I was a big fan of Maury Wills, when he played for the Dodgers in the 1960s. These were the struggle-to-score Dodgers, who often went back to Dead Ball Era tactics to win, with “Little Maury” leading the way.

Bunt single, stolen base, ground ball to the right side, sacrifice fly.

That was a Dodgers rally, particularly as the decade rolled on and offense became scarce. Sometime in the middle 1960s, Don Drysdale was told that Sandy Koufax had pitched a no-hitter, and Drysdale’s reaction was: “Did he win?”

Wills stole 104 bases in 1962, breaking Ty Cobb’s “modern” record, and helping the Dodgers to a share of first place with the San Francisco Giants. (The Dodgers lost the playoff.) He was voted MVP of the National League, in a rare (for that time) departure by the electorate from the usual most-homers-and-RBI voting.

A case can be made that Willie Mays should have been MVP that year; his Wins Above Replacement stat was 105, Wills’s was 6.0. But voters of that era, innocent lambs, didn’t have advanced metrics to tell them how to vote and they clearly were impressed by what the Dodgers’ leadoff man had done — help reintroduce the stolen base into the game after about 30 years of no one running much.

Wills was great fun to watch.

And, probably, no metric can clearly evaluate the havoc a base-stealer causes in the minds of the opposition. Pitchers become distracted and maybe throw over to first half a dozen times. Middle infielders get twitchy. First basemen get attached to the first-base bag.

Teams which had to deal with Lou Brock (118 steals) and Rickey Henderson (130), each of whom stole more bases than Wills’s 104, could tell you about it.

The Giants, certainly, were bothered by Maury Wills. They famously watered down the area around first base at Candlestick, hoping Wills would be unable to get a good start in stealing second.

Wills was hell on wheels, in 1962. Those 104 steals? He was caught only 13 times.

He did so much sliding that his right leg and hip were a bloody mess, by the time the season ended.

He also scored 130 runs, didn’t miss a game and was a decent defensive shortstop, which was important for a low-run-game team.

And the point of all this is: Maury Wills will be one of the 10 Dodgers bobbleheads this season! When I hope/plan to be in California! On July 6.

There is no such thing as a bad bobblehead, so it’s gravy when your nodding doll is someone you like to remember. (Though not so much for his rocky, post-playing career; before he got cleaned up.)

If it all works out … Maury Wills will have a place of honor on my desk at The National, in Abu Dhabi. That I might be the only person in the room who appreciates a guy who retired 40-plus years ago … makes it better.