and once the season finally started, he struggled with his reflexes and timing. After a game against the Expos in which he struggled against Carl Morton, Wills went back to the bench, nodded at manager Walter Alston, and remarked, "He's certainly justified if he takes me out." Alston did indeed replace Wills in the lineup with Bill Russell on April 29, and Wills spent the rest of the season as a reserve player while Russell went on to hold the position for the next several years.
Wills played 71 games in 1972, recording 17 hits, 4 RBI and one stolen base and a .129 batting average. In his final MLB appearance on October 4, 1972, he served as a pinch runner for Ron Cey in the top of the ninth inning, scoring a run on a home run by Steve Yeager while also playing the bottom of the ninth inning at third base. On October 24, 1972, he was released by the Dodgers.
Alongside Chicago White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio (who led the American League in stolen bases in nine straight years), Wills brought new prominence to the tactic of stolen bases. "Almost single-handedly Maury turned baseball from its love affair with plodding, one-dimensional sluggers and got the game to consider pure speed as serious offensive and defensive weapons," noted Tommy John. Perhaps it was due to greater media exposure in Los Angeles, or to the Dodgers' greater success, or to their extreme reliance on a low-scoring strategy that emphasized pitching, defense, and Wills's speed to compensate for their lack of productive hitters. Wills was a significant distraction to the pitcher even if he did not try to steal, because he was a constant threat to do so. The fans at Dodger Stadium would chant, "Go! Go! Go, Maury, Go!" any time he got on base. While not the fastest runner in the major leagues, Wills accelerated with remarkable speed. He also studied pitchers relentlessly, watching their pick-off moves even when not on base. And when driven back to the bag, his fierce competitiveness made him determined to steal. Once, when on first base against New York Mets pitcher Roger Craig, Wills drew twelve consecutive throws from Craig to the Mets first baseman. On Craig's next pitch to the plate, Wills stole second.