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Community Corner

A One-Time Altadenan Baseball Great Dies

My Dad described Dick Williams as brilliantly athletic, energetic and testy. I ran into him on his visits to Eliot Junior High in Altadena after he graduated in the 10th grade, in 1944. After attending PJC through the 12th grade, he played a small role

My Dad, Bill Peters, coached the basketball team at the First Baptist Church of Pasadena in the 1940's.  I was too young to have any real memory of the team, but one of the players was Dick Williams, the straight-forward, in-your-face Major League Baseball manager who died in Henderson, NV., last Thursday at age 82.  Williams was spoken of by my Dad as a brilliantly athletic, energetic, and testy young man. 

Williams was born in St. Louis, Mo, in 1929 but his family moved to Hollywood in 1942, then to Altadena, according to his autobiography, "No More Mr. Nice-Guy".  It is likely that Williams graduated from Eliot Jr. High School in Altadena in 1944, though no record of that event is available. However I did have personal contact with him in 1947 and 1948 when I was a student attending Eliot.

In that era, the Pasadena Unified School District operated under a 6-4-4 plan: six years of elementary schooling; four years of junior high school; and four years of junior college—which included the last two years of high school and the first two years of college—14 grades in all.

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Williams attended Pasadena Junior College (now PCC) graduating from the 12th grade in 1947 with a string of athletic victories that included a Pasadena city championship in handball, and lettering at PJC in all the major sports, according to a press release from Pasadena City College.

Before Major League Baseball came to tap him for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Hollywood cast him in a small role in "The Jackie Robinson Story"in 1950.  Robinson's dramatic rise to from Pasadena to the Brooklyn Dodgers is revealed in the movie.  Robinson also attended PJC.  According to several news reports, Williams passed off his movie "career", laughing that he appeared in two roles in the movie, as a Jersey City pitcher and as a second baseman, both uncredited.

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As a baseball player, Williams played third base for PJC's Bullpup Varsity squad in 1947 and made his major league debut in 1951 as an outfielder, third baseman, and first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  He also played with the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Athletics and the Boston Red Sox.

Williams served as manager for the Boston Red Sox, Oakland A's, California Angels, Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners.  His extraordinary record as a manager (Oakland A's to two of three consecutive World Series titles; Boston Red Sox, American League pennant) led to his induction to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2006 and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.  He entered Pasadena City College's Sports Hall of Fame in 2001, according to the college's public affairs department.  

Williams is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter; and five grandchildren, according to his Los Angeles Times obituary.  No funeral services are planned. 

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