When I was a kid and started watching baseball, Billy Williams was famous for two things. He was in the midst of long game played streak and he was quiet. Billy Williams ended up playing 1,117 consecutive games, which was then a National League record. Steve Garvey has since broken the record. The other thing about Billy he was quiet with the bat.
His stats don’t look that great, but he played in the pitching happy 1960s when strike zone was enlarged. It was interesting when the strike zone was made smaller, Williams had three great years in his early 30s from 1970 to 1972. That was in comparison to his fellow players. He was runner up for the MVP in both 1970 and 1972. He also stopped his streak in 1970. Both years he lost the MVP to Johnny Bench. Bench deserved both MVPs.
In October 1974 he was traded to three-time World Series champions Oakland A’s. Billy had a decent season at the age of 37 as the designated hitter in the 1975 season. The A’s won their division but were swept in the playoffs by the Boston Red Sox. Billy only drew one walk in 8 plate appearances in his only post season appearance. It was kind of sad he didn’t get a chance to do more. However, Billy was starting to fade. He didn’t have a good 1976 season and retired.
