Columnist Dean Juipe: Hall won’t be calling Williams

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

Men, particularly 71-year-old men, should never be caught in public with their pants down.

It's unsightly, for starters.

It's also revolting, lewd and against the law.

But, for some reason, on the morning of Jan. 17, a man who certainly knew better threw caution to the wind and let himself be seen in his birthday suit by any number of innocent passersby. That in itself may not be shocking, but the fact that it was Dick Williams who was arrested for the vulgar act was absolutely stunning to everyone who knows him.

Williams is a longtime Southern Nevada resident who spent 13 years playing and 21 years managing in Major League Baseball. His credentials as a manager are so strong that there was a time when he was a serious candidate for baseball's Hall of Fame.

But when the Veterans Committee of the Hall of Fame meets Feb. 29 in Tampa, Williams' candidacy will almost certainly be disregarded. His chances for induction have "flashed" by.

On the one hand you want to be sympathetic toward the guy, as if he mentally lost it that day in Fort Myers, Fla. But on the other hand, as recently as this week he has been quoted defending himself and attempting to minimize an incident that wasn't just a split-second lapse but something that seemingly was going on for a good hour.

Williams, who has already accepted a no-contest plea for indecent exposure, was in Florida that week as a celebrity instructor in a fantasy baseball camp. But after what happened in his motel room and perhaps outside its doors, Williams will forever be linked to fantasies of a more suspect nature.

Initial wire reports said Williams was outdoors and naked and fondling himself. The sight prompted a drugstore teller across the street to call the police.

This much is more certain: When police arrived and knocked on Williams' door, he answered and was still in the nude. Bizarre, isn't it? You would think it would take a fire or some incredible emergency before you would ever find yourself answering your door in the buff.

Williams then told police that he hadn't ventured beyond his doorway and that if anyone had seen him, it was a result of his door being open. He denied going out on his second-floor balcony and vehemently denied allegations that he had taken matters into his own hands, so to speak.

If he was 21, maybe everyone could laugh this off. But at 71 it's both sad and something of a bad sign.

Aside from the humiliation he admits he now feels, this one incident will stick with him for the rest of his life and it seemingly assures that he will never be selected for the Hall of Fame.

That's too bad, because for the past few years those of us in the media have been preparing for the day Williams would receive baseball's ultimate honor. Yet it no longer appears as if that call will be coming, in spite of Williams' 1548-1418 record and the fact that he's the only manager in baseball history to win pennants with three different teams and win titles in all four divisions.

His Oakland Athletics were baseball's world champions for three consecutive seasons, 1971 through '73.

Sorry to say, those glory days have passed. And while life continually changes for each of us, for Dick Williams it will never be the same.