Jimmy Williams, Canadian baseball player and manager, Died at 90

  Sports

James Bernard Williams was born on May 15, 1926, and died on June 6, 2016.

He was a Canadian outfielder, coach, and manager in minor league baseball and coach in Major League Baseball.

He threw and batted right-handed, stood 5’10” (178 cm) tall and weighed 180 pounds (82 kg).

Jimmy was a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

He graduated from Toronto’s De La Salle College School, where he played varsity baseball, hockey (as a right wing), football and lacrosse.

Wiliams played in the farm system of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers in 1947–64.

Even though he never was called to the majors as a player, Williams enjoyed several highly productive seasons.

During his first year as a professional player, split between three Dodger farm teams in the lower minors, Jimmy batted a composite .367 with 15 triples, 121 runs batted in, 24 stolen bases and 12 home runs.

Jimmy Williams played three seasons (1955–57) of Triple-A baseball in his native Canada with the Montreal Royals of the International League, batting .329 in 1955 with 93 runs scored, 33 doubles, eight triples, 13 homers, and 21 stolen bases, and also exceeded the .300 mark with the 1958 Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League.

Jimmy Williams playing got him noticed by the minor leagues, and he went on to enjoy a lengthy career as a manager in minor league baseball in 1963–80, where he compiled a record of 1,155 wins and 1,156 defeats (.499).

For seventeen years Jimmy Williams managed in the minors, and was interrupted by a brief period of coaching with the Major-League Houston Astros for a season in 1975.

Jimmy’s most significant achievement was his coaching tenure with the Baltimore Orioles (1981–87), a run that included their historic 1983 World Series win.

Then, he followed former Baltimore general manager Hank Peters to the Cleveland Indians, where Williams served as director of field operations for the club’s farm system.

James Bernard Williams passed away at 90 yrs old.