Steady Billy Williams ties record with four doubles in one game

Billy Williams spent much of his career playing in the shadow of Cubs teammate Ernie Banks. But on April 9, 1969, Williams did something Banks never accomplished and only 20 others had achieved before when he recorded four doubles in one game.

Batting in the No. 3 spot for the Cubs against the Phillies in the second game of the 1969 campaign, Williams doubled in the first and third innings off Rick Wise, smacked his third two-bagger in the sixth inning off Gary Wagner and tied the MLB record with his fourth double against Luis Peraza in the seventh.

Williams also drew a walk off Wise in the fourth inning during his perfect day at the plate in Chicago’s 11-3 victory at Wrigley Field.

“Baseball has given me eight wonderful years, and I expect many more of ’em,” Williams told the Chicago Tribune a few days after his memorable performance. “When I go to bat, the fans respond well. I feel it. However, they’re certainly not going to respond to me or Ron Santo the way they react to Banks. We wouldn’t expect that.

“I go out, from day to day, to do a job. I do it, and this comes to be taken for granted.”

Williams was just the 21st player in AL/NL history to record four doubles in one game. He didn’t get the chance for a record-setting fifth double when the Cubs went down in order in the bottom of the eighth, leaving Williams two batters away from another plate appearance.

Williams was the first player with a four-double game since Bill Bruton of the Tigers in 1963. The last NL player before Williams to reach the mark was Cincinnati’s Jim Greengrass in 1954.

It would be more than four years until the next four-double performance, which came on Aug. 8, 1973, by another future Hall of Famer: Orlando Cepeda.

For Williams and the Cubs, it was the start of a memorable 1969 season. On June 29, Williams set a new National League record by playing in his 896th consecutive game to break Stan Musial’s NL mark. The Cubs, who had lost 103 games in 1966 at the start of a rebuild, led the National League East for much of the 1969 season before finishing with 92 wins and in second place behind the Mets. Cubs fans celebrated with Billy Williams Day when he passed Musial.

The 1969 campaign marked the ninth full season that Banks and Williams powered the Cubs’ lineup.

“I roomed with Ernie in (1961) and learned a lot,” Williams told the Associated Press of his Cubs teammate who would finish his career with 512 home runs. “All he’d do is talk baseball. It’s OK except sometimes you couldn’t get any sleep.”

Williams was 30 years old when he tied the doubles record and was still getting better. In both 1970 and 1972, he would finish second in the NL Most Valuable Player voting, leading all of baseball in batting with a .333 average in the latter season. He would remain with the Cubs through 1974 before playing his final two seasons with Oakland, finishing his 18-year career with 2,711 hits, 426 home runs and 434 doubles.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987.

“I go out and do my job,” Williams told the Tribune in 1969. “I don’t need any pats on the back.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum