Customer Reviews

Billy Williams: My Sweet-Swinging Lifetime With the Cubs

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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.

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.

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.

The Chicago Cub team of the late 1960's may have been one of the best compilation of major leaguers never to have won a pennant. With three future Hall of Famers and several other perennial all-stars, and an all-time great manager, the Cubs never made it over the hump. The one player who kept on producing through this period was Billy Williams.

A product of the deep South, which produced other great ballplayers, like Willie Mays and Henry Aaron, Williams just showed up every day and produced. His leadership was quiet. His stick was big.

He came through the farm system in the late 1950's, and encountered prejudice from fans and teammates. But continued to produce.

He tells the story of his early career, and then proceeds to recount many of his Cub teammates. This is not a tell-all. He does not let bitterness seep into his story. He comes off as a humble man, contented with his accomplishments in baseball, and his place in history. He came up during a difficult time to be a black athlete, and he does recount some of his feelings, as well as some of those white teammates who showed him kindness and respect.

It is fun to get his take on his teammates during the 1960's and 1970's, and, although he doesn't expound too deeply, he does pay homage to many of the great ballplayers and utility players he shared a field with. This is not a "Ball Four" type of tell-all, and the off the field antics are for the most part, kept discreet.

It is a short, breezy autobiography by a fine representative of major league baseball.

I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to any Cub fan of that era.

BILLY WILLIAMS WAS A DAMN GOOD PLAYER AND I DONT THINK HE GOT ALL THE RECOGNITION HE DESERVED. A VERY GOOD ALL AROUND PLAYER, BILLY WAS KIND OF LOST IN THE SHADOW OF ERNIE BANKS. THIS BOOK IS A VERY EASY AND QUICK READ. I REALLY ENJOYED IT. HE HAS SOME GREAT STORIES ABOUT LEO DUROCHER, ERNIE BANKS, RON SANTO AND PREJUDICE. EVEN AFTER BILLY RETIRED AS A PLAYER, THE CUBS HIRED HIM AS A COACH. HE HAD DREAMS OF BEING A MAJOR LEAGUE MANAGER. AT THE TIME, THAT WAS NOT ACCEPTED. THE ONLY COMPLAINT I HAD ABOUT THIS BOOK WAS THAT I WANTED MORE. IT IS TOO SHORT. I RECOMMEND THIS MOSTLY FOR ALL CUB FANS OF THE 60'S AND 70'S WHO SAW THIS GREAT PLAYER. BUT THIS IS A BOOK FOR ALL BASEBALL FANS.