A Classy Book about a Classy Ballplayer

books:


	• Billy Williams: My Sweet-Swinging Lifetime With the Cubs Fred Mitchell, Billy Williams Triumph Books, 2008 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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A delight for Cub fans

I adored this book. But then, I can recite the starting lineup for the 1969 Cubs. Make no mistake about it, that very special, charismatic and heartbreaking team is at the center of this book. Williams talks about Sammy Sosa, touches upon his time with Ryne Sandberg, but for the most part, this is about Kess and Beck, Santo and Pepi, Leo and Fergie and Mr. Cub, and all the other Wrigley Field heroes of the mid 60's and early 1970s. If those names don't warm your heart and make you smile, I'm not sure this book will hold your interest.

Billy Williams has some terrific stories to tell about how prevalent racism was in America, and in sports, in the recent past. He reports them in austere language that somehow increases their impact. But I wish there was more about the day-to-day life of a ballplayer, and especially this extraordinary man. So many of his stories include this player's first wife or that player's new wife or so-and-so's divorce, yet Williams and his wife faced the same struggles and have been married for decades, successfully raising four daughters and doting on grandchildren Maybe it's because I'm a chick and I love a love story, but I would have enjoyed a few insights into their enduring union.

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Worth Reading

Williams is not shy in telling about the discrimination he and other people of color experienced during his minor league and major league career. I enjoyed his recollection and feelings regarding the Cubs' 1969 collapse and his memories of a large number of his former teammates.

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A Classy Book about a Classy Ballplayer

It is an honor to be the first person to review this excellent book about the life of Billy Williams. In an age of baseball books called Vindicated and stories of steroids and other sordid aspects of the game it is refreshing to read this book about a player who exemplified class and a love for the game of baseball and a love for one woman his entire adult life.

I am a lifelong Cubs fan and I began following the team in around 1965 when I was 7 years old. Everyone knew about Ernie Banks back in those days but Billy Williams was a very unsung hero of those teams. I once saw him get 5 hits in one game.

In the book Billy is pretty outspoken about the racism he encountered as he moved up in the cubs organization. He came very close to quitting for good and what a shame that would have been if Buck O'Neill hadn't tracked Billy down and brought him to his senses.

My favorite chapter was one where Billy goes down a long list of his cubs teammates giving us glimpses into what it was to be a baseball player before the years of free agency and exorbitant salaries.

Billy also talks about his time with the Oakland A's just after they had won their three championships in a row.
He discusses his desire to manage in the major leagues and his years of coaching for the A's and the Cubs and his experiences with Sammy Sosa during the 1998 season.
The book concludes with the text of Billy's Hall of Fame speech.
If you followed the Cubs during the 60's and 70's this book will be a nice trip down memory lane.

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Reliable, quiet, and often overshadowed in the media by the showier players of the era, Billy Williams steadily created a Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Cubs and Oakland A's. Now Williams, with the Chicago Tribune's Fred Mitchell, reflects on his life and career in this self-titled autobiography. Williams revisits the social conditions and racial tensions that influenced his early years, and tells how growing up in Whistler, Alabama, shaped the rest of his life. Williams celebrates his playing days with the 1969 Cubs and speaks honestly about baseball, the players of today and yesteryear, and the changes he has witnessed over the years.

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