Researching Matt Williams

Williams played in a World Series for each of the teams he played for ( with the Giants, with the Indians, and with the Diamondbacks in which he won over the New York Yankees). During these years, Williams became the only player to hit at least one World Series home run for three different Major League baseball teams. During his career, Williams had an overall batting average of .268, with 378 home runs and 1218 runs batted in (RBIs). He scored 997 Major League runs, and he accumulated 1878 hits, 338 doubles, and 35 triples, while playing in 1866 regular-season games.

Williams, whose birth name is Mark, is a graduate of the University of Evansville and did post-graduate work in theater at The University of New Orleans. Before becoming a writer and producer, he was an actor, appearing in commercials, theater and as Ben Martin on the CBN soap opera Another Life in the early 1980s.

One of his many credits is creating and executive producing, along with Carmen Finestra and David McFadzean, the TV series Home Improvement. He produced films such as What Women Want. He was a writer/producer for The Cosby Show and A Different World, and wrote the screenplay for Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. Williams created the TV series Roseanne but was fired after its 13th episode; he retained "created by" credit for its series run and also for its spin-off The Conners.

Additionally, he has written the play "Between Daylight and Boonville", and directed and co-produced the feature film Where the Heart Is starring Natalie Portman. He also wrote and directed Walker Payne in 2006, starring Jason Patric, Drea de Matteo, and Sam Shepard.

Williams is originally from Evansville, Indiana. Williams is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Film at Columbia University School of the Arts in New York, NY.

Williams was the Blue Jays' first-round pick in the 1981 Major League Baseball Draft and the fifth pick overall out of Rice University. He debuted for the Blue Jays in 1983, but pitched just 8 innings in 4 games before returning to the minor leagues. After another two years in the minors, Williams was traded to the Rangers as part of a deal to acquire Cliff Johnson. Williams pitched six games down the stretch for Texas, including three starts, with an ERA of 2.42. Despite this impressive showing, he never again played in the major leagues.

A native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Williams attended Floyd E. Kellam High School and Virginia Commonwealth University. In 1991, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Williams was originally drafted in the 4th round of the 1992 Major League Baseball Draft by the Cleveland Indians. In May of, he was traded to the Houston Astros for catcher Eddie Tucker, and from there he made his way through the farm systems of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and New York Yankees, as well as playing for the independent High Desert Mavericks and Bakersfield Blaze. He was chosen in the Rule 5 draft by the Brewers, and the next April he made his major league debut. After a month and an ERA of 7.00, however, the Brewers returned him to the Yankees, and he never played in the majors again.