Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Cy Williams, Major League Baseball Player 1912-1930-- Part 2: Original Power Hitter

Cy Williams was the National League's career home run hitter with 251 until surpassed by Rogers Hornsby in 1929.  He was known for his slugging with the Phillies in 1921, but began his power-hitting with the Cubs near the end of the Dead-Ball Era.

His real name was Fred, but he got the nickname "Cy" which was a nickname given to rural youngsters while a student at Notre Dame where he also played football for Knute Rockne and ran track.

He had only played a few games of sandlot baseball when he got a position on the Notre Dame baseball team.  The first three seasons of his major league career were spent with the Chicago Cubs and, as a part-time player, was not very impressive.  But then the Cubbies made another one of their horrible trades and Cy went to Philadelphia for Dode Paskert.

Starting in 1920, Cy Williams batted .300 in six of the next seven years and had double figures in home runs for nine years in a row.  His only non-.300 year was in 1923 when he ONLY batted .293 and hit 41 home runs.

After his release in 1930, he spent one year as a player-manager at Richmond, Virginia, in the Eastern League.  Once retired, he owned a several hundred acre dairy farm in Wisconsin and worked as an architect and started his own construction business.

He liked to hunt and fish, often with Ted Williams.

Quite a Guy.  --Cooter

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