Albert Hamilton Williams DeSouza is an Afro-Nicaraguan former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He played all or part of five seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

, from until , all for the Minnesota Twins. Williams was originally signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1975. He pitched two seasons in the Pirates minor league system, but was released by Pittsburgh because the Nicaraguan Government would not grant him a visa to leave the country to play baseball in the United States. This prompted Williams to sign up with the Sandinista rebels and he was engaged in jungle fighting against the forces of Anastasio Somoza from 1977 through 1978 during the

Nicaraguan Revolution The Nicaraguan Revolution ( es, Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista, link=no) encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation F ...

. In 1979, Williams had to be smuggled out of Nicaragua and was signed a contract to play in the

Inter-American League The Inter-American League was a high-level circuit in Minor league baseball that lasted only three months before folding during the 1979 season. The league was conceived both as an official Triple-A minor league circuit and member of the Nati ...

,Pitcher for Twins has intriguing past
''The New York Times''. Retrieved on March 9, 2016. where he pitched for the Caracas Metropolitanos and Panama Banqueros clubs. He then joined the Minnesota organization in 1980, where he spent five years. In 1984, he was the starting pitcher in the Twins season opener against the Detroit Tigers at the

Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (commonly called the Metrodome) was a domed sports stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League' ...

. In between, Williams played six seasons in the

Venezuelan Winter League The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League or Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional (LVBP) is the professional baseball league in Venezuela. The league's champion takes part in the Caribbean Series each year. History Early years Baseball exp ...

, making an appearance with the

Tiburones de La Guaira The Tiburones de La Guaira ( en, La Guaira Sharks) are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Based in the city of La Guaira, they play their home games in Estadio Fórum La Guaira and have won seven national champions ...

in the

1983 Caribbean Series The twenty-fifth edition of the Caribbean Series (''Serie del Caribe'') was played in . It was held from February 4 through February 9 with the champion teams from Dominican Republic (Tigres del Licey), Mexico (Tomateros de Culiacán), Puerto Rico ...

Baseball career

Minnesota Twins

1980

On May 7, 1980, Albert Williams was called up to the Majors to make his debut against the Baltimore Orioles as a starter for 3 innings. In this game, he allowed 7 hits (making one of them a home run and having all four runs as earned) no walks, and struck out 2 batters. On September 9, Williams started the game against the Milwaukee Brewers and finished it with having 6 hits off him: both runs as earned, 1 one strikeout, no homers allowed and allowing only 2 walks. Williams earned himself an ERA of 3.81 this game and won with the score of 15-2. As a rookie in the Majors with the Twins, Williams pitched 18 games with a record of 6 wins and 2 lost and an ERA of 3.51. Out of the 18 games, 9 of them were as a starter and 3 of them were complete games. He pitched 77 innings, allowing 73 hits (9 of them being home runs). Williams struck out 35 batters and walked 30, having 33 runs scored on him.

Notes

Sources

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Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Albert 1954 births Living people Alacranes de Campeche players Caracas Metropolitanos players Charleston Patriots players Charleston Pirates players Columbus Clippers players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Nicaragua Minnesota Twins players Navegantes del Magallanes players Nicaraguan expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Nicaraguan expatriate baseball players in the United States Nicaraguan revolutionaries Panama Banqueros players People from the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region Tiburones de La Guaira players Toledo Mud Hens players Nicaraguan expatriate baseball players in Mexico