Matt Williams: The Giants Slugger Who Could Have Broken Roger Maris' Home Run Record

1994 was quite a year for baseball, but for the SF Giants fans it was especially devastating as they were watching history in the making.

1992; San Francisco, CA, USA; FILE PHOTO; San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Williams at the plate at Candlestick Park during the 1992 season. Mandatory Credit: RVR Photos-USA TODAY Network | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The 1994 Major League Baseball season is well known for the players' strike, which ended the World Series. However, for San Francisco Giants supporters, this was the year they watched Matt Williams lose his chance to complete a task that hadn't been done in over thirty years.

Williams was in the middle of a great year, hitting home runs at a rate that could tie or break Roger Maris' all-time single-season record of 61. Even though Barry Bonds had become one of the game's greatest players, Williams led the National League in home runs, and many wondered if history was being written.

Then, just like that, the season was over.

Williams Was Putting Together a Special Season

1992; San Francisco, CA, USA; FILE PHOTO; San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Williams in action at Candlestick Park during the 1992 season. Mandatory Credit: RVR Photos-USA TODAY Network | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In 1993, Williams established himself as one of the best third basemen in the National League, hitting 38 home runs and driving in 110 runs. However, his performance in 1994 would be much better than the previous year.

At the end of his 112th game of 1994, Williams had hit for a .267 average, with 43 home runs, 96 runs batted in (RBIs,) and a .6077 slugging percentage. It was more than a very good year; Williams was providing some of the best offensive numbers ever seen by a Giant.

By the end of July, Williams had already hit 40 home runs and was the first player in the National League to reach this milestone before the beginning of August. Every time he stepped up to bat, there was potential for another achievement.

 At the time of the season's stoppage, Ken Griffey Jr. had 40 home runs for Seattle, and Bonds had 37 for San Francisco.

Baseball had multiple players chasing history, and Williams was leading the way.

Could Williams Have Caught Roger Maris?

The streak began on August 12. At that time, Williams had hit 43 home runs in the Giants' initial 115 games. He still had 47 games to play. If he continued at his current rate, he would have hit about 61 home runs.

This would have tied him with Maris, whose record was set in 1961.

Williams had been getting better at the plate before the end of the year, hitting five homers in the last eight games. While it appeared he would continue to hit well, maintaining that rate for an additional 30 days or so would likely have been difficult.

But that's why the story is so infuriating. He was not given the chance to discover the truth.

The strike that ended the regular season ultimately led to the postponement of the postseason. Williams hit 43 home runs during this time and left Giants fans thinking about how the rest of the year would have played out if baseball had continued.

More Than Just a Home Run Hitter

1991; Flushing, NY, USA; FILE PHOTO; San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Williams in action against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium during the 1991 season. Mandatory Credit: RVR Photos-USA TODAY Network | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The 1994 season for Matt Williams is sometimes overlooked in discussions about the best hitters for the Giants. Of course, Bonds' historical seasons are at the forefront of these discussions. In addition to Bonds, other players such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Will Clark remain among the most prominent figures in Giants history.

However, Williams has earned a great deal of recognition for his accomplishments in San Francisco.

He was a great defensive third baseman who could alter a game as much with his glove as with his bat. As a member of the Giants, Williams became a four-time All-Star and established himself as one of the team's most reliable run-producers.

In addition to his contributions to the 1989 Giants team that competed in the World Series, he was also a key player for the 1993 Giants team, which had 103 wins and fell just short of making the postseason.

Williams later went on to play for both the Cleveland Indians and Arizona Diamondbacks, where he would win a World Series in 2001. However, his greatest personal season was when he wore a Giants uniform.

One of Baseball's Great What-If Stories

It's impossible to know if Williams would have been able to surpass Roger Maris' single-season home run mark. If he had hit 60 home runs during that time, he would have needed to continue producing at his current rate for the remaining seven weeks of the season.

But he had earned the opportunity to try.

Four years later, both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa would break Roger Maris' home run record, with Mark McGwire setting a new single-season record of 70 home runs at the end of the 1998 season. Barry Bonds set the current single-season home run record at 73 during the 2001 season.

Williams’ 43 home runs in 1994 are a continuing reminder of how special that season was. The strike cut the season short, but it doesn't diminish what Williams achieved.