#338 - All Star Right Fielders

For the final outfield slots we get Reggie in Oakland and Billy Williams in what appears to be Candlestick. They're both digging the facial hair and Billy, like a lot of his NL brethren, is slightly off-center. Reggie was in the midst of his MVP season which would climax with his first Series time since he was hurt for the one in '72. Billy had a huge '72 and early in '73 showed no signs of abating his prior year's pace. Plus he was supposed to be one of the nicest guys in the game. This review will be quick so let's get it going. In the AL we have:

Reggie Jackson - .292 with 23 homers and 81 RBI's
Dave May - .330 with 17 homers and 56 RBI's.

At this point in the season Reggie had the most ribbies of anyone in either league. His numbers up to now were awfully similar to those of Willie Stargell. I add Dave May because he played both center and right in the game. For the NL we also have a pair of guys:

Billy Williams - .278 with 11 homers and 50 RBI's
Bobby Bonds - .306 with 25 homes and 64 RBI's.

Billy had done something of a fade since elected as his average was near .300 back then. Bobby was having one of his bigger seasons and his numbers get more impressive when one realizes they were created almost exclusively from the leadoff spot. I think the nod for this position goes to the AL.


So this is it. While not the final piece, this puzzle back tells us all we need to know about the identity of the All-Star MVP. Now that that little bit of drama is over, let's broaden our horizons with some other news.

In music in '74 a new song took over the top spot in the UK. Suzi Quatro's "Devil Gate Drive" was her second Number One song across the pond. Suzi pulled a Jimi Hendrix in that though she was born in the States, she was much bigger in the UK at the beginning of her career (neither of her two Number Ones got significant chart time over here). She was a sort of prototypical punk rocker and pretty much the first female rock star. Back here she would become known for two things: one was a mellow duet that got significant chart time called "Stumblin' In" later in the Seventies; two was a recurring role on the sitcom "Happy Days" in which she played Leather Tuscadero, whose character fronted a band and was the sister of Fonzie's girlfriend Pinkie. On this same date Suzi was interviewed by a journalist for New Music Express, the UK rag that was pretty much their version of Rolling Stone. The journalist who interviewed her was Chrissy Hynde, later the singer and front person for The Pretenders.

I'll pick up the Watergate stuff in a couple posts.

#110 - Billy Williams

Now we have a really odd action shot. The good odd thing about it is that it looks like Billy Williams has just teed off at Wrigley which is different because almost every other slugger action shot to this point has been a pop up or a miss. The really odd thing is that for some reason Topps tinted the middle 80% of the card in yellow, except for Mr. Williams. The bad thing is that because of the tint job I cannot tell against which team Billy is playing. But it is a great shot and shows a lithe but powerful hitter still in great shape towards the end of his career. Billy's '73 was sort of bi-polar. In the first half of the season he did a pretty good job toting his massive '72 stats to earn an All-Star nod but in the second half he had a big fade as did the team as a whole. This is Billy's last card in a Cubs uniform since in '75 he gets air-brushed into an Oakland one.

Sweet Swingin' Billy Williams was signed by the Cubs in '56. When he was a kid in Whistler, Alabama he saw another Alabama guy by the name of Hank Aaron playing semi-pro ball while Billy himself was playing with Hank's brother, Tommie. Billy's signing bonus was a cigar and a bus ticket to Ponca City, Oklahoma, a D league team. His first few seasons he posted some decent offense numbers but he had a really tough time matching them defensively. By '59 Billy had reached Double A ball in San Antonio where he posted his best season to date but he got homesick. He took a bus back home to Whistler and the Cubs sent former Negro League star Buck O'Neill there to bring him back. In 1960 Billy was banging the ball pretty seriously for Tulsa, the Cubs' Triple A franchise when a Cubs scout by the name of Rogers Hornsby told the club they needed to get his butt up to the majors ASAP. Chicago listened and in '61 Billy was given a slot in the outfield and he rewarded them by winning Rookie of the Year. He would then be a rock of consistency for the club, regularly batting around .300 with 90-plus RBI's. From '63 to '70 he didn't miss a game, putting up a then-NL record 1,117 in a row. His best overall season was '65 when he put up a line of .315/34/108. In '66 his average dropped to .276 and the Cubs nearly traded him to Baltimore. The deal fell through when Chicago insisted on the inclusion of Mike Epstein. Good miss by Chicago.

In '70 and '72 Billy had his two monster years, winning the batting title in the second one. Both seasons he lost out on the MVP to Johnny Bench. In '73 and '74 his numbers came down from those lofty totals and he was ready for a change. He asked to be traded and the team obliged, sending him to Oakland for Darold Knowles, Bob Locker, and Manny Trillo. For the A's Billy was a DH for two seasons. Unfortunately he arrived a year too late and while he saw his first post-season action in '75 he never got into a Series. Oakland released him after the '76 season and he retired with a .290 average, 426 homers, 1,475 RBIs, and a .361 OBA. He played in six All-Star games as well, though in his only post-season he didn't get a hit in his five games. He was elected to the Hall in '87, his sixth year of eligibility. He came back to baseball after a few years away and moved back and forth between Oakland and the Cubs as a coach between 1980 and 2001.

Billy had a thing for the water. He was also a big fisherman. For all the homers and ribbies he got he was always considered a line drive hitter. He has a SABR page.

Billy's AL years come in handy here:

1. Williams and Joe Rudi '75 to '76 A's;
2. Rudi and Bobby Grich '77 to '81 Angels.