The New York Times: Walt Williams, a high-energy, free-swinging outfielder who played for four major league teams but who was probably best known for the unusual physique that earned him the nickname No Neck, died on Saturday in Abilene, Tex. He was 72.
6 comments:
As I commented yesterday on a baseball book site, No Neck was my favourite player when he played here in Winnipeg with the Cardinals' Northern League farm team, the Goldeyes. He could hit and was fun to watch. I do have that baseball card.
He was born in Brownwood, Texas, where I taught for 12 years.
A measure of how times have changed...he played for all or parts of 10 years in the bigs, and Baseball Reference has his *total* earnings as $149,500. They're missing 3 years of data (his cup-of-coffee with Houston in 1964, and 1968 & 1971 with the White Sox. Based on his earnings in the years surrounding those, his career total earnings were probably in the range of $200,000. Now, that's more than I earned in that time period (1967-1975, basically), but I was in school for most of it. By 1977, I was making about as much on an annual basis as Williams earned annually in the mid-1970s. Even adjusted for inflation, today's *minimum* salary is about what he earned for his *career.*
The times they have a-changed.
Bummer. He ended up with the Yankees, of course. Great nickname for a good guy.
RIP
I was sitting in Comiskey Park in 1969, on what turned out to be the day of the first moon landing. Just as Walt Williams crossed first base after hitting a single, the scoreboard flashed the message, THEY ARE ON THE MOON, and a huge cheer erupted. I've always wondered if Walt thought, "Geez, these fans really appreciated that single!"
Post a Comment