Williams chased dream, has no regrets
“There is a lot of money at stake, too, even if you just make the 40-man roster. So don’t quit. Make them send you home.” Deion Williams on his advice to players trying to make it to the major leagues
Deion Williams knew ATLANTA he was going to get his walking papers before he made the long walk to the Washington Nationals administration building to get them. He had been in minor league baseball for five years and knew the time of day when pitchers are released (morning), the messenger (your minor league pitching coach) and the tone of the summons (somber).
It was March 2016 in Melbourne, Fla..
Williams, who graduated from Redan High School in suburban Atlanta in 2011, is back in the Atlanta area coaching with Team Elite, one of the top travel baseball programs in the country.
Here’s a peek inside minor league ball. Here are a few insights from Williams, 24, who was drafted in the 16th round in 2011:
Who drafts you matters. Quality of life is different from organization to organization.
“In the offseason other guys in pro ball were telling me their organization made them pay for rooms at spring training and travel to spring training or (about) paying for travel after being reassigned to another team. The Nationals pay for spring training, and they pay travel on reassignment. That’s huge because we don’t make much money.”
Nothing can prepare you for the grind of the minor
leagues. That includes not just the fierce competition, but the 140-game schedule, the bus rides and scrounging for food.
“I went to Redan High School where Brandon Phillips (Atlanta Braves) went to high school. Brandon would come to Redan and tell us over and over that pro ball is a grind,” he said. “So you think you’re prepared. You say to yourself, ‘I’m ready for the grind.’ You’re not ready. You have to experience it. It can be exhausting mentally.”
Just when you think you have it bad with money, there are others who have it worse.
“We’re going to Burger King at night, and we are eating microwave noodles. We’re looking for any protein we can get,” he says. “We don’t have much money. And then we see the Dominican guys sending money home. I mean, our take-home checks every two weeks after taxes were like $550, and they were sending half home to their families.”
Williams was good enough as a shortstop in high school to be selected to the Under Armour All-America Game. In the minors, he was moved to pitcher. He has that faraway look in his eye that maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to the move. “I had only 109 at-bats (in the minor) at shortstop. You would think I would get more than 109 at-bats, but they saw the arm talent and felt like I could move quicker if I was a pitcher,” he says. “I hit 93 (mph) on the gun. I went along with it. It didn’t work out, but I’m not blaming anybody.”
Williams says he is making more money coaching kids than he did playing baseball. He smiles about that and has no regrets.
“The money wasn’t so bad I wanted to quit pro ball. I was chasing a dream, that shot,” he says. “There is a lot of money at stake, too, even if you just make the 40-man roster. So don’t quit. Make them send you home.”