It appears that former Reds pitcher Frank Williams has just died, homeless and penniless on the streets in Canada. The story is here. Very sad.
It appears that former Reds pitcher Frank Williams has just died, homeless and penniless on the streets in Canada. The story is here. Very sad.
Just spotted this earlier today on baseball-reference.com. A sad story indeed.
While he may not have been a Hall of Famer, he was certainly an important part of the Reds’ pen for the couple of years he was here.
Tragic to see his career and eventually his life end the way it did.
It’s good that Frank Williams learned that his people came from the First Nations native Americans and that they held the funeral.
Very sad indeed. I remember him seemingly pitching in every game in ’87. His pension was enough to live on. Anyone have details? Did his ex get of hold of it?
Rob – pensions aren’t subject to judgments of divorce so far as I know. I think it was the alcoholism that took all the cash. It’s sad to see but also was an avoidable outcome.
I didn’t think he lost his pension in the divorce either. It happens, just hard to fathom how someone can be homeless with a pension around 35 to 40k.
Was he an alcoholic prior to the car crash? If not, I wonder if injuries endured in the accident led to the alcoholism and homelessness?
That’s a terrible story. I found it quite interesting though that he used his baseball cards as IDs…I guess they are a form of picture identification right?
I’d normally say my thoughts go out to his family, but it seems his family didn’t think about him at all, so…
Sad indeed.
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Very sad, indeed. ’87 was the first season that I really followed the Reds. I remember the righty/lefty tandem that he and Rob Murphy made up as set-up men to John Franco…