Billy Williams...Pilot and Indian

I've mentioned before that my Ebay search for Billy Williams will often turn up "wrong" Billy Williams'.  I'll get stuff for Billy Williams the musician, umpire, wide receiver, and umpire.

A recent search brought up Billy Williams the baseball player, but the wrong Billy Williams.

Look...

...an autographed ball signed by Billy Williams, '69 Pilots.

While my Billy Williams was part of the crash and burn '69 Cubs, there was another Billy Williams playing for the Seattle Pilots.

This Billy Williams was a minor league lifer, spending 17 years and paying in over 2,100 games before finally getting a brief shot with the Pilots in August, 1969.  The 37-year-old rookie played in four games, getting twelve plate appearances.  Sadly, he didn't get a hit.

Most of his minor league time was with the Indians organization and after he quit as a player, he spend many more years as a coach.  He did get to spend three years on the big league staff, from 1995 to 1997.  He later coached for a couple teams in independent ball up through the 2009 season when he was over 75 years old.

Here is another auction I found, and the seller is mixed up, thinking that this belonged to the Cubs HOFer Billy Williams.