Ted Williams
From Wiki Gonzalez
Ted Williams (1918-2002) was a famous outfielder for the Boston Red Sox and an "Inner Circle" member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ted is considered by some to be a contender for the greatest baseball player of all time, given his overwhelming career hitting stats and his notoriety as the last .400 hitter.
Ted is worshipped by statheads for his devotion to the science of hitting, in particular his insistence on knowing the strike zone, not swinging at "pitcher's pitches," and swinging with full force at pitches within his hitting zone. He publicly scorned small ball and those who practiced it. He wrote an autobiography (My Turn At Bat) to document his theories, and was notorious for expounding on those theories whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Outside of hitting, Ted had a lifelong passion for fishing.
Ted was also a fighter pilot with the United States Marine Corps; although he spent most of World War II as an instructor flying North American SNJ trainers, he was posted to a Vought F4U unit just before the war ended, not seeing combat. Drafted back into the USMC for the Korean War, he flew Grumman F9F Panther jet fighters in combat with VMF-311, surviving one particularly bad crash landing. His baseball career was interrupted twice due to his military service in both wars.
After his playing career, he tried his hand as a manager, taking charge of the Senators in the late 1960s. In his first season (1969), the perennial losers had an unexpectedly good season, particularly offensively, which was credited to Ted.
As time passed, the team was unable to build on that success, and his demanding managerial style ticked off his players to the point of revolt. After a rotten 1972 season with the team's new incarnation as the Rangers, he was fired and never managed again.
Ted has been periodically discussed on BTF when his name cropped up in the news:
- the ghoulish controversy over his cryogenically frozen head (it's still in an Alcor vault)
- a controversy over whether he can or should be considered a Latino player (his mother was half-Mexican, of Basque heritage)
Most Primates remember his appearance at the 1999 All-Star Game in Fenway Park, where the assembled All-Stars in an unscripted moment flocked to meet the man.
Bob Costas once mentioned to Ted that he (Ted) was the guy that John Wayne always played in the movies. Ted replied, "Yeah, I know."
[edit] Nicknames
- Teddy Ballgame
- The Kid
- The Splendid Splinter
- The Thumper
- The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived (Ted's preferred tombstone epigram)
[edit] References
- Ted Williams on Baseball-Reference.com as a player, as a manager
- Williams 'death mask'
- Ted Williams: The Pursuit of Perfection - book review by Jim Prime and Bill Nowlin
