Campus Connection: No-Neck Williams
May 29, 2015 10:04 AM | General
 |
|
Most of the kids in my sixth-grade science class were discovering rock formations, ecosystems, space travel, Newton’s Laws and the periodic table.
Me? No way were those academic pursuits ever going to penetrate my 12-year-old brain.
Space travel? I could at least relate to that having done quite a bit of it back in the day.
Newton? Fig Newtons … maybe. Juice Newton … probably, but not old Sir Isaac. And most definitely not Wayne Newton!
While most of my classmates were deep in their workbooks learning about the great wonders of the world, I was sitting in the back of the room getting a real education on the impressive professional baseball career of Walt “No-Neck” Williams.
And the person teaching me everything that I needed to know about No-Neck was none other than my sixth-grade science teacher, Mr. Yevuta.
This happened one day when some of us decided to bring our shoe boxes stuffed full of baseball cards to school to do a little lunchtime wheeling and dealing (Back then we used rubber bands to protect our favorite cards, not plastic cases or those big, bulky binders that the kids used to use when card collecting was still the thing to do).
In the sixth grade I was only interested in the Pittsburgh Pirates, which meant that some of my straight-up trades included Johnny Bench for Gene Clines, Pete Rose for Bob Robertson, Joe Morgan for Jackie Hernandez, Tony Perez for Dave Cash, Dave Concepcion for Vic Davalillo and Don Gullett for Bob Moose (I reconsidered the Gullett-Moose trade when it was pointed out to me that Moose was the guy who threw the wild pitch in the ninth inning of game five of the 1972 NLCS that robbed Roberto Clemente of another World Series appearance, not because Gullett was the more valuable pitcher).
Mr. Yevuta noticed us going through our loot like Wall Street day traders and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.
“Hey fellas, you ever heard of a guy named No-Neck Williams?” he began. He was about to drop some serious baseball knowledge on us.
“Who?”
Mr. Yevuta proceeded to make Walt Williams sound like Ted Williams as our eyes grew wider and wider.
On the base paths, No-Neck was a better thief than Vicenzo Peruggia, his glove was more reliable than O.J.’s and he could swing just like JFK, the way I recall things.
I learned that the actual downfall of the Cleveland Indians franchise didn’t happen in 1960 when the Tribe traded Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn, but rather it came on March 19, 1974, when they were foolish enough to get involved in a three-team heist with the Yankees and Tigers that ended Williams’ brief, one-year stay in Cleveland.
No-Neck and pitcher Rick Sawyer were sent to New York, the Yankees got pitcher Ed Farmer from the Tigers and the Indians ended up with pitcher Jim Perry. I’m sure somebody also got a warm six-pack of Meister Brau and a couple cartons of Camel Lights out of this as well.
After listening to Mr. Yevuta go through Williams’ diamond accomplishments, as far as this sixth-grader was concerned No-Neck stood 7-feet tall - not the 5-feet-6 he actually was (most likely with platform shoes on, too).
Incidentally, I happen to be a big fan of people with first and last names beginning with the same letter, so right away that put Walt Williams in the same category with Walt Whitman, Christopher Columbus, Mickey Mantle, Bobby Bonilla, Marilyn Monroe, Toni Tennille, Farah Fawcett, Suzanne Sommers, Robert Redford, Dirk Diggler, Dustin Diamond, Marky Mark, Ozzy Osborne, Ronald Reagan, Woodrow Wilson and Sirhan Sirhan, just to name a few …
For you Mountaineer football fans out there, how about these double-dippers: Bryan Baumann, Babe Barna, Bruce Bosley, Curt Carion, Curt Cignetti, Cody Clay, Carmen Connolly, Chris Corwell, Carl Crennel, Canute Curtis, Dudley DeGroot, Frank Federovitch, Gordon Gordon, Glenn Gress, Homer Hogue, Joe Jelich, Josh Jenkins, Jon Jones, Kevin Koken, Kurt Kehl, Kyle Kayden, Kereazis Konstantinos (say that name five times in a row!), Marc Magro, Matt McCulty, Marshall Mills, Phil Plank, Reggie Rembert, Rich Rodriguez, Ricky Rumph, Scott Saylor, Steve Sinclair, Steve Slaton, Stacy Smith, Scott Summits, Steve Superick and Shawn Swindall?
This ability to recall same-letter, first/last-name celebrities at a moment’s notice turned into one of my best assets when I made it to college and found out about house party games - that is until Robert Redford eventually disintegrates into “Wobert Wedford” by the end of the night, which most likely means that you will be sitting in the single booth at Eat’n Park for the 2 a.m. breakfast.
But I digress.
It was only later when those ecosystems and periodic tables began making a little more sense to me that I actually took the time to flip over my Walt Williams baseball card to see what was on the other side. Of course, that’s where the career stats are located.
No-Neck’s big league numbers were far from being Ruthian, as Mr. Yevuta once portrayed them.
He did have a few good years with the White Sox in the late 1960s, but he didn’t steal that many bases, his fielding percentage was just OK, he had virtually no power and during his declining seasons he hit an anemic .249 with the Sox in 1972 and a comatose .113 with the Yankees in 1974.
It was also around this time when it occurred to me that it might not have been such a great idea trading all of my Cincinnati Reds baseball cards for Pittsburgh Pirates.
I probably should have kept those Bench, Rose, Morgan and Perez cards in my shoebox.
As a matter of fact, I should have held on to that old shoebox as well.
Have a great weekend!
Andrew Powdrell | April 15
Thursday, April 16
Coach Pat Kirkland | April 15
Thursday, April 16
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 15
Thursday, April 16
Alumni Series | Louisa Morgan Hoogduin
Wednesday, April 15
