Cy Williams Marquee

b. December 21, 1887 · Chicago Cubs 1912–1917, Philadelphia Phillies 1918–1930

Cy Williams led the National League in home runs in 1916, 1920, 1923 and 1927, and in 1923 he hit 41 — a figure nobody in the league had approached and that stood as its record for six years. He was the first National League player to reach 200 career home runs.

Defenses began stacking to the right side against him, an arrangement newspapers of the day called the Williams shift, two decades before the same idea was applied to Ted Williams. He spent thirteen of his nineteen seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies after six with the Cubs.

Born in Wadena, Indiana in 1887, Williams hit 251 home runs, collected 1,981 hits and batted .292 across 2,002 games. He was an architect by training and worked at it after retiring, living until April 23, 1974.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
Baseball Magazine All-Star	3	1915, 1916, 1922

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1912	CHC	28	62	3	15	1	1	0	1	6	14	2	.242
1913	CHC	49	156	17	35	3	3	4	32	5	26	5	.224
1914	CHC	55	94	12	19	2	2	0	5	13	13	2	.202
1915	CHC	151	518	59	133	22	6	13	64	26	49	15	.257
1916	CHC	118	405	55	113	19	9	12	66	51	64	6	.279
1917	CHC	138	468	53	113	22	4	5	42	38	78	8	.241
1918	PHI	94	351	49	97	14	1	6	39	27	30	10	.276
1919	PHI	109	435	54	121	21	1	9	39	30	43	9	.278
1920	PHI	148	590	88	192	36	10	15	72	32	45	18	.325
1921	PHI	146	562	67	180	28	6	18	75	30	32	5	.320
1922	PHI	151	584	98	180	30	6	26	92	74	49	11	.308
1923	PHI	136	535	98	157	22	3	41	114	59	57	11	.293
1924	PHI	148	558	101	183	31	11	24	93	67	49	7	.328
1925	PHI	107	314	78	104	11	5	13	60	53	34	4	.331
1926	PHI	107	336	63	116	13	4	18	53	38	35	2	.345
1927	PHI	131	492	86	135	18	2	30	98	61	57	0	.274
1928	PHI	99	238	31	61	9	0	12	37	54	34	0	.256
1929	PHI	66	65	11	19	2	0	5	21	22	9	0	.292
1930	PHI	21	17	1	8	2	0	0	2	4	3	0	.471
Career	—	2002	6780	1024	1981	306	74	251	1005	690	721	115	.292

On this day & linked events

1887

Born December 21, 1887

Wadena, IN, USA

1974

Died April 23, 1974

1912

Major-league debut: Cy Williams

Cy Williams made a major-league debut on July 18, 1912.

1923

Cy Williams's Three-Home-Run Game, 1923

Cy Williams hit three home runs for the Philadelphia Phillies against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 11, 1923.

1927

Cy Williams Hits for the Cycle, 1927

Cy Williams hit for the cycle for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 5, 1927.

1930

Final major-league game: Cy Williams

Cy Williams played a final major-league game on September 22, 1930.

Image: Oxford Confectionery, public domain