A model of consistency
Billy Williams’ Hall of Fame career ends 47 years ago today as the Oakland Athletics release their designated hitter of two seasons.
Prior to becoming Oakland’s DH in 1975, Williams spends 16 seasons as the Chicago Cubs’ left fielder and becomes one of the game’s most consistent players.
Not so much, though, in 1976 with Oakland, where the 38-year-old Williams, in his final season, hits only .211 in 120 games with 11 home runs and 41 runs batted in.
The production is not even close to resembling the totality of a career in which Williams bats .290 over 2,478 games with 426 home runs and 1,475 RBIs.
Along the way, he plays in 1,117 straight games from Sept. 22, 1962 to Sept. 2, 1970 to set a National League record for consecutive games, a record Steve Garvey later breaks in 1983.
At the time, Williams’ streak of 1,117 straight games is the third longest in baseball history, trailing only Lou Gehrig (2,130) and Everett Scott (1,307).
“Billy Williams’ life is a system,” Ernie Banks says of his longtime Cubs teammate. “He gets up at the same time. He eats at the same time, leaves for the park at the same time, gets home at the same time. Nothing distracts him from his system.”
And few Hall of Fame players are more underappreciated than Williams. Well, perhaps by fans and media, but not by Williams’ peers.
“When I got to the Pirates,” Pittsburgh second baseman Dave Cash tells Sports Illustrated in 1973, “I found out there were guys who weren’t half as good as I heard they were. But when I saw Billy Williams, I said, ‘This man is a ballplayer, and nobody writes about him.’ ”
Not that Williams ever seeks the attention. Not at the ballpark, in the media or even at home.
“There were times that I could hit two home runs and I’d go home, and the only time my wife would find out about it is if they had it on the 10 o’clock news, and she’d see that and say, ‘You hit two home runs today!’ ” Williams once says.
“I wasn’t too high and I wasn’t too low. Consistency is staying right in the middle, because baseball is a game of failure. You could be good one day and not good the next day.”
