When the Philadelphia Phillies traded Cole Hamels to the Texas Rangers last July, they did so under the belief that they acquired a talent-infusing young package of players that would help them return to the success that they had previously had under Hamels.
One of those players is outfielding prospect Nick Williams, who batted .320 in his 22 games at Double-A Reading last season. Prior to that, he was hitting .299 for the Rangers' Double-A affiliate in 378 at-bats. Those numbers, mixed with his flexibility in the outfield, have made Williams the number four prospect in the team's organization.
Williams recently sat down with Paul Hagen of Phillies.com and discussed his hopes for positive future with the Phillies, one that he hopes involves him playing at the major league level sooner rather than later. He also discussed what made him give up on his promising football career to play baseball.
"Hitting is, I think, what kept me out of football," he said with a wide grin. "Football was my first love and it's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in the NFL. But hitting … there's just something about it. I love defense, too. I love taking hits away and making 'Wow!' plays. But there's something about hitting. Get a good hit, it's like, 'All right, I won this battle with the pitcher.'"
It's also worth noting that not being hit in football, when you can play another sport that presents far less short and long-term injury risk is a more attractive option.
As the article points out, Williams was a wide receiver in high school, with the University of Texas offering him a scholarship to continue chasing his dreams in both football and baseball. The article also says that he committed to taking just a baseball scholarship to Texas A&M, but instead was selected by the Rangers and skipped college altogether.
Thus far, Williams skipping college to head straight to the minor leagues seems to have been the correct decision. But you can't help but wonder if Williams had continued to play football, given the timeline of when he would have been in college, if Texas A&M would have had interest in him also playing football, which could have paired him with Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans. Had he just accepted the multi-sport scholarship to Texas, he could have been teammates with current Eagles' linebacker Jordan Hicks.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
