By TOM GARIGEN
July 16, 2006
When Glenn Williams signed his first deal with the Atlanta Braves in 1993, he probably wasn’t expecting to be a career minor leaguer. The New South Wales, Australia, native made his professional debut at the tender age of 16, splitting the 1994 season between the Braves’ Gulf Coast and Appalachian League affiliates.
Fast forward 12 seasons, and Williams found himself in the heart of the order for a strong Rochester Red Wings club. He was in fact a career minor leaguer, save for a brief but memorable – and record-setting – cup of coffee with the 2005 Minnesota Twins. Williams appeared in 13 games in a big league uniform and hit safely in each of them, setting a Major League record in the process.
Despite the quick success at the highest level, his time at the top would be short-lived. Those 13 games would be the only ones Williams would play in the Majors. He was back at Triple-A in 2006, playing out the penultimate campaign of his pro career. And on a steamy, 95-degree day in Rochester, he gave the Red Wing faithful something to cheer about.
Williams launched a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth as Rochester walked off with a 5-3 victory over Ottawa. The hit snapped a personal 0-for-18 slide for Williams and helped the Wings maintain a 3 ½ game lead over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the International League North.
“My swing was a little bit out of whack,” Williams told the Democrat & Chronicle. “I had some good pitches to hit (in recent games) and I didn’t hit them very well.”
The late-inning heroics helped Rochester escape with a victory after blowing a 3-0 lead and wasting a handful of scoring opportunities. The Wings had baserunners all game thanks to nine hits as well as six Lynx walks but couldn’t break it open. Ottawa tallied two in the sixth and one in the eighth to tie it up.
Donaldo Mendez led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Andres Torres. Williams then followed with a blast to left that cleared the flower bed before banging off an advertisement to send 5,969 patrons merrily to the exits.
“The boys were pretty happy it got up there in the bushes,” Williams added.
Mendez was in the middle of Rochester’s early rallies as well as the nine-hole hitter connected for his first home run of the season to stake the Wings to a 1-0 lead in the second. Rochester then got an RBI double from Erubiel Durazo and a sac fly from Alex Romero in the fifth to make it 3-0.
Ottawa scored two in the sixth and tied it in the eighth on a homer from Napolean Calzado.
Mendez, Durazo, and Chris Heintz all had two hits for the Wings. Bobby Korecky was perfect over 1 ⅓ to get the win in relief.
| Red Wings 5, Lynx 3 | |||||||||||
| Ottawa | AB | R | H | BI | Rochester | AB | R | H | BI | ||
| Garabto 2b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Torres cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Clzado lf | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Willms 3b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Tatis dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Heintz c | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Tracy 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Durazo dh | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Reed rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | West rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Rogers 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Jones 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Alvarez cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Romero lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Mjewski ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Watkins 2b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Whtside c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mendez ss | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Bowers ss | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||||||
| Totals | 33 | 3 | 8 | 3 | Totals | 28 | 5 | 9 | 5 | ||
| Ottawa | 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 – 3 | ||||||||||
| Rochester | 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 – 5 | ||||||||||
| E – Williams. LOB – Ottawa 6, Rochester 8. DP – Ottawa 2, Rochester 1. 2B – Rogers, Calzado, Reed, Durazo. 3B – Gomez, Brown. HR – Mendez (1), Williams (4), Calzado (1). | |||||||||||
| Ottawa | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |||||
| Morris | 4.1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 5 | |||||
| Piersoll | 2.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Rice L, 1-4 | 1.1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Rochester | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |||||
| Miller | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | |||||
| Barrett | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Cameron | 1.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Krcky W, 2-1 | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| T – 2:48. Att. – 5,969. | |||||||||||
Also on the day: 1984 – former Rochester pitcher turned clown prince of baseball, Al Schacht died at the age of 90. Schacht, who lost 21 games for Rochester in 1916, performed his clown act at almost every major and minor league stadium in the country, including several appearances at Silver Stadium … 2005 – Former Wings outfielder Darnell McDonald homered twice for Durham as the Bulls topped Rochester, 7-1, atDurham Bulls Athletic Park. Chris Heintz had two hits, including his sixth homer, for the Red Wings.
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