Earl Williams (baseball)

Earl Williams (baseball)

Infobox MLB retired
bgcolor1=#af0039
bgcolor2=#0f437c
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
name=Earl Williams


position=Third Baseman / First Baseman / Catcher
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1948|7|14
debutdate=September 13
debutyear=by|1970
debutteam=Atlanta Braves
finaldate=September 25
finalyear=by|1977
finalteam=Oakland Athletics
stat1label=AVG
stat1value=.247
stat2label=HR
stat2value=138
stat3label=RBI
stat3value=457
teams=
*Atlanta Braves (by|1970–by|1972, by|1975-by|1976)
*Baltimore Orioles (by|1973–by|1974)
*Montreal Expos (by|1976)
*Oakland Athletics (by|1977)
highlights=
*Rookie of the Year in 1971

Earl Craig Williams, Jr. (born July 14 1948 in Newark, New Jersey) is a former third baseman, first baseman, and catcher in Major League Baseball who played with the Atlanta Braves (1970-72, 1975-76), Baltimore Orioles (1973-74), Montreal Expos (1976), and Oakland Athletics (1977). He batted and threw right-handed.

Signed by Atlanta as an amateur free agent in 1966, Williams debuted with the Braves in the 1970 season.

A powerful slugger, Williams came up from the minor leagues as a third baseman/first baseman/left fielder whome the Atlanta Braves management made the peculiar choice of trying to convert into a catcher. He even made the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at this position, but that was based on his hitting ability, and he wasn't really suitable as a catcher. Face up to facts: the Braves' management made a very faulty decision.

Williams's most productive season came in by|1971, when he posted career-highs in batting average (.260), home runs (33), and runs batted in (87), and he was elected as the Rookie of the Year in the National League, getting 18 of 24 votes, with the others going to the Philadelphia Phillies first baseman, Willie Montanez.

In his second year, Williams hit .258, with 28 home runs and 87 RBI (again) while catching and playing first base and third base as well, but his inherent unsuitability as a catcher led Atlanta to sent him to Baltimore before the 1973 season in the same trade that brought Pat Dobson, Dave Johnson, and Johnny Oates to the Braves. The Braves' management was simply unwilling to admit that it had made a bad mistake in trying to covert Earl Williams into a catcher.

With the Orioles, Williams continued to hit for power, but he wasn't suitable as a catcher there, either, and he was traded back to the Atlanta Braves. When his production declined, he was sold to the Expos. He finished his career with Oakland in 1977.

In his eight-year career, Williams was a .247 hitter with 138 home runs and 457 RBI in 889 games played.

ee also

*Top 500 home run hitters of all time

Fact

*Williams is the only Braves player besides Hank Aaron to hit a home run into the upper deck at Fulton County Stadium. Aaron was the first right-handed hitter to do it, and Williams was the second. The had been preceded by the left-handed hitters Willie Smith and Willie Stargell.

External links

*baseball-reference|id=w/williea02
* [http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=1170&pid=15235 SABR biography]
* [http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070204&content_id=1794278&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl February 2007 Braves profile]


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