the San Francisco Giants. This decision allowed him to continue his professional career in the area in which he was born, raised, and resided with his family. With the Giants, he remained a consistent and productive player, batting near or above .300 each year until an ankle injury befell him in . Attempting to rebound from injury, McGee signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox on June 6, 1995, and played in only 67 games that season. McGee had one hit in four at-bats in the Cleveland Indians' Division Series sweep of Boston. Return to St. Louis On December 15, 1995, McGee signed with St. Louis as a free agent. One of the lighter moments of the 1996 season came in the form of a commercial that McGee recorded with Ozzie Smith. As part of the team's "Baseball like it oughta be" ad campaign, Smith and McGee—under the aliases of "Henry Smith" and "Walter McGee" respectively—partially ad-libbed several TV spots dressed as two old men sitting in a bar talking about the Cardinals. Shocked that the shy McGee would do such an outrageous thing, teammates were enthralled by watching outtakes from the TV spots, some of which can be seen on a commemorative video about the Cardinals' 1996 season. An aged veteran at this point in his career, McGee's role as outfielder became limited, and he averaged about 300 at bats a year. Despite his limited role, he batted .307 and .300 in 1996 and 1997, respectively, and he provided fans with dramatic offensive sparks that recalled his earlier years. In St. Louis' 1997 home opener at Busch Memorial Stadium, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and the score tied 1–1, McGee hit a pinch-hit home run to win the game, which provided a memorable highlight to cap his remarkable career with the St. Louis Cardinals. On August 5, 1999, Willie made a brilliant shoestring catch on a looping fly ball hit by San Diego Padres' outfielder Tony Gwynn. Had McGee not caught that ball, Gwynn would have recorded his 3,000th major league hit. McGee played his final game on October 3, 1999, at age 40 and as the third-oldest player in the majors. Career statistics Regular Season Batting Post Season Batting McGee had a .976 career fielding % and from 1983 to 1990 finished in the top 5 among NL outfielders in