Jimy Williams, the 1999 American League Manager of the Year for Boston who won 910 games over a dozen seasons, including stops in Toronto and Houston, and later served as bench coach for Philadelphia’s final World Series victory, has died. He was eighty.
The Red Sox announced Williams’ death Friday at AdventHealth North Pinellas Hospital in Tarpon Springs, Florida, following a brief illness. Williams resided in nearby Palm Harbor.
Williams was named AL Manager of the Year after leading the Red Sox to their second consecutive postseason appearance. He stated it was simpler to be calm in a clubhouse than at home.
“I have a wife and four children. “You want chaos?” Williams stated when he was recruited to manage Boston in 1996. “You need to discuss. You can’t take sides and say, “Let’s see who wins this conflict.”
Williams, an infielder, was born James Francis Williams in Santa Maria, California on October 4, 1943. He graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in 1961 and originally spelled his name Jimy as a prank.
Williams attended Fresno State and got a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness in 1964. That summer, he joined Tom Seaver and Graig Nettles on the Alaska Goldpanners’ baseball team. Williams signed with Boston, played for Class A Iowa, and was taken by St. Louis in the 1965 Rule 5 draft.
On April 26, 1966, Williams made his major league debut, striking out against Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers in his first at-bat. His first hit came on May 7 with an RBI single off San Francisco’s Juan Marichal, who, like Koufax, is a future Hall of Famer.
“I can remember my first big league hit, but when you only have three, you remember them all,” he told the Houston Chronicle.
Williams appeared in 14 major league games, finishing 3 for 13 (.231) with one RBI.
He was moved to Cincinnati and spent 1968 in Triple-A Indianapolis, before being selected by Montreal in the expansion draft and playing for Triple-A Vancouver in 1969.
Williams’ playing career was cut short by a shoulder injury, so he became a manager for the California Angels in the Midwest League’s Class A Quad Cities in 1974. After six seasons in the minors, he became Bobby Mattick’s third base coach in Toronto in 1980.
Bobby Cox took over as manager of the Blue Jays in 1982, and when Cox left to become Atlanta’s general manager in 1986, Williams took his position in the Toronto dugout.
Toronto went 86-76 in his first season and led the AL East by 3 1/2 games with seven games remaining in 1987, but finished 0-7, two games behind Detroit. The Blue Jays finished 87-75 in 1988, and Williams was replaced by Cito Gaston following a 12-24 start in 1989. Williams had frequent disagreements with star George Bell, who did not want to be a designated hitter.
Williams returned to the Braves as Cox’s third base coach from 1991 to 1996, when he famously gave Sid Bream the go-ahead for the pennant-winning run on Francisco Cabrera’s single that beat Barry Bonds’ throw from left field and won Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series against Pittsburgh.
Williams succeeded Kevin Kennedy as Boston’s manager following the 1996 season. The Red Sox won 78 games in his debut season, followed by two consecutive 90-win seasons. They came from a 0-2 deficit to defeat Cleveland in the 1999 Division Series.I didn’t want to be the designated hitter.
