Willie McCovey's Estate rounds home at Heritage Auctions in August 1969 National League Most Valuable Player Award Presented to Willie McCovey from The Willie McCovey Collection. Estimate: $100,000 - up. DALLAS, TX .- To most, he was the man called Stretch, a nickname acquired in 1955 during New York Giants spring training in Florida. In April 1957, shortly before the first basemans Texas League debut as a Dallas Eagle, sportswriter editor Bill Rives explained the moniker: The other players took one look at his elastic frame and tagged him Stretch. And so it was until Willie McCoveys death in October 2018. Beloved, revered Stretch, the man who, so the joke went, could grab the ball at second base all the way from first.