Son Remembers Dad, Former Cubs Pitcher Bill Hands: 'He Kept The Family, A Family'

ORIENT, NY — Orient residents are mourning the loss of one the hamlet's most beloved residents.

William Hands, 76, who died on March 9, was widely known for as a Major League Baseball 20-game winner, a Chicago Cubs pitcher who won legions of fans — but nowhere was his legacy greater than with his family and friends in Orient.

Longtime owner of the Orient Service Center, Bill Hands was a man devoted to his family and the community he was proud to call home.

Reflecting on his father Wednesday, son Billy Hands said, "He was my buddy."

Growing up, Hands said, his father's focus was on the gas station, run by generations, by family, as were many longtime North Fork businesses. "That was all I knew," he said.

But since his father's passing, with national obituaries chronicling his father's legendary baseball career, Hands said, "All of a sudden, we're starting to see, to realize, what a big deal he was. But that's how my father was. He was that type of person, so humble about it."

He added, "You could ask him about the '69 season" — when he won 20 legendary games playing for the Cubs in a season that made baseball history — "and he would say, 'That was my job.' He was more humble than I recognized. He was the guy who wanted to pump gas, to go fishing, to work in his garden, hang out with local people and just chitchat."

Sometimes, Hands said, a customer would muster up their courage and ask his dad about his legendary Major League career. "One man asked him, 'What's the best pitch in baseball?' He said, 'Strike one,'" Hands said.

His father, Hands said, came up in the San Francisco Giants organization, played for the Cubs from 1965 to 1972, then played for the Minnesota Twins, and finally, finished up his major league career with the Texas Rangers.

Hands, his son said, had 11 years in the major leagues and seven in the minors. "A lot of people forget the minor leagues. But I learned from my father, 'Never sell anybody short.' He always said as long as you were getting paid, that was professional baseball."

The lessons imbued by his father are forever, Hands said.

"He was a hard worker. I can hear my father in the back of my head saying, 'You've got to do this,' or 'You've got to do that.' He taught me well. This is all about him. Everything I have, everything my family has — and I don't mean tangible things — what we have inside of us, that tools that he gave us, it all came from him. He taught us how to deal with people, how to be humble, how to be a good person."

Growing up, his father taught him that there were two things he could not tolerate, Hands said: "Cheating and lying. That's how he was. Sure, he had a strong personality. But he did it for a reason, for the betterment of my sisters Heather and Heidi, and me. He gave us a lot of tools to enable us to be good people, and to know how to treat people right."

His father, Hand said, may have led a storied life, scoring headlines and leaving a forever legacy in the baseball annals.

But his life's focus, his son said, was family. "It was family first."

Going through photos this week, Hands said he came to a deep realization of all that he and his father had shared. "I see photos a father-son game in Minnesota, or with him in spring training in Arizona every year. It's this wonderful appreciation of my father — he was always involving us."

And, as years passed and the Hands men stood side by side, running the family business, the moments shared were priceless.

"Every morning, here at the gas station — we open at 7 a.m. and he'd get in at 6:30 a.m. for his coffee, newspaper and bagel — every morning, for almost 30 minutes, we'd have a conversation, about baseball, or politics, or about the garage. Or we'd talk about nothing at all. Every day. How fortunate I am, to have had him waxing philosophically about things everything — and I listened to him."

Of his father's loss, Hands said, "I have a big hole in my heart."

Bill Hands' family, including his wife Sandy, his children and grandchildren, all live in Orient, Hands said. "I realize now how close I was to him, and it's all about him. How much he did for us. He kept the family, a family," Hand said. "That was his deal. He was the patriarch of the family — and he did it well."

The family of Bill Hands will receive friends on Thursday, March 16 between the hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Horton-Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport. A 10 a.m. funeral service will be held in the funeral home on Friday, March 17 by Pastor Garret M. Johnson of St. Peter`s Lutheran Church in Greenport.

Interment will follow.

The family has suggested that memorial donations be made in Bill`s name to the North Fork Little League, PO Box 1855, Southold, NY 11971 or Greenport High School Athletic Department, 720 Front Street, Greenport, NY 11944, Attn: Chris Golden.

Patch photo courtesy of Hands family.