Dick Williams Finally Makes it to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Former Skipper of the Pennant-Winning Boston Red Sox, Oakland A's & San Diego Padres is Enshrined in Cooperstown

When I was a kid and the 1967 American League pennant race was going on, I didn't know the difference between Dick Williams and Ted Williams. I was seven years old, and to my juvenile mind, Dick Williams, the skipper of the Red Sox, and Ted Williams were the same person. (I was later to find out "Teddy Ballgame" was the greatest Red Sox player not named Carl Yastrzemski, whom I, like all kids my age that summer, hero-worshipped.)

Both Williams, Dick and Ted, are now enshrined in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Dick Williams was inducted with the Class of 2008.

Dick Williams has told how, at a golf tournament he had attended after winning the World Series managing the 1972 Oakland A's, he had been proud of his World Series ring. A player who knew a thing or two about the World Series, Joe DiMaggio (he appeared in an incredible 10 World Series, nine of them victories, in his 13 seasons in the majors with the New York Yankees) showed him his Hall of Fame ring and told him that it trumped all.

He now has that Hall of Fame ring.

Dick Williams was widely regarded as one of the very best managers in baseball in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. He is one of only two managers to take three teams (the Red Sox, the Oakland A's and the San Diego Padres) to the World Series. In the 21 years of his active managerial service over 22 seasons (1967-88), he managed each year except for 1970, when he was a third base coach for the Montreal Expos, such was the demand for his services. Yet, coveted for his tactical and strategic genius, WIlliams never stayed with one team for very long.