Tag: Willie McCovey Award

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum honors Giants Willy Adames

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San Francisco Giant second baseman Willy Adames (2) receives the Willie McCovey Award on Fri Sep 26, 2025. On Wed Sep 24, 2025 Adames received the Jose Uribe Hispanic Heritage Baseball Hall of Fame Museum Award at Oracle Park in San Francisco (San Francisco Giants X photo)

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum honors Giants Willy Adames

Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum honors Giants Willy Adames

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

On Wednesday, September 24, prior to game #159 of the regular season, Willy Adames, shortstop of the San Francisco Giants, received the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame plaque honoring him with the José Uribe Award.

Amaury Pi-González, Vice President and Co-Founder of the museum, presented Adames with the plaque. Michael Friedman and Michael Gama, also representing the museum, were in attendance. This award is presented by the museum to the most outstanding Hispanic player on the San Francisco Giants each year.

In 2024, Wilmer Flores was the recipient. Two days later on Friday September 26, the Giants honored Adames with the Willie McCovey Award, Felicidades Willy this is your year!

This is the inscription on the José Uribe plaque. The Jose Uribe Sportsmanship Award has been awarded to a San Francisco Giants player who best exemplifies the character and Sportsmanship of the late Jose Uribe, a former San Francisco Giants Shortstop from the Dominican Republic who was a member of the 1989 National League Champion San Francisco Giants, who went on to play the Oakland Athletics during the Loma Prieta Earthquake-stricken World Series.

The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame wants to thank Bertha Fajardo of the San Francisco Giants for her cooperation in coordinating this event. Over 30% of all players in Major League Baseball are Hispanic, according to most statistics. https://hhbmhof.com/

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez – Cuban-born Pi-González is one of the pioneers of Spanish-language baseball play-by-play in America. Began as Oakland A’s Spanish-language voice in 1977 ending in 2024 (interrupted by stops with the Giants, Mariners and Angels). Voice of the Golden State Warriors from 1992 through 1998. 2010 inducted in the Bay Area Radio Hall of fame.

While in the Bay Area, great food and great prices. 998cuba.com

San Francisco Giants report: History of the Willie Mac Award

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Willie McCovey holding one of his many awards played with the San Francisco Giants from 1958 to 1973 and returned to the Giants in 1977-1980 (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum photo)

By Jeremy Kahn

When the late Willie McCovey retired after pinch hitting against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers on July 6, 1980, the San Francisco Giants honored him by creating an award in honor of him.

The Willie Mac Award is awarded to the most inspirational player on the team, and McCovey himself would be there in attendance every year until untimely passing on October 31, 2018 at the age of 80.

McCovey, who played 22 years in the major leagues for the Giants, the San Diego Padres and the Oakland Athletics; however, he will mostly be remembered for wearing the Orange and Black from 1959-1973, then split between the Padres and Athletics from 1974-1976 and then came back to the Giants before the 1977 season.

The 64 McCovey would be a regular at PacIfic Bell Park, then SBC Park and AT&T Park, as he was usually in his box on the club level and would be seen by throngs of fans as he left the park in a cart.

Jack Clark won the inaugural award in 1980, then Larry Herndon won the award in 1981 and was subsequently traded to the Detroit Tigers for left-handed reliever Dan Schatzeder.

Oakland native and a member of the famed Big Red Machine, the late Joe Morgan won the award in 1982 and ended the season with one of the Giants most famous home runs in the history of the team, when he hit a three-run home run off of Terry Forster that knocked the Dodgers out of the playoffs and gave the National League Western Division. That home run came on October 3, 1982, exactly 31 years after Bobby Thomsons famous Shot Heard Round the World, off of Dodgers reliever Ralph Branca that sent the Giants to their first World Series since 1937.

Multiple players have won the award more than once, including current Giants TV analyst Mike Krukow, J.T. Snow, and Bengie Molina.

On three different occasions, there have co-winners, as in 1995, Mark Leiter and Mark Carreon won the award. Sixteen years later in 2001, Mark Gardner and Benito Santiago shared the award and in 2016, Brandon Crawford and Javier Lopez split the award.

Mike Yastrzemski won the award in 2020, his first full year with the ballclub.

Here is the list of winners.

1980: Clark
1981: Herndon
1982: Morgan
1983: Darrell Evans
1984: Bob Brenly
1985: Krukow
1986: Krukow
1987: Chris Speier
1988: Jose Uribe
1989: Dave Dravecky
1990: Steve Bedrosian
1991: Robby Thompson
1992: Mike Felder
1993: Kirt Manwaring
1994: No winner
1995: Carreon and Leiter
1996: Shawon Dunston
1997: Snow
1998: Jeff Kent
1999: Marvin Benard
2000: Ellis Burks
2001: Gardner and Santiago
2002: David Bell
2003: Marquis Grissom
2004: Snow
2005: Mike Matheny
2006: Omar Vizquel
2007: Bengie Molina
2008: Molina
2009: Matt Cain
2010: Andres Torres
2011: Ryan Vogelsong
2012: Buster Posey
2013: Hunter Pence
2014: Madison Bumgarner
2015: Matt Duffy
2016: Crawford and Lopez
2017: Nick Hundley
2018: Will Smith
2019: Kevin Pillar
2020: Yastrzemski