Billy Williams Was 'Pure' to the End
Not so much for one of his statistical lookalikes
1976 SSPC Billy Williams (#496) - Card of the Day
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To gain election to the Hall of Fame through the writers’ ballot, a player must receive votes from at least 75% of the electorate in any given year. In eight appearances on the Hall of Fame ballot as of 2024, former Indians and Red Sox superstar Manny Ramirez has yet to crack the 35% barrier.
Seems pretty unlikely he’ll make up the remaining 40+ points he needs in his remaining two shots at Cooperstown, right? Of course, Manny’s struggles with the ballot has little to do with what he accomplished on the field: .312, 555 home runs, 12-time All-Star, 2-time World Series champ.
Ramirez was an adventure in left field, but his bat still leaves him as the tenth greatest left fielder ever (according to JAWS/Baseball Reference).
At number eleven is a man who started slightly below where Manny did on the Hall of Fame ballot: 23.4 % of votes compared to 23.8% for Manny.
The difference for Billy Williams was that he didn’t have any sort of taint surrounding his baseball legacy, and fans — and HOF voters — grew to appreciate his accomplishments more with each year his name appeared on the ballot.
Williams spent most of his career with the Chicago Cubs at a time when hopes of contending on the north side were as thin as a Cubbies pinstripe. From 1959 through 1974, Chicago finished fifth or worse ten times and never finished closer than five games back of the league or division winner.
During that time, Williams won a Rookie of the Year award and a batting title and established himself as one of the most consistent stars in the game. Like Ernie Banks before him, Williams seemed destined to spend his career in the shadows of the Wrigley Field ivy (more literally for Williams, since he played in the outfield).
But then, in late October of 1974, the Cubs traded their aging superstar to the Oakland A’s for Darold Knowles, Bob Locker, and Manny Trillo. Coming off their third straight World Series title, the A’s seemed like a highway to Williams’ first meaningful October in baseball.
And, thanks in part to their new designated hitter, the A’s did win yet another American League West title. That summer of 1975, Williams hit a meager .244, but he popped 23 home runs and drove in 81 runs.
The Boston Red Sox were waiting in the American League Championship Series, though, and they swept the A’s out of dynasty mode in three games. Williams went 0-for-7 with a walk and a strikeout in his only postseason series.
Williams was back for one more go in 1976, slipping to .211 with 11 homers in 120 games as the A’s lost the West to the Kansas City Royals.
In between, collectors got one last shot at Wax Pack Williams, as Topps captured him with the A’s on a pretty cool 1976 card (#525).
Wait…did I say one more shot? My bad. The hobby actually got two doses of Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler in 1976 (or 1975, if you lean on the copyright date). Because there on card #7 in the SSPC “Pure Set” is none other than a mustachioed Williams, doing his best Reggie Jackson impression.
Turn the card over, and you get a low-key prediction about Billy’s Hall of Fame future:
Yeah, it looks like it might have been printed out in the back office of a strip mall business, and it wasn’t licensed by MLB, but SSPC was a revelation. With its focus on big, full photos, it became something of a hobby legend in the 1980s.
“Why can’t we have a set with no design? Just great pics? Like the ‘Pure Set’.”
It was like a cardboard version of Seinfeld — a set about nothing. And, in an era of wooden borders, magic motion, and Atari stripes on cards, SSPC stood out like an elegant thumb.
Then, after years of pining for a return of those clean lines in a fully above-board product, we got our wish. Hello, Upper Deck.
By then, of course, Williams had wrapped up his career (.290, 2711 hits, 426 home runs) and run the HOF gauntlet to claim his plaque, in 1987. You know, right alongside former Oakland ace Catfish Hunter.
Williams and Hunter missed each other by one year in the Bay, but they’re forever linked in Cooperstown…and in the Pure Set.
And Manny? Well, at least he got some UD cards.
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Before I go, a quick public service announcement: IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE!
Don’t forget the milk and cookies, and if you’ve been especially bad this year, you might try a little eggnog. The red-suited fat man just might be amenable to your bribes.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam