Wednesday, July 20, 2016

no. 555 - walt williams


Who is the man: Walt Williams slumped a bit in 1970, batting just .251 in 110 games after hitting over .300 in '69. He'd bounce back in 1971.

Can ya dig it: Man, Williams has got some muscles.

Right on: There is a dude standing behind Williams and it kind of takes away from an otherwise great shot. They should have asked Williams to flex a muscle so the guy would disappear.

You see that cat Williams is a bad mother: Williams featured one of the greatest baseball nicknames of all-time, "No-Neck." (Chris Berman couldn't come up with that if you spotted him the "neck"). The photo tells the story, but he got the name because of his compact build and short neck. The story goes that Williams received a vaccine injection in his neck as a toddler, but it caused his neck to shrink.

Shut your mouth: Famed sportswriter Jim Murray once quoted a scout about Williams, who said: "He looks as if somebody tried to cram him into a suitcase when they heard the cops coming."

No one understands him but his woman: Williams' second wife, Ester, said her husband didn't like his nickname much at first, but quickly accepted it with good humor.


(A word about the back): Williams probably didn't deserve a card number ending with a "5" after his 1970 season. This was reward for 1969, when he was one of just six American League hitters to top .300.

5 comments:

  1. Williams didn't deserve a card ending in 5? Ok, go ahead and tell him that, I dare you.

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  2. I believe that Walt died within the last year.

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  3. No Neck died in January. Check out Bruce Markusen's profile of the player on the Hall of Fame website, http://baseballhall.org/discover/card-corner/no-neck-williams

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    1. I may have been one of the last people to get stuff signed by him. Shortly after I received my stuff back from him, he passed less than a month later.

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