Nov. 23, 1962 - Speed in baseball has been playing second fiddle to power ever since Babe Ruth demonstrated that nothing accounts for a run in less time than a smash into the seats. Nevertheless, little Maury Wills, the shortstop of the Los Angeles Dodgers who revived interest last summer in the almost lost art of base-stealing, was named today as the winner of the National League’s 1962 most valuable player award. The 30-year-old, 160-pound speed wizard, who hit only 8 home runs, startled the baseball world by zooming past Ty Cobb’s 37-year-old modern record of 96 steals for a season by stealing 104 bases. He was thrown out only 13 times. Willie Mays, the slugging center fielder of the San Francisco Giants who walloped a league-leading total of 48 homers, placed second in the voting.
