Frank Williams, a former major-league baseball pitcher who ended up on the streets in Victoria, has died. He was 50.
Rev. Al Tysick of the Pandora Avenue shelter Our Place said Williams had a heart attack about two weeks ago, went into a coma and never came out. He died last Friday.
Williams’s life reads like a Hollywood fantasy. He was an orphan who grew up in foster homes in Seattle, but he made it to baseball’s major leagues, pitching for the San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds between 1984 and 1989. Over six seasons, he pitched 471.7 innings, had a 24-14 won-loss record with eight saves and an earned-run average of 3.00.
He earned $442,500 in 1988 and $425,000 in 1989. By the time he died last week, all that money was gone. He spent his last days bouncing around Victoria shelters and detox centres, a street-level alcoholic.
Repoz
Posted: January 14, 2009 at 08:17 PM |
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1. Sexy Lizard Posted: January 14, 2009 at 08:24 PM (#3051984)Williams's 1986 and 1987 seasons were just unbelievable...one of the great forgotten stretches of pitching in my lifetime. (121 appearances, 158 innings, all in relief, with an ERA of 1.94.) Even at the end of his career, he was getting people out despite a K/BB ratio way worse than 1.00.
I always wondered what had happened to him. I wonder if his drinking problem led to his inability to throw strikes at the end of his career.
Edit: Curse you, #s 1 and 2!
The story says it was a car crash (pure speculation: alcohol involved?) that ended his career. I guess he might have gotten another shot in '90, but with that kind of walk rate, his career was probably close to its end anyway.
**checks retrosheet**
Ha--that one shutout was a 5-inning shutout on May 5. Interesting. 5 innings, 2 hits, no runs, 4 walks, 3 Ks. Seems like a nice microcosm of his career, really--effectively wild.
He appeared in the league's top 10 in wild pitches (in '84) and hit batsmen ('85) despite pitching entirely in relief, except for the one start.
Oh, and that caption-writer should receive a stern talking-to, as that's not his rookie card in the photo.
BTW - Roddy Piper is from Winnipeg.
http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=f59bb2b3-1964-4e2b-b220-f202d75dce57&k=93376&p=1
Actually, he was born in Saskatoon, and raised in Winnepeg.
Really, though...this is a tragic story.
His wife was driving. I guess she could've been drunk, though that's obviously not how you meant it.
He wasn't wearing a seat belt, and suffered big-time injuries to the head and neck. I think he ended up needing cosmetic surgery to look relatively normal again, though I might be misremembering.
The word is out. I went to Victoria about 18 months ago - yes, it's beautiful. But they have a huge homeless population.
I lived in San Francisco for a decade, and got used to the homeless people everywhere. When I moved to Chicago in July, I noted how few homeless people there wer. Almost five times the population of San Francisco, relatively few homeless.
Now that winter's here, I understand why.
Now that winter's here, I understand why.
Uh yeah, sleeping under newspaper would certainly be more inconvenient in Chicago in Feb. then SF. Personally if I were homeless I'd be in San Diego. However I think Victoria(and Canada in general) are probably a bit kinder on the homeless population then the Americans.
With all the money that players have been making from the eighties on, it would be nice to think that some of Williams' old teammates and friends would have stepped up to help him. Of course, that assumes that Williams sought out help. Many times, it seems these troubled ex-players refuse assistance. That was certainly the case with Wagner.
And San Francisco is a probably bit kinder on the homeless population than San Diego.
Yes, but Wagner was 70. When Wagner was 50, he was doing well, working his Hollywood supporting roles, selling cars, living quite well. Wagner met a sad end, for sure, but his course of life was significantly more successful than that of Williams.
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