Ted Williams

[Bart]

I was jusat checking out his career stats... absolutely awesome. He retired in the early sixties but he could still hit well. Most people don't realize he lost about five yearsof his prime due to serving in the military. He was a bomber pilot during W W 2 and also the Korean conflict, was John Glenn's wing man.


He managed the Washington Senators for a period. One ofhis players, Mike Epstein,said Ted would instruct hittersthengrab a bat and show em how it's done by facingthe teams pitchers. He said they agreed that Ted at the age of 50+ was the best hitter on the team.


Hecould still hit long after he retired. I had a video of him teaching the art of hitting. He was probably in his upper fifties and had put on a few pounds, looked and talked just like John Wayne. He still had a nice swing. I'm pretty sure Bob Costas once asked him how old he was when father time caught up with his ability to hit a major leaguers pitch. Ted said when he was about 61 he found he couldn't catch up with a fast ball anymore, he was on the downside of the hill.

 

[Don Wassall]

Tell you what, I've had my fill of hearing and reading the sick jokes about Ted Williams' head. It just showsagain thatthere's not a single white man who is regarded with reverence by the media.It's a national sport by thesystem tomake fun of and tear down our heroes.

 

[sport historian]

I have an acquaintance who knew Ted Williams slightly. He worked for a Boston radio station years ago. He told me some anecdotes about Ted Wiliams and some other Boston athletes. Of Williams, the most notable thing was Ted's high intelligence. During Marine pilot training, Ted picked up aeronautical engineering concepts with no trouble. During his baseball career, he would meet with MIT professors and hold his own in discussions.


This "tearing down of our heroes" took place during Ted's playing days by the way. You have probably heard of his troubles with the Boston writers. Several of them would attack Williams just to be "controversial."


Ed (my acquaintance) told me about the intense booing that Williams got during his playing days. It started when Ted didn't join the military immediately in 1942, though he soon enlisted in the Marines. I once heard Curt Gowdy say on a NBC broadcast, "I didn't hear any boos after he came back from Korea." Ed told me that this is wrong. "It never really stopped," Ed told me. It was mostly vile comments Ted would hear from the stands while stationed in left field, verbal abuse from Boston "sports fans."


In WWII, Ted scored so well at aerial marsksmanship, that he was made an instructor. He finally was able to join a fighter squadron a few days before the Bomb was dropped. In 1952, he was called up and sent to Korea, flying as John Glenn's wingman. He was nearly killed, landing a damaged jet fighter. As Don says, even a record like that doesn't inspire reverance today.

 

[jaxvid]

Let me interupt the Ted Willaims lovefest to play devils advocate. Williams was a great ballplayer, probably the greatest hitter ever. He was also heroic and a man's man, having said all that he was also something else: a DICK. Williams had probably the worst attitude for a white athletic superstar ever (except for Cobb). He was mean cranky and ill tempered. He was genuinely disliked and he didn't care. He admitted it and reveled in it.

Williams was not liked in his own time, and that is also partly why he is not cared for now (the other reason is of course the caste sytem). But Ted didn't care and we shouldn't either. For all of Ted's surliness when he left the public eye he did not mistreat women, commit crimes or trash his people (or any other people).

My point is that Ted Williams, one of the biggest white malcontented athletes ever, was a saint compared to the average thug playing pro sports today. If there was a list of unfriendly athletes he would still be number 10,000 behind nearly every black athlete in the game today. That to me is the real story of the kind of person Ted Williams was.

 

[Bart]

Okay, I'll admit it...Ted Williams has always fascinated me. As a kid I would go to Sears and buy everything from fishing rods to a set of weights solely because his name was on it.I would read of his exploits on the field and in the air. In my young world baseball playersand pilots were like gods, he was both.As an impressionableyoung boy I loved the image John Wayne portrayed in his movies and Ted somehow reminded me of "Duke."


He may have been arrogant, opinionated and a loud mouth but as Jaxvid pointed out he was no where near to being a scoundrel as many other playershave been. From what I've read his teammates thought highly of him as did his fellow soldiers.Ted spokefavorably of Joe Dimaggio, said he was deserving of all his accolades andawards even though it's obvious to most Ted was shafted by the press and should have won more MVP's. You know, after watching the Mantle -Maris movieI'm seeing a similar situation betweenTed and Joe, the golden boy against the anti-hero. Aaron, Musial, Cobb, Mantle and many others were praised by Ted. He did think Mantlewas not disciplined enough at the plate and Boggs should have hit more homers for his size but those were not ugly and mean spirited assaults meant to ruin a reputation as Barry Bonds has done to Babe Ruth in an effort to exhalt himself.


Ted may have developed a chip on his shoulder early on. His parents divorced and his mother devoted herlifeto organizations such as the Salvation Army and other outreaches but spent little time with him,thinking baseball was trivial and worldly. He wrote that he would check the stands to see if his mom would show up to watch him play... she never did.One day his mother requested an autograph and he was so glad only to find she wanted Stan Musials. So, I'm sure he had a healthy rejection complex.


He'd hit a homer and doff his cap to the crowd but stopped doing it after feuding with the press and some fans. At the end of his career people were waiting to see if he would tip his cap as a final good will gesture before bowing out of the game. He hit a home run rounded the bases, thought about it but just couldn't do it, missing a chance to heal the rift. In his later years having mellowed a bit he said he regretted not tipping the cap.


I almost forgot something he did which is really old-school.My figures may be off but one year he signed a contract for something like 100 thousand bucks. Because of an injury sustained while chopping wood he hit only.254. He offered to cut 25 k from his contract being ashamed to take that money, saying a .250 hitter doesn't deserve that kind of salary.

 

[KD52171]

Ted sent me a typed letter and signed it when I was 10 or 11.


Sent a nice pic and signed it also.


Great player and guy.