Williams’ successful Major League debut in 1971 was actually with the Atlanta Braves, but it’s really not that easy finding a time-appropriate image of him from that season, so I went and found this great image from his first season with the Baltimore Orioles in 1973.
In that award-winning 1971 season with Atlanta, Williams hit 33 home runs with 87 runs batted in while batting .260, certainly (at the time especially) a great rookie year, beating out Willie Montanez as the league’s top freshman.
After another excellent season in 1972, where he hit 28 homers with another 87 RBIs, Williams was dealt to Baltimore as part of a six-player deal that had Davey Johnson, Pat Dobson and Johnny Oates heading the other way in November.
He did not disappoint in his first year, hitting 22 homers while driving in 83 runs while catching and playing first base.
He had a bit of a drop off in production the following season, but still hit 14 homers with 52 RBIs in 118 games and 413 at-bats, before finding his way back to Atlanta again via trade, where he’d play another seasons and a half before playing out his career with the Montreal Expos for the second half of 1976 and the Oakland A’s in 1977.
Though he still had some pop in his bat, hitting 17 homers in 1976 split between the Braves and Expos, and 13 homers with the A’s in 1977, his average was hovering around the .230 mark with an OBP under .300.
He’d play the next two years in the Mexican League, but would never get back to the Big Leagues, retiring as a pro after 1980.
