Scroll Down to Read Today’s Essay
Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive for automatic updates.
As a Free Bonus, you’ll get access to my Special Report: Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide
Dick Williams and 1970s Oakland Photo Gallery
- 1972 Oakland A's players: Mike Epstein, Reggie Jackson, Darold Knowles.
- Dick Williams with Mike Andrews (Getty Images)
- Scene from the 1972 World Series
- Dick Williams later in life
- Bert Campaneris
- Vida Blue
- Dick Williams as manager of the Red Sox
- Dick Williams as Padres manager
- Gene Tenace
- Charlie Finley with Dick Williams
- Dick Williams as Expo manager
- Oakland Athletics celebrate: Alan Lewis, Mike Epstein, Dave Duncan, Joe Rudi, and Sal Bando
- Sal Bando
- Dick Williams
- Dick Williams
- Joe Rudi's spectacular catch
- Reggie Jackson of the Oakland A's
- Oakland A's Mike Epstein, 1972
- Scene from the 1972 World Series (Getty photo)
- Reggie Jackson
- Dick Williams
- Joe Rudi
- Dick Williams
- Joe Rudi at theplate, 1972 World Series
- A's celebration
- Rollie Fingers
- Scene from the 1972 World Series
- Scene from the 1972 World Series
- Oakland A's owner Charles O. Finley on the dugout steps, 1974
- 1972 World Champion Oakland A's
- Yaz and manager Dick Williams, 1967
Dick Williams Out as Manager of the Oakland A’s December 1973!
“If some guys couldn’t stand the heat, then they didn’t belong in the major leagues.” –Dick Williams
Those of us old enough to remember the Oakland A’s of the early 1970s can readily recall how good those teams were, winning three successive pennants and World Series championships (1972-1974). The roster of talent assembled over those years is truly staggering. Many of the names roll easily from the recesses of our memory: Vida Blue, Gene Tenace, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Rollie Fingers, and Joe Rudi. With their iconoclastic long hair, mustaches, and beards, baseball had not seen such a dysfunctional bunch of talented players since the 1930s heyday of Frankie Frisch, Leo Durocher, Dizzy Dean, and the rest of the Gashouse Gang.
The A’s mercurial owner Charlie O. Finley was a true baseball eccentric – to put it mildly! – and many of his players hated him for being a skin flint owner and for his constant meddling in the team’s affairs. And, like equally mercurial George Steinbrenner a few short years later, he fired managers at an alarming rate: From 1961 to 1970, he changed managers no less than ten times! Looking to hire a replacement for John McNamara after a disappointing second-place finish in 1970, his search led him to a former major league manager with a reputation for being a hard-nosed disciplinarian who stressed fundamentals. He turned to St. Louis native, Dick Williams.
Dick Williams’ Minor League Success Leads Him to the Majors
Following his rather lackluster playing career (.260, 70 home runs, 331 RBIs) from 1951-1964, Dick Williams had won two consecutive Governors’ Cup championships (1965-1966) while managing the Red Sox’ affiliate, Toronto Maple Leafs, in the International League. With this success on his resume, he got a chance to take the Red Sox major league helm for the 1967 season.
Inheriting a team that had finished only a half-game out of the cellar the previous year, Dick led his team to a remarkable turnaround, going 92-70, and the 1967 pennant, only to lose the World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals, with the great Bob Gibson capturing three of the Cardinals’ wins. It was the Red Sox’ first pennant since 1946 and Dick captured Manager of the Year honors. But his success was short-lived. A combination of injuries to key players, clashes with Carl Yastrzemski, and ownership run-ins led to his firing in September 1969.
This made Dick Williams available when Charlie Finley was looking for a new manager, and so he signed Williams to a three-year contract to manage the 1971 A’s. With the array of talent mentioned above, Dick guided the A’s to 101 victories and their first American League West title, losing to a great Oriole team in the ALCS. This impressive performance was followed by back-to-back pennants and hard-fought World Series victories over the Reds (1972) and Mets (1973), with both series going the full seven games. Under Dick Williams’ leadership, the “Oakland Dynasty” was now well underway.
Dick Drops a Bomb on Finley!
This brings us to 1974, the final year of Dick’s contract. Despite winning two World Series rings, Dick had grown tired of putting up with Charlie Finley’s childish antics and continual meddling. He also resented Finley’s public humiliation of second baseman Mike Andrews’ for his play in the previous World Series. So he dropped a bomb on the unsuspecting Finley: Dick resigned, leaving Oakland after posting an impressive 288-190 record (.603).
George Steinbrenner quickly seized the opportunity and signed Dick to manage the Yankees. However, Finley viewed the Yankee job as a “breach of contract” and protested to American League president Joe Cronin. Finley claimed Williams was ineligible to manage anywhere else while still under contract to him. Cronin sided with Finley and nixed the deal with the Yankees on December 20, 1973, 51 years ago this week. Suddenly, while seemingly at the apex of his career, Williams was out of a job. Finley then hired Alvin Dark to manage the 1974 A’s – who promptly brought home a third successive championship. The Yankees, having no choice but to look elsewhere, then hired Bill Virdon as their manager.
But Dick Williams was not out of a job for long. Now receiving permission from Finley to negotiate with him, the Angels hired Dick in mid-season 1974. He was let go after three disappointing years at the Angels’ helm, going 147-194. His next stop was with Montreal for the 1977 season, taking over a team that had lost 107 games the previous year. He soon turned the Expos into pennant contenders with second-place finishes in 1979 (90 wins), and 1980 (95 wins), and a first-place finish in the second half of the strike-shortened 1980 season. But, as usual, by the end of the 1981 season, he had worn out his welcome and was fired in September of that year.
Dick Re-emerges Again!
Much like Lazarus of biblical fame, he arose from the dead one more time, resurfacing in San Diego as Padres manager in 1982; and by 1984, he had the team in the playoffs. The Pads scored a dramatic win over the favored Cubs in the NLCS and with it came the franchise’s first trip to the World Series. The Padres were no match for Sparky Anderson’s great Tigers team in that year’s Fall Classic.
Over Dick Williams’ 21-year managerial career, he posted a 1571-1451 record (.520) with four pennants and two World Series championships. He is one of only nine managers to win pennants in both major leagues, and joined Bill McKechnie in becoming only the second manager to lead three franchises to the World Series (Bruce Bochy, in 2023, became the third). He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 by the Veteran’s Committee. In addition, he has been elected to the Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres Halls of Fame. Dick Williams passed away on July 7, 2011, aged 82, at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada.
So today, we are glad to shine our baseball spotlight on one of baseball’s truly unique personalities, Dick Williams.
Gary Livacari
Information: Excerpts edited from Dick Williams Wikipedia page; Stats from Baseball- Reference.com
Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive to receive email updates. FREE BONUS for subscribing: Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide. The site is now surpassing the one million hits mark with over 1,257,000 hits
