Stan Williams (baseball)

Stan Williams (baseball)

Stanley Wilson Williams (born September 14, 1936 in Enfield, New Hampshire), nicknamed "Big Daddy" and "The Big Hurt", is a former Major League Baseball starting and relief pitcher who threw and batted right-handed. He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-1962), New York Yankees (1963-1964), Cleveland Indians (1965-1969), Minnesota Twins (1970-1971), St. Louis Cardinals (1971), and lastly the Boston Red Sox very briefly in 1972 where he had no decisions.

Williams, a 1960 All-Star, built a career record of 109–94 in 482 games and 208 starts. He got the majority of his wins with the Dodgers in the early stages of his 14-year career. After the 1962 season he was traded from the Dodgers to the New York Yankees for Bill 'Moose' Skowron. He compiled a career ERA of 3.48 and had 42 career complete games with 11 shutouts. He gave up 682 earned runs in 1764 and 1/3 innings pitched. He had 1305 career strikeouts. Williams won a World Series with the Dodgers in 1959, his second year in the big leagues.

Although his control often kept him from being a top pitcher, Williams' presence on the mound was huge, and many batters around the league feared the 225-pound, 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) right-hander, who had a blistering fastball and wasn't afraid to pitch inside. In 1961, Williams finished 2nd in the league in strikeouts with 205, behind teammate Sandy Koufax (269). Interestingly, yet another Dodger pitcher, Don Drysdale, finished 3rd that year (182).

In 1970, he went 10–1 on the season in relief, with a 1.99 ERA, one of the best seasons a relief pitcher has ever had.