Not every athlete player starts off with huge amounts of money or lots of opportunities. Major League Baseball pitcher Brandon Williamson is one such player that didn’t start off with much.
Williamson was the starting pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds vs. the Minnesota Twins for the game student journalists attended during their trip to Minneapolis. We met his mom, Twyla Williamson, in our hotel and interviewed her after the game.
Brandon’s unlikely dream
Brandon grew up outside Trimont, Minnesota, a small farming town of only about 700 people more than 100 miles from the closest big city. Becoming a professional athlete was an unlikely dream. The closest baseball field was eight miles away, which Brandon would bike to. Nobody from his county had ever made the big leagues before.
Since making the major leagues in 2003, this was Brandon’s first appearance pitching in his home state. More than a hundred friends and family made the drive to Minneapolis to see him pitch.
Twyla said, “One of the guys tonight said to us, ‘You know, when Brandon graduated, I asked him what is he going to do now that he graduated? I’m going to be a professional baseball player.’ I had no idea, I’m like he did? He goes, ‘Yeah that’s what he told me at his graduation party. He was going to be a professional baseball player.’ And he did it. He did it.”
He had that dream for baseball even through he never played travel ball, never received private coaching, never even played on a high school team with a winning record.
Twyla said, “Now that I think of this. There was no big money from him out of high school. None. He never went to a state tournament ever.”
What he did have was a supportive and athletic family, a lot of potential as a 6-6 lefty, and a strong work ethic, which included building his arm strength by throwing baseballs at a piece of plywood outside a shed on the family’s property.
Twyla said, “I mean they [his high school team was] terrible. And so, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter where you go school, What you do. It doesn’t matter. It’s hey, if you’re good and you can be mentally sound, anyone can do it. Whatever it is, if it’s piano. Whatever it is, if it’s journalism. If you have a desire you can do whatever you want to, but you have to believe that.”
Fun stories Twyla told
Twyla didn’t just talk about Brandon’s baseball journey. She also shared some memorable stories about Brandon.
An example of this would be the time when her mother-in-law took Brandon, who was four years old, to a local basketball game. Twyla had sat down and was talking to the guy next to her, when suddenly the whistle blows and they are pausing the game. She looks up and sees Brandon in the middle of the basketball court. Brandon had slipped away from her mother-in-law and ran into the middle of the basketball court.
She was in compete shock and was just stunned. She even turned red. She shared how embarrassed she was and how she didn’t want to go get him from the court. It wasn’t until the guy next to her said “Go get him” when she finally went down to the court. When she went to go grab him, the whole gym erupted in clapping. She tried looking for her mother-in-law, who was in a corner with her hands on her mouth in total shock.
A mother’s support
Twyla also stated how Brandon has never changed, even after his athletic success. Its not just her that says that – even Brandon’s friends have said that they wouldn’t have known that he was a baseball player, since he is still the same guy they always knew. He doesn’t even talk much about baseball when he hangs out with his family.
According to Twyla, Brandon actually is more casual, more about relaxing and just normal things like going out to fish, going for a walk around the lake, or going out with axes and to cut some trees on their property, even just having a fireworks show. Brandon is just about the simple things, that’s what he loves.
Twyla Williamson was a very good, supportive mother. She pushed Brandon into pursuing his dream.
She said, “Brandon, you’re 6’6, you’re left handed, and if you put your mind into it, and you want to do it. You can do it. Give it all you got. Set it all on the table. And just go for it.”
