He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago Cubs.

[2] Wilson was drafted out of high school after signing a letter of intent to play college football at Maryland.

[4] He started his professional career with the Gulf Coast Royals, batting .252 with a home run, 14 RBI and 24 stolen bases in 47 games.

[5] He moved up to Single-A in 1975 for the Waterloo Royals, leading the 1975 Midwest League champions in both RBI (73) and stolen bases (76).

[6] In 1976, Wilson played for the Double-A Jacksonville Suns, batting .253 with a home run, 35 RBI and 37 stolen bases in 107 games.

In what turned out to be his last minor league action (not counting a stunt appearance in 2009), he batted .281 with four home runs, 47 RBI and 74 stolen bases in 132 games.

He won both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards, and was fourth in the AL MVP voting, his best finish.

The ball bounced right to Wilson, but Yankee third base coach Mike Ferraro waved Randolph home.

Wilson overthrew U L Washington, the cut-off man, but George Brett was in position behind him to catch the ball, then throw to Darrell Porter, who tagged out Randolph in a slide.

In the 1981 American League Division Series against the Oakland A's, he batted .308, but failed to score a run, steal a base, or get an extra-base hit in the three-game sweep.

[18] Although the Royals missed the playoffs for the first time since 1979, Wilson made his first American League All-Star team that year and winning his second Silver Slugger Award.

In the midst of the shuffle, Wilson had his worst season at the plate to date, batting .276 with two home runs and 33 RBI in 137 games.

After the end of the 1983 season, Wilson found himself in a drug scandal along with teammates Willie Aikens, Vida Blue, and Jerry Martin.

He also continued to play well defensively, leading the league in fielding percentage among center fielders in 1987, and among all outfielders in 1990, when he finished the year without a single error.

[7] In 1992, Dave Henderson missed most of the season with a hamstring injury,[23] leaving Wilson as the starting center fielder.

After playing just 17 games that year and recording a .238 batting average, he was released on May 16, ending his major league career.

Wilson also came out of retirement in 2009, signing a one-day contract with the Kansas City T-Bones, a team playing in the independent Northern League.