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Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Jimy Williams didn’t win a World Series, but he started Red Sox down the road to victory

Originally posted on Boston Sports Journal
By Gethin Coolbaugh | Last updated Jan 30, 2024 2:04 PM ET

Before the Boston Red Sox became the most successful baseball team in the modern era, there was Jimy Williams.

Williams, who died at the age of 80 on Monday in Florida after a brief illness, manned the dugout at Fenway Park for five seasons as the 40th manager in Red Sox history. None of those campaigns ended in World Series championships, but the team started to turn the corner under his guidance after nearly eight decades of futility.

Under Williams, the Red Sox improved in three consecutive seasons — culminating in back-to-back playoff appearances in 1998 and ‘99 and an American League Championship Series berth against the New York Yankees.

Despite falling short of the team’s first World Series appearance since 1986, Williams was named the American League Manager of the Year in ’99. The team’s 94-win season — Boston’s most since winning 95 games in ’86 — was the second of eight straight second-place finishes in the AL East.

The Red Sox did not play any more postseason baseball under Williams after that despite finishing with a winning record for the fourth straight year.

Williams' time as a manager in Boston is perhaps better remembered for what occurred in the clubhouse. He was a tinkerer who ruffled feathers within the organization — in the front office with his boss Dan Duquette, and on the field with the likes of stars Pedro Martinez and Carl Everett.

The passing of former Sox mgr Jimy Williams led me to recall Carl Everett’s argument in the mgr’s office. Clearly heard screaming early w about 4 other media members. What I recall after is I’m walking tunnel to field. Jimy says something like “get ‘em today” as Everett goes by.
— Ken Powtak (@KPowtak) January 29, 2024

Ultimately, the relationship between Duquette and Williams could not be salvaged. Williams was fired in August of 2001.

Williams won’t go down as the greatest manager in Red Sox history. His 414 managerial wins are the eighth-most in team history. But to brush aside his impact on the team’s trajectory in the next half-decade would be unfair.

His time in Boston was spent managing some of the players who would become integral in the team’s Curse-breaking World Series title in 2004 — Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe, Tim Wakefield and Trot Nixon — that kicked off an unprecedented era of success and set helped turn Boston from “Loserville” into the “City of Champions.”

In all, Williams managed nearly 20 percent of the players on that storied ’04 roster in his final season with the Sox. Even though he couldn’t get any of those teams over the hump, he was the one at the helm when the team started getting a taste of winning again. Love him or hate him, who know what impact he truly had on those players?

As for me, my earliest memories of the Red Sox were of the teams in the late ‘90s. Heck, Mo Vaughn was and still is one of my favorite Sox players of all time. Those teams helped forge my lifelong love of baseball — and, after Williams had departed, gave fans of my age group a true taste of heartbreak in ’03.

For shaping those experiences, and for starting the team down the road to success, many in Red Sox Nation — myself included — will be forever grateful for.

Rest in peace, Jimy.

This article first appeared on Boston Sports Journal and was syndicated with permission.

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