The Chicago Cubs may have been out of town last weekend, but there was still a chance to see one of the most beloved Cubs in person.

About 300 people came out to see Hall of Fame left fielder Billy Williams and get a copy of his new book, "Billy Williams: My Sweet-Swinging Lifetime With the Cubs," signed at Von Maur in Yorktown Center on Saturday, May 3.

"Billy was very personable, and so many fans seemed to know him not only as a player, but as a person, too," Lisa Nelson, Von Maur's division marketing manager of men's clothing and furnishings, said. "We were very happy with how it turned out."

The book, which chronicles his career in the major leagues and players he played with along the way, was almost a very short book. With prejudice and racism still rampant in the south in the late 1950s, Williams, a minor leaguer at the time, had to be dropped off at a different hotel with the rest of his black teammates and wasn't allowed to eat at the same restaurants as the whites.

"It reached a point where I didn't want to go through it anymore, so I elected to go home," Williams said.

He returned to his hometown of Whistler, Ala., but former Negro League star Buck O'Neil came to Whistler and convinced Williams to return to the team.

"I'm certainly glad he had the time to intersect my way and get me back in baseball," Williams said.

Shortly after returning to the team, he was called up to the big leagues, recording 2,711 hits and 427 home runs in his 18-year career.

No Cubs book would be complete without talking about the 1969 season, where the Cubs lost an eight-and-a-half game lead in August, being beat out for the National League pennant by the eventual world champion New York Mets.

"I don't like to say we lost, but the Mets won because they played outstanding baseball," he said. "They got lucky and came on at the right time with some great pitching."

Williams and third baseman Ron Santo were both part of the 1969 team and played more games together than any other two players in Major League Baseball history. Based on their time spent together and the relationship they created, he said it was an obvious choice that Santo would write the foreword for the book.

"When I got to Double-A baseball (in 1959), Ronnie was signing with the team, and we became real good friends at that time," he said. "And we've been friends ever since."

The sweet swinger spent time with the Cubs during spring training in Arizona. He said many of the players showed up early for camp with a bitter taste left in their mouths from being swept in the playoffs by the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.

As for one of the Cubs' fans and the media's biggest concerns, Williams said Alfonso Soriano's spot in the batting order should be decided by one person and one person only.

"It doesn't matter if the writers or (Williams) want him to hit fifth or sixth in the lineup," he said about the all-star Soriano. "It's up to the manager."

Williams, who was inducted in baseball's Hall of Fame in 1987, still gives out advice on hitting. He tells his grandson, who plays baseball at Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, to look for strikes and learn the strike zone.

"Each time you go to the plate, you're going to get one good pitch to hit. The key is if you get that one pitch, you have to keep your eyes right on that baseball and not miss it." Williams said. "You have to think of that pitch as the last good pitch you're going to get in that at-bat."