Award-winning Sawx manager Williams dies at age 80

BOSTON — Jimy Williams, the 1999 American League Manager of the Year for Boston who won 910 games over a dozen seasons that included stints with Toronto and Houston, has died. He was 80.

The Red Sox said Williams died Friday at AdventHealth North Pinellas Hospital in Tarpon Springs, Florida, after a brief illness. Williams lived in nearby Palm Harbor.

Williams was voted AL Manager of the Year after leading the Red Sox to their second straight playoff appearance. He said keeping calm in a clubhouse was easier than at home.

“I’ve got a wife and four kids. You want turmoil?” Williams said when he was hired to manage Boston in 1996. “You’ve got to talk. You can’t choose up sides and say, ‘Let’s see who wins this battle.’ ”

An infielder, Williams was born James Francis Williams in Santa Maria, Calif., on Oct. 4, 1943. He was a 1961 graduate of Arroyo Grande High School and first spelled his name Jimy as a prank in high school.

Williams made his major league debut on April 26, 1966, striking out against the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax in his first at-bat. His first hit was on May 7, an RBI single off San Francisco’s Juan Marichal, like Koufax a future Hall of Famer.

“I can remember my first big league hit, but when you only get three you can remember them all,” he told the Houston Chronicle.

Williams played in 14 major league games, going 3 for 13 (.231) with one RBI.

His playing career cut short by a shoulder injury, Williams worked his way up the coaching ranks and took over for Bobby Cox as the Blue Jays’ manager in 1986.

Williams replaced Kevin Kennedy as Boston’s manager after the 1996 season.

The Red Sox won 78 games in his first season and then had consecutive 90-win seasons. They rallied from a 0-2 deficit to beat Cleveland in a 1999 Division Series.

“I probably see life a lot differently than when I was with Toronto,” he said after earning Manager of the Year, “maybe not so excitable, from a standpoint of having to say something all the time.”