When you select a player’s jersey to wear, you’re honoring that player, but you’re also telling the world that you cherish the values that the player represents.

If you choose to wear Dave Williams’ #52, you’re telling the world one of the following things:

• You’re a converted Pirates’ fan willing to spend some serious change to have a custom jersey made, since you certainly didn’t find this one in the gift shop.
• You did some very good deed for Mr. Williams (perhaps helped him straighten his seams before he boarded the team plane back in Pittsburgh?) and he thanked you by giving you one of his jerseys.
• You are Dave Williams.

To be fair, of course, Williams hasn’t been with the team that long. Hopefully by the end of 2006, wearing #52 will be your way of telling the world that you’re a winner. Hey, weirder things have happened.

David Williams was born on March 12, 1979, in Anchorage, Alaska. He graduated from Caesar Rodney High School in Camden, DE in 1997. He also played baseball at Delaware Tech Community College in Georgetown, DE. He is married to Chelley and on September 12, 2003, the couple had their first child, daughter Katie.

I chatted in person with Mr. Williams during the Reds Caravan before the 2006 season. I had enlisted the help of Jake, a Pirates’ blogger to get some good material for questions. It went something like this:

RHM: You were one of the best pitchers Pittsburgh had to offer last season. It must have been pretty surprising to learn that you’d been traded. What was the first thing out of your mouth when you got the news?

DW: The first thing I thought was “who else got traded” because I knew that Casey was considered the mayor of Cincinnati and I figured there must be three or four other players involved in the trade. When I found out it was just me, it was awesome to just be in the same breath as a guy like that. I know I have some big shoes to fill, and I don’t really feel like I’m filling them. They brought me over here to win games and that’s what my focus is going to be. All the other stuff will just play out the way it’s going to play out.

Jake seemed to think that Williams uttered a wordy dird when he discovered he was traded. That may well be the case, but it’s no shock that he didn’t talk about it in front of hundreds of Reds fans evaluating him for the first time.

RHM: Are you going to miss the pranks that Jack Wilson played in the clubhouse?

DW: Nah, he didn’t play any on me personally. The guys that we had had little feuds with each other and would go back and forth, but I never really got pranked by them. But I’m going to miss being around a guy like that and there are also some other guys that I’m going to miss. On the field, it’s going to be me against them and off the field it’s going to be different, obviously.

RHM: Are you worried about any pranks here in your first year? You think they might make you run out of the bullpen dressed as a woman?

DW: They’re not. I don’t see them messing with me too much, and if they do, I’m just going to have to get them back, I guess. Or not. ::laughing::. I’m looking forward to going down to spring and meeting everybody, honestly.

According to Jake, Williams’ rookie prank was that he had to wear a dress on the team plane. He’s just lucky he wasn’t around for when the Reds made their rookies wear Hooters’ uniforms. He wouldn’t have looked nearly as good as Luke Hudson did in that tank top.

RHM: At the special request of the Pirate’s blogger who helped me with these questions, I’m suppose to ask whether Kris Benson ever let you drive his yellow Ferrari.

DW: Oh no. I saw it; it’s nice, but I don’t think I could drive a car like that.

RHM: OK, I’ve got just one more then I’ll leave you alone. Just what size shoe do you wear?

DW: What shoe size? 12 1/2.

There’s some back story to this one too, but I’m not supposed to tell it. You can probably guess the gist, though. And 12 1/2 ain’t bad. Not that I’d know.

Dave Williams is a left-handed starting pitcher at the bottom of the Reds’ rotation. Williams is best known to Cincinnati fans for being the player the Reds received from Pittsburgh in exchange for fan favorite and helluva guy Sean Casey.

Williams was among the best pitchers for the Pirates, racking up 10 of the teams 67 wins last season. Unfortunately, being among the best pitchers for the Pirates isn’t saying all that much, as evidenced by the 67 wins last season. According to my own game wraps, Williams appeared in seven games this spring and failed to dominate, though in his last appearance of the spring he settled down to give up just three runs on six hits through five innings, which seems worthy of his spot as fifth starter.

For the complete statistical analysis, you want Williams’ Better Know a Red feature on JinAZ On Baseball and the Reds.