Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCovey has been pardoned by Barack Obama for a 21-year-old guilty plea to tax fraud.

The San Francisco Giants legend was one of 273 individuals granted a second chance by the outgoing president on Tuesday, when Obama issued 209 grants of commutation and 64 pardons.

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“I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Obama not only for this kind gesture on my behalf, but also for his tireless service to all Americans,” McCovey, 79, said in a statement issued through the Giants. “He will be deeply missed and I wish him all the best in the future.”

McCovey pleaded guilty to income tax-fraud conspiracy in 1995, alongside fellow baseball star Duke Snider, admitting he failed to report $70,000 in fees received from memorabilia and autograph shows between 1988 and 1990.

The plea carried a sentence of up to seven months in jail. Both McCovey and Snider, who died in 2011, were given two years’ probation and a $5,000 fine in 1996.

The left-handed McCovey, who played 19 of his 22 major league seasons with the Giants, was one of the most intimidating power hitters of his era. He retired in 1980 with 521 career home runs, which tied him for eighth all-time with Ted Williams at the time. His 18 grand slams remains a National League record.

The Alabama native, who was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1986, still works with the Giants as a senior advisor and goodwill ambassador.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest McCovey hit 521 home runs in a career that spanned four decades. Photograph: Focus On Sport/Getty Images

He is the namesake of McCovey Cove, the unofficial name of the area in San Francisco Bay right beyond the right field wall of AT&T Park, where fans who hope to retrieve a home run ball famously congregate in boats and kayaks on game days at the Giants’ home stadium.

Obama also commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the US army whistleblower who has been imprisoned for six years for leaking state secrets.