Lest we forget: Richard “Dick” Williams

November 2, 2010 · 1 comment

You won’t find this particular Dick Williams on Baseball-Reference.com or in The Baseball Encyclopedia.

This Dick Williams was a member of the Bombers, my team at Yankees Fantasy Camp just about a year ago. Yesterday I received the sad news that he had died at the age of 76 from a massive heart attack.

Williams was a friend and colleague of Ira Jaskoll of Yeshiva University, who was responsible for putting together the first official Kosher component of the program, which I attended last November. Although he was not Jewish, Dick nonetheless chose to hang out with the handful of MOTs in attendance and offered some unique gentile insight to the proceedings.

He was among the older participants at camp, playing almost exclusively at second base. His infectious good humor made him one of the more popular players not just on our team, but in the “general population” as well, including the former Yankee greats who served as our coaches.

Funny thing, I was just looking at the YFC video a few days ago. We were all interviewed for our thoughts on the program and Dick said how thrilled he was to be there and how appreciative he was to his family and friends who sent him to the camp as a present. He said it was a memory he would cherish for the rest of his life.

It’s a shame he didn’t get to cherish it longer.

Richard Williams, left, chowing down with teammate Mike Surella at Yankees Fantasy Camp, Nov. 2009.
Williams with friend and YU colleague Ira Jaskoll.
At the closing banquet with Jaskoll and me.

(Click on photo to enlarge.)



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1 A friend November 24, 2010 at 2:20 am

Williams was a fine, fine man.

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