#17:gerald williams | lf

2000 highlights:
selected devil rays mvp by the tampa bay chapter of the bbwaa...set career highs in ab (632 - 4th in al), runs (87), hits (173), home runs (21), rbi (89) and walks (34)...set club records in ab (breaking quinton mccracken\s previous mark of 614 in 1998) and runs scored (shattering dave martinez\s 79 from 1999)...collected 52 multi-hit games, matching mccracken\s club record set in 1998... finished 6 hits shy of mccracken's record 179 in 1999...collected a season-most 4 hits april 9 vs. cle...went hitless in back-to-back games only twice on the year (april 30-may 1 & sep 28-29)...to put that into perspective, major league hit leader darin erstad went hitless in back-to-back games on 5 occasions...hit safely in 110 of 146 games and his avg. stayed between .270 and .300 from april 16 thru season\s end...finished with 81 rbi from the leadoff spot, 2nd in majors to ana erstad (100)...became the 7th ml player to collect 20 hr and 80 rbi from the leadoff spot (5th in the al)...rays got only 6 hr from the leadoff spot all of 1999 and only 7 in 1998... ranked 3rd on the club with 26 game-tying, go-ahead rbi behind fred mcgriff and greg vaughn...led the club with 27 infield hits and tied with felix martinez for tops on the club with 3 bunt singles...led off the rays\ 2000 season with a home run to left off the first pitch from brad radke april 3 at the metrodome - first career hr there...was the 17th time in the last 25 years a player has begun a team\s offensive season with a home run...led off a game wth a home run 4 times in 2000 and 8 times in his career (opening day, may 15 at texas off darren oliver, june 23 at texas off rick helling, july 21 at new york-a off doc gooden)...there have been 7 leadoff home runs in club history - he\s had 4 of them...led off the rays' half of the first inning with a hit 31 times on the year...opened with a walk 3 times...hit .500 (9/18) with the bases loaded in 2000 - tied for 10th in the al with kc mike sweeney...set a rays record aug. 4 vs. bal with 8 ab in a single game (15 innings)...had 31 hits and 17 rbi in april, his best numbers in the season\s opening month...had 14 rbi in an 11-game stretch apr 14-27...tallied 27 rbi in july, a rays record in a single month (prev. mark was 26 by fred mcgriff may \99)...finished july with 34 hits, equaling his career high he set in may...was bothered by strained left hip flexor early in the year...started the first 61 games of the season in cf and and was leading the al in at-bats thru june 11 before suffering hip injury... over the next 23 games thru july 7, he started only 2 in cf and 7 as dh...started 74 the rays last 77 games in cf - only games missed were due to suspension...homered in 3 straight games (july 9-14) for the first time in his career...batted 2nd in the order may 28, snapping a personal streak of 102 straight games leading off (since 7/26/99)...his last home run was sep 26 vs. nyy off el duque hernandez...was his first hr since august 21 @ cws (jim parque), a span of 121 ab in between, his longest drought of the season...hit 15 of his home runs away from tropicana field including his first nine...did not homer at the trop until the first game after the all-star break, july 13 vs. mon off javier vazquez - that hr hit off the speaker attached to the "c" ring catwalk in left field...on april 14 he became the first visiting player to hit a home run at comerica park with a 3-run blast off cj nitkowski...tied a rays record june 4 @ nym with 3 doubles (with terrell lowery, 8/8/99 vs. cle)...also recorded a season-high 4 rbi (matched july 14 vs. mon)... set a rays record april 28 @ ana with 2 sac bunts...ejected in the first inning aug. 29 after he charged pedro martinez, a result of getting hit on left wrist by martinez\s 4th pitch of the game... served a 3-game suspension sep 22-24 (reduced from 5 following appeal)...collected 2 hits in the rays\ club record 11-run 8th inning may 28 vs. sea...is one of 3 rays ever to tally 2 hits in one inning (also jose guillen same game and fred mcgriff in \98)... was the 5th-toughest to double up in the al with just one every 105.3 ab.

personal:
moved to tampa, fla this past off-season...appeared on saturday night live december 13, 1997 with former teammates mark wohlers and pedro borbon.