Mookie Wilson

William Hayward "Mookie" Wilson (born February 9, 1956) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder and coach who played for the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays over 12 major league seasons.

In the mid-1970s, South Carolina State University, a program located in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and near Wilson's hometown, discontinued its baseball program just days after Wilson had signed a letter of intent to play for the Bulldogs.

As a result, Mookie attended Spartanburg Methodist College for the 1974 and 1975 seasons.

While attending Spartanburg Methodist, Mookie was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fourth round of the January 1976 amateur draft, but did not sign.

Instead, Mookie transferred to play for The University of South Carolina Gamecocks, preferring to attempt to better his draft stock by playing for former New York Yankees great and fellow South Carolina native Bobby Richardson, who was the head coach of the Gamecocks at the time.

The gamble paid off as Wilson was selected in the second round of the 1977 Major League Baseball draft by the New York Mets.

Mookie was part of the Gamecocks' second team to play for a national championship in Omaha, Nebraska, in the 1977 College World Series.

He was also named to the 1977 All-Tournament team as an outfielder.

Wilson earned a B.S. degree from Mercy College.

When Torre shifted Lee Mazzilli, who had been the Mets' center fielder and the face of the organization since his rookie year in 1977, to left field to make room for Mookie in center, he began to turn it around.

He ended the first half of the strike-shortened season at .288 with 11 stolen bases, 21 runs scored and a .340 on-base percentage leading off for the Mets.

His average dipped to .259 in the second half; however, he still stole 13 bases and scored 28 runs.

Wilson batted .284 with 22 home runs, 184 runs batted in, and 160 stolen bases in four seasons in the Mets' farm system, and earned International League Rookie of the Year honors in 1979.

A switch hitter with excellent speed, his positive attitude and hustle immediately endeared him to a Mets fan base with precious few stars to root for when he first came up in the early 1980s.

After stealing 50 bases and scoring 92 runs for the Tidewater Tides in 1980, Mookie was called up to the majors when rosters expanded that September.

Though he got off to a slow start (0 for his first 8), manager Joe Torre stuck with Wilson in center field for 26 of the 31 games remaining on the Mets' schedule.

Wilson again got off to a slow start in 1981, with his batting average dipping to .203 on May 24.

Two of the three home runs he hit in 1981 came in the second half, and both were of the game winning dramatic variety.

On August 25, he hit a ninth-inning homer off Houston Astros closer Joe Sambito to carry the Mets to a 2–1 win.

On September 20, he took St. Louis Cardinals closer and future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter deep with Frank Taveras on first for the come from behind victory.

With Wilson and fellow rookie Hubie Brooks now at the top of the Mets' lineup, the perennial cellar dwellers managed to compete in the second half of the season, finishing 5.5 games back of the National League East division winning Montreal Expos.

In 1982, he stole at least one base in each of his first five games on his way to breaking Frank Taveras' team record with 58 stolen bases.

Mookie became a fixture atop the Mets' lineup through 1984, and was soon himself the face of the organization.

He passed Mazzilli to become the team's all-time stolen base leader in 1984 (he has since been passed in both categories by José Reyes).

Wilson suffered the first injury of his career in 1985, missing two months of the season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder.

He returned in September, but in a very limited role.

The second major injury of his career came the following spring, when Mets shortstop Rafael Santana nailed Wilson in the eye with a thrown ball during base running drills.

Wilson needed to be carted off the field and required 21 stitches.

He is best remembered as the Met who hit the ground ball that rolled through Bill Buckner's legs in the bottom of the 10th inning of game six of the 1986 World Series.

When he returned in May 1986, he was used more frequently in left field, as Lenny Dykstra was batting .300 as the Mets' new lead-off hitter and center fielder.

Regardless of the negative effect the eye injury had upon his vision, he posted a respectable .979 fielding percentage, with seven assists, while committing just five errors splitting time between left and center.

He also batted .289 with nine home runs, 25 stolen bases and 45 RBI as the Mets won first place in the NL East by 21.5 games over the Philadelphia Phillies.

In the postseason for the first time in his career, Wilson batted just .115 in the 1986 National League Championship Series against the Houston Astros.

However, he scored the only run allowed by NLCS MVP Mike Scott in game four of the series, and drove in and scored a run in the ninth inning of game six when the Mets scored three runs in their last at bat to send the game into extra innings.

He was batting a far better .273 in the World Series when he came to the plate in the tenth inning of game six.

The Boston Red Sox scored twice in the top of the tenth inning to go up 5–3 in a series they led three games to two.

After retiring Wally Backman and Keith Hernandez, Red Sox relief pitcher Calvin Schiraldi surrendered singles to the next three batters to bring the score to 5–4 with runners on first and third.

He was enshrined in the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1996.

Born in Bamberg, South Carolina, William Hayward Wilson was nicknamed Mookie as a small child.

He pitched for the Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School Red Raiders baseball team under coach David Horton.