Great success, Mike! Congrats!
Wills is an under appreciated player today. Fans today just see his over all career stats and don't realize what an impact he had on the game. At the time, he literally was the most electrifying player in the game. Back in the dead ball era teams had to manufacture runs and steal bases to get in scoring position. When the live ball era began teams forgot how to play small ball and the running game became a lost art...until Wills broke into the majors, and it took him a long time to do that. His speed was so devastating, and his base stealing skill so refined, he created a new dimension to the game. Just ask Tommy Davis, who drove in more than 150 runs in 1963, how important it was to have Maury Wills batting in front of him. He was, quite literally, simply amazing. As a result teams started looking for speedsters. Some times they tried to manufacture them. Take Lou Brock, for instance. He owes his entire HOF career to Wills influence. When he was with the Cubs he was trying to be a power hitter with not a lot of consistent power. When he got to St. Louis they told him he was going to play every day, and they were going to bat him leadoff. They wanted him to swipe bases just like Wills. Something tells me he did pretty well.
