A Night to Remember in a Year to Forget

A season of adjustment and adversity maybe doesn’t cover it.

Traded by the only organization he had played for, one he loved.

Divorced by his wife of eight years, the mother of their three children.

“The toughest year I’ve been through--privately and professionally,” tight-lipped Matt Williams was saying Wednesday night. “I mean, we’re human. There are other parts to life than baseball. When things go wrong in your personal life, it’s going to affect your professional life.”

A new league. A new lifestyle.

“I won’t discuss the private part,” Williams said. “Professionally, I was just very inconsistent. I had good weeks and bad weeks. No player likes to have as many bad weeks as I had.”

Perhaps, but when it was over, when the accounting was done on Matt Williams’ first season in the American League, the ledger showed many more good weeks than bad weeks.

Which is a significant reason why the Cleveland Indians won their third consecutive Central Division title and why General Manager John Hart could stand outside the team’s clubhouse Wednesday night and say of his third baseman:

“Matt Williams is a winner and warrior. In many ways, he personifies our ballclub the way he persevered through adversity.

“I’ve always thought it’s more difficult for hitters to switch leagues than pitchers. So he had to battle through all of that, besides the personal thing.”

This was minutes after Williams had produced another very good night on another very bad night.

Amid snow flurries and the coldest temperatures in World Series history (38 degrees at game time with a windchill of 18), Williams singled twice, walked twice and slugged a two-run homer in the eighth inning that put the icing on an arctic night and 10-3 victory over the Florida Marlins.

The Series is now tied at two games apiece and the Indians are assured of trading ski masks for sun screen on Friday, when this tepid affair returns to Miami.

“It’s a best of three now, but they still have the home-field advantage,” said Williams, having reached base on all five of his plate appearances in Game 4, scored three runs and hit his first World Series home run since Game 3 in 1989, when he was a bellwether of the San Francisco Giants’ lineup.

There was also this Wednesday:

After committing only 12 errors in 402 chances during the regular season, Williams was named a Gold Glove winner for the fourth time but the first time by his new league’s managers and coaches.

His colleague on the left side, shortstop Omar Vizquel, won his fifth.

“I’ve never seen anyone better than Omar,” Williams said.

Said Vizquel:

“I’ve been in the big leagues for nine years and Matt Williams is the best I’ve ever seen [defensively].

“He has the softest hands I’ve ever seen. It’s like having another shortstop out there the way he can go either way. He’s a lot of help to me.”

This mutual admiration society has provided enormous help to a pitching staff dominated by split-finger and sinker specialists who tend to produce a lot of ground balls.

Defense was one factor in his blockbuster acquisition last November.

But the trade that sent Jeff Kent, Jose Vizcaino and Julian Tavarez to the Giants and ultimately helped both clubs reach the postseason was perceived in another way here.

Williams may have been bringing a Gold Glove, but Cleveland fans saw him only as the offensive replacement for departing free agent Albert Belle, which compounded the pressure on Williams in a summer of adjustment.

Said Hart: “I told Matt we weren’t bringing him here to replace Albert Belle. We were bringing him here to be Matt Williams.

“When we knew Albert wasn’t coming back, we knew we were bringing in a winner in Matt, a middle-of-the-lineup run producer and Gold Glove fielder.

“It wasn’t easy for him. A free agent can prepare for the idea of leaving and joining a new team. Matt loved the Giants. The trade came out of the blue. He was faced with a new league and a new team, and there was the divorce on top of it.”

Williams went house hunting in Cleveland last winter and was told by his wife, Tracie, that she wanted a divorce after he returned to their home in Arizona.

His three children--Alysha, 7, Jacob, 6, and Rachel, 5--visited occasionally this summer, but teammates say it has been a painful process.

“He’s a very family-oriented person,” Manager Mike Hargrove said. “You can tell he adores the kids the way his eyes light up when they’re around. I can’t imagine how hard this has been. I’ve told him my door is open any time he wants to talk, but he tends to keep a lot of it to himself.”

Williams displayed his fiber in more ways than one. He donated $50,000 to Cleveland charities on the day he was traded, and he ultimately put the first-half inconsistency--including a 14-for-100 siege----behind him with a career-best, 24-game hitting streak that began in early August. He led the Indians with 105 runs batted in and hit 32 home runs.

He was asked Wednesday night if the success he is now enjoying compensates for that earlier inconsistency.

“This is not about personal stuff now,” he said. “This is now about winning.”