Second Season :: Round 3 :: Day 2 -- KW's football dreams edition

[T]he only touchdown pass I ever caught [in college] got called back." A touchdown that got wiped out by a penalty. Maybe that helps explain Williams' love-hate relationship with football. He loved it enough to play both ways for Stanford as a freshman in 1982. He hasn't played a down in 25 years, and baseball has given him fame, fortune and a two-carat diamond ring with the inscription: "World Champions 2005." And, yet, Williams calls football "my favorite game." Huh?

"It's obvious that I love baseball," he says. "But if I had one more game to play in any sport, assuming I could get my creaky [butt] out on the field ... heck, I'm still the guy who wants to replay the Stanford-Cal game."

That's the game that ended with play-by-play man Joe Starkey screaming: "The band is out on the field!" Cal used five laterals to turn the game's final kickoff into college football's most amazing finish. Williams, who played cornerback and slot receiver that day, recalls wanting to take the field for the game's final four seconds. But head coach Paul Wiggin held him back. "He said: 'Don't worry about it; it's over,' " Williams says.

That was only true for Williams' football career. He chose baseball after the Sox tabbed him in the third round of the 1982 draft. Williams has said he regrets his decision to say goodbye to Stanford and football.