Walt "No Neck" Williams

Happy 66th Birthday to Walt "No Neck" Williams!

You know, usually nicknames are designed to be funny, endearing and/or somewhat descriptive. They are not usually a literal description of the person in question.

Orlando Cepeda was not literally a "Baby Bull".

Andre "The Hawk" Dawson does not have wings.

Sal "The Barber" Maglie did not bring scissors to the mound.

Tom "Flash" Gordon cannot run as fast as Flash and never flashed anyone that I am aware of.

You get the picture.

But what about Walt "No Neck" Williams?

Look at that card above. I will let you decide but I don't see any neck on that torso; not even a millimeters worth.

Now growing up, I listened to quite a few baseball games on the radio as every game was not on television like today. The Tigers obviously played the White Sox and Indians quite a bit and I never ever heard Walt Williams referred to as anything other than Walt "No Neck" Williams or just "No Neck" Williams.

I don't think Williams minded this much and I never heard him complain about it. What would he have said anyway? He couldn't have said, "Liar!" or anything like that. He was stuck.

Actually, "No Neck" must have been quite the trooper. Think about it. How do you play baseball like that?

I see that Williams hit 33 home runs in 10 years. Pretty pathetic for a normal player but not for "No Neck". How do you "turn on a fastball" and really rip it if you have no neck. You can't!

In the field, if he lost a hard hit liner really bad in the lights and it was coming for his neck, the ball would have to hit either his head or chest because well.......he had no neck. What if Reggie Jackson hit it? Sorry, you need a neck out there. Try it without one if you don't believe me.

Now take a look at that Ted Williams card above.

Notice anything?

Now there's a ballplayer.