Billy Williams - Billy Williams: My Sweet-Swinging Lifetime with the Cubs

Contents

Foreword by Ron Santo

B illy Williams and I hold the record for the most games played together as major league teammates. So I believe it is only fitting that I continue to stand by the side of my lifelong friend and teammate by writing the foreword to this autobiography.

I first met Billy during a three-week Cubs rookie camp in Mesa, Arizona, in 1958. I was 18 years old and it was the first time I had been away from my hometown of Seattle. The players in this special camp were considered to be the top 30 rookie prospects in the organization.

The moment I met Billy, I just felt as if I had known him forever. We felt very comfortable around each other; Billy and I just hit it off. The two of us spent a lot of time together those three weeks. We always hit in the same batting group, and we hung out together after practice.

Billy had been in the minor leagues already for a couple of years, and Rogers Hornsby was our batting instructor in the camp. I was in awe of Hornsby because I knew he was a Hall of Fame player, a terrific hitter.

At the end of the three-week camp, Hornsby had us all sit in a small bleacher area. Billy and I were sitting next to each other as Hornsby went down the first line of players and told each one of those guys that they wouldnt get past Class AA ball. As he is telling them that discouraging news, Billy and I are looking at each other, worrying and wondering what he is going to say to us next.

Hornsby turned to Billy and said, You can hit in the big leagues right now!

As I am sitting next to Billy, I am thinking, Oh, please, dont tell me to go home.

But then Hornsby said to me, And you can hit in the big leagues.

Billy and I were the only two position players who made the big leagues out of that group. I came up to the big leagues in 1960, and Billy came up in 1961 and was the National League Rookie of the Year.

In 1959, Billy and I were teammates with the Class AA San Antonio Missions. One day in the middle of the season, our teammate J.C. Hartman came over to me and said, RonBilly went home!

I said, What?

Billy was having a great year at San Antonio. I was hitting behind Billy in the batting order, and we were both having good years.

It wasnt until later that I realized just how much discrimination Billy and the other black ballplayers on our team were facing.

When we played in Texas and traveled to different small towns in that state, our bus would stop before we got to the team hotel and let Billy off. I couldnt understand it, being from Seattle, Washington. I asked Billy, Why are they dropping you off?

Billy said, They wont let me stay in a white hotel.

I felt so bad. It really made me sick to my stomach.

Thats when the Cubs called Buck ONeil to track down Billy in Whistler, Alabama. He was back with our ballclub in about a week.

Whenever Billy or I found ourselves in a little bit of a hitting slump, the team called in Hornsby. He would look at us and always say, Remember what I told you. Stay back in the batters box and take a short stride. Thats all he said. He never messed with our mechanics.

Throughout our careers in the big leagues, Billy and I used to watch each other at the plate. We used to be our own hitting instructors.

I hit behind Billy in the lineup. And whenever he would walk up to the plate, before he stepped in the batters box, he would spit out his gum and hit it with his bat in midair. Or sometimes he would spit and hit it with his bat. He would never miss! I would try it and couldnt do it.

Everybody in the media thought that Billy was extremely shy when he was a young man. But in the clubhouse with his teammates, he was a leader. Billy spoke his mind, and I loved that about him. On the field, he very seldom would argue with anybody. He would just keep hitting line drives. I have never seen a left-handed hitter in my life as good as Billy Williams. I really mean that. He could hit a pitch at the last second and take it out of the ballpark. Sweet Swingin Billy had a gift that allowed him to wait on the ball like no other hitter I have ever seen.

I was named captain of the Cubs at the age of 23. And I thought that to be an honor. But I always thought a captain was one who did the job with the bat and the glove when it came to setting the example. In that sense, Billy Williams was a leader on our ballclub. Kenny Holtzman also was a leader. Fergie Jenkins was a leader. Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundleyyou could just go down the line.

But what I loved about Billy is that if he had something to say to somebody, he would go right up to that ballplayer and have a one-on-one with him. Billy was beautiful about that. I think that is why all of us on that 1969 Cubs team remain so close, even though we did not make it to the World Series that year. All of us care about one another. Billy will be always special to me. He is a very lovable guya caring guy.

We were a very entertaining ballclub in 69. We had three Hall of Famers, and we related well to the fans. We posed for pictures, and we knew that when we walked down by the left-field line at Wrigley Field, we would all sign autographs. We said hi to everybody. It was a wonderful love affair.

Back in those days, the players families were close and not that many guys from the nucleus of our team got traded. When we did get traded, it was at the end of our careers.

The Cubs Fantasy Baseball Camps that Randy Hundley has been conducting for more than 25 years in Arizona have been a great way for all of us to keep tabs on one another. The great thing about those reunions is that we can all embellish a lot of our stories. And believe me, there are some really strange stories that come up.

But this book is filled with remarkable, true stories. I know because I was right there, kneeling down in the on-deck circle, watching the life of Sweet Swingin Billy Williams unfold.

Ron Santo

1. I Quit!

I am taking the first train out of here. Heading back home to Alabama. Baseball just isnt any fun for me anymore.

That was my mindset in 1959 when social conditions and racial tension at Class AA San Antonio, Texas, left me weary, angry, and frustrated. Sad thing was, I was tearing the cover off the baseball then, hitting around .320, and playing well, challenging Carl Yastrzemski for the Class AA minor league batting title. Thats where I first got the nickname Sweet Swinging Billy Williams.

But I was not accustomed to being treated like an animal away from the baseball diamond. I couldnt take the bigotry, discrimination, and overt racism.

Back in my hometown of Whistler, Alabamajust outside of Mobileblack people and white people lived in the same neighborhoods, frequented the same stores and restaurants. Sure, there was a level of discrimination, but much more subtle. My mother worked for white folks as a domestic and had no problems. I tried to understand the rules of segregation in San Antonio, but I certainly didnt like them.

I would help entertain fans at the ballpark by playing baseball to the best of my ability, but then I was not allowed to eat in their restaurants or stay in their hotels. My black teammates and I had to rely on our white teammates to bring us a sandwich in the back of the bus after they were done enjoying their casual meal in a segregated restaurant. Jim Brewer, a white pitcher who befriended me in the minors, often made sure I got some food delivered to me. He later pitched in the big leagues and enjoyed some success, playing 17 years with the Cubs, Dodgers, and Angels. He died tragically in a car accident in 1987 at the age of 50.