Larry Dean McWilliams (born February 10, 1954) is an American 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 baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

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 ...

, who played 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), ...

(MLB) for the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

(twice),

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

, and

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

, from -. During his playing days, he stood tall, weighing .

Early life

After attending

Paris Junior College Paris Junior College (PJC) is a public community college with three campuses in Texas: Paris, Greenville, and Sulphur Springs. The college was founded in 1924 as a campus of Paris Independent School District. Nearly 5,000 students are enrolled ...

Paris, Texas Paris is a city and county seat of Lamar County, Texas, United States. Located in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, the population of the city was 24,171 in 2020. History Present-day Lamar County was part of Red River Co ...

, the Atlanta Braves selected the tall, lanky left-hander in the 1st round (6th overall pick) of the January phase of the 1974 Major League Baseball draft.

Professional baseball

McWilliams was drafted sixth overall by the Atlanta Braves in the 1974 January draft and made his major league debut on July 17, 1978. On August 1, 1978, in what was just the fourth start of McWilliams’ first MLB campaign, he was the winning pitcher (raising his record to 4–0), when the Braves stopped

Pete Rose Peter Edward Rose Sr. (born April 14, 1941), also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a membe ...

's 44-game

hitting streak In baseball, a hitting streak is the number of consecutive official games in which a player appears and gets at least one base hit. According to the Official Baseball Rules, such a streak is not necessarily ended when a player has at least 1 plate ...

at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. McWilliams made what was probably the key defensive play to stop the streak when, with two outs in the bottom of the second inning, Rose, in his second

plate appearance In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner ...

of the game, lined a pitch up the middle that McWilliams reached back and caught. McWilliams' best seasons were 1978, his rookie season, when he went 9-3, and , when he posted a 15-8 record with 8

complete games In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

, 4

shutouts In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

, 199

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s, and a 3.25

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was nicknamed ''Spaghetti'', by Pirates

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

Tony Pena. "That's what I call him. Take a look at his legs. They look like spaghetti. Real thin." said Pena during a postgame interview, in . On September 2, 1989, McWilliams was traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Kansas City Royals for Minor League Baseball (MiLB) catche
Jeff Hulse
McWilliams retired, after being released by the Royals on May 14, .

Personal life

McWilliams and his wife Vicki have six children and nineteen grandchildren.

References

External links

Larry McWilliams
at Baseball Almanac
Larry McWilliams
at Baseball Gauge Atlanta Braves players Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Cardinals players Philadelphia Phillies players Kansas City Royals players Richmond Braves players Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Wichita, Kansas Paris Dragons baseball players Living people 1954 births {{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub