Albert Williams (baseball)

Albert Hamilton Williams DeSouza is an Afro-Nicaraguan former professional baseball pitcher. He played all or part of five seasons in Major League Baseball, from 1980 until 1984, all for the Minnesota Twins.

Williams was originally signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1975. He pitched two seasons in the Pirates minor league system, but was released by Pittsburgh because the Nicaraguan Government would not grant him a visa to leave the country to play baseball in the United States. This prompted Williams to sign up with the Sandinista rebels and he was engaged in jungle fighting against the forces of Anastasio Somoza from 1977 through 1978 during the Nicaraguan Revolution.^[1]

In 1979, Williams had to be smuggled out of Nicaragua and was signed a contract to play in the Inter-American League,^[2] where he pitched for the Caracas Metropolitanos and Panama Banqueros clubs. He then joined the Minnesota organization in 1980, where he spent five years. In 1984, he was the starting pitcher in the Twins season opener against the Detroit Tigers at the Metrodome.^[2]

In between, Williams played six seasons in the Venezuelan Winter League, making an appearance with the Tiburones de La Guaira in the 1983 Caribbean Series.^[3]

Notes

Sources

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet