`Wild Thing' an act? Hitters aren't certain

With a nickname like Wild Thing, your reputation goes far andwide.

When your name is Mitch Williams, your pitching matches yourreputation.

When Williams throws the ball, hitters are throwing caution tothe wind. The pitch might go far, or it might go wide. It might goto the screen, or it might even go for a strike.

Williams is from the pitch-and-duck school of pitching. Hittersare forced to duck or swing in luck. It's a real hit-or-misssituation.

"With Mitch," Cubs first baseman Mark Grace said, "you prettymuch think safety first. I don't think he ever tries to hit anybody.But that's what makes him tough."

Former teammates and still friends, Williams and Grace meetagain starting tonight when the Phillies visit Wrigley Field for afour-game series.

"I'm not going to hit Gracie," Williams said. "He knows that."

He does? Williams does?

"Well, if I hit him, it won't be intentional," Williams said.

There is open debate about whether Williams knows where the ballis going. Pirates star Barry Bonds thinks he does.

And he said so while issuing a verbal warning after beingplunked by Williams in the ninth inning of the Pirates' 9-2 victorySaturday.

What does Williams think?

"I have an idea what I'm doing," Williams said coyly.

If he has an idea where the ball is going, why did he lead theNorthwest League in wild pitches (14) in 1983? And why did he hiteight batters in 88 innings last season, despite a 12-5 record?

Is he really the Guy Who Couldn't Shoot Straight?

No one seems quite sure whether Williams has control problems orcontrolled wildness.

What everyone is sure of is that Williams is a man living as aboy, unable to fully adjust to life in the serious world ofprofessional baseball.

Serious for Williams usually lasts about an inning. The rest ofthe time is spent in silliness.

Asked about left fielder Wes Chamberlain, who has averaged 10.3errors per professional season, Williams said, "He plays left fieldlike I pitch."

While there are those who doubt Chamberlain can play theoutfield, there are few who doubt Williams can pitch. Yet you mightnot know it from baseball's marketplace.

During the offseason, Williams tested free agency. He wanted afour-year contract; the Phillies offered three. No one else offeredmuch of anything.

"I'd like to sign him," one general manager said, "but mymanager would be in the hospital before the season's over if I did."

The winter could have sent Williams into a mental hospital.Even though he got three years at $9.3 million - more than anyPhillies player ever, including Mike Schmidt - Williams wasdisappointed in his Wild Thing reputation, which obviously had spreadfar and wide.

"I was the only closer on the market," he said. "I saved 30games twice in the last three years and couldn't get any offers.Something is wrong there.

"They said they don't like the way I pitch. I don't care whatthe other teams think. All I care about is how my coaches andteammates think of me. . . . I have nothing to prove to anybody butthe Phillies. My job is to make them look smart for giving me athree-year deal."

Whether the Cubs looked smart trading him at the beginning oflast season has been debated. Truth is, the Cubs might have won by alarge margin if Williams could have saved 20 of their 27 blown saves.

Though he was booed in 1990, his distinctive peek-a-boo pitchingstyle and cocky character nonetheless endeared him to fans.

Williams forever will live in the Cubs' Hall of Folklore, alovable-laughable winner-loser. Even with 36 saves in 1989, hecouldn't save the Cubs from failing in another chance at the WorldSeries.

After knee problems, a run-in with then-manager Don Zimmer, aprofessed hate of general manager Jim Frey and a 1-8 record with 16saves in 1990, Williams' time as Wrigley Wild Thing turned to MildThing.

"They can trade me away, but they can't change the way I feelabout the place and the fans," he said. "The bad things thathappened could never overshadow the good."

So Williams, who saved 30 games for the Phillies last season,gets to throw at old teammates tonight.

The old teammates include left-handed-hitting Dwight Smith.

"Mitch is the scariest pitcher you have to face," Smith said."For two reasons - because I played with him and I played againsthim."

Smith knows two other things - that Williams could hit you andthat "if he does knock you upside the head, he doesn't mean to."