TED WILLIAMS DIES

Yahoo! Sports ^ | 5 July 2002 | Wire services

[BluesDuke]

CRYSTAL, RIVER FLORIDA (TICKER) -- Hall of Famer Ted Williams, regarded as perhaps the greatest hitter in the history of major league baseball, died on Friday. He was 83.

Williams, who suffered a series of strokes and congestive heart failure in recent years, was taken to Citrus County Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at 8:49 a.m. EDT.

Williams, who spent his entire 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox and was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1966, was the last man to hit .400 -- one of the few hallowed marks to go unchallenged in today's offense-oriented era.

A two-time MVP, Williams won baseball's elite Triple Crown twice, captured six American League batting titles, had 2,654 hits and was a lifetime .344 hitter.

Remarakbly, the lefthanded slugger achieved all those feats while losing four seasons in his prime to military service. The ultimate patriot, Williams served as a navy pilot in World War II and the Korean War.

Despite his heroics on and off the field, Williams, who was nicknamed "The Splendid Splinter" never was fully embraced by the Boston media or Red Sox fans. The ultimate perfectionist, his career-long battle with the media likely cost him two and possible three more MVP awards.

But as time passed, Williams began to become more and more recognized for his heroic nature and eventually became a symbol of the game's greatness. That acceptance peaked when he was wheeled out to the pitcher's mound in Fenway Park at the All-Star Game in 1999 as the crowing jewel of team of baseball immortals.

Williams was suffering from cardiovascular deterioration, the latest in a series of ailments that have slowed the former Boston Red Sox star. He had a pacemaker implanted in November 2000 and underwent nine hours of heart surgery in January 2001 at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

(MORE)

[BluesDuke]

There are no words.

There was only one Ted Williams. The good Ted was incomparable; the bad Ted in the end we learned to forgive. And in the end, he was an American blessing. Our blessing, which we should have been proud to claim our own.

Two vital readings said it all: Ed Linn, "The Kid's Last Game"; and, John Updike, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu". Not to mention Mr. Linn's splendid biography, Hitter; and Teddy Ballgame's own memoir, My Turn At Bat

God bless Ted Williams.

[BluesDuke]

Not to mourn, but to appreciate our blessings, of which Ted Williams having played and represented our game was one.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Williams served as a navy pilot in World War II and the Korean War.

Ted Williams was a United States Marine, not a squid.

[Mike Fieschko]

[Charles Henrickson]

Greatest pure hitter of them all. If he hadn't missed several prime years serving our country in two wars, his numbers would be even more amazing. When I made my all-time team a couple years ago, I had him in my top six outfielders, around fifth: Ruth, Mays, Cobb, Aaron, Williams, and Musial. If he hadn't missed those prime years, he would surely be in my starting outfield: Ruth (RF), Mays (CF), and Williams (LF).

It was from reading Ted Williams' book, The Science of Hitting, that I learned how to hit.

Jack Buck, the great baseball broadcaster, died last month, and now Ted Williams dies this month. Both were war heroes and patriots. Those two truly exemplified "The Greatest Generation."

[BluesDuke]

I know. I hadn't noticed the wire report's goof. Well, ok, if you want to split hairs, the Navy is the official overlord of the Marines, but I did say "split hairs." In a way, it wouldn't matter if Williams was a squid, a jar, a grunt, or a gull. He flew for us. All of us.

[CARDINALRULES]

Too bad I didn't remember that he has a museum down near where I was visiting family in Feb.

Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame

I plan to go next time I make it down to Florida.

Baseball has lost another great..and sadly there will be more in the coming years. I hate to think about it.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

the Navy is the official overlord of the Marines

Bulls***. The Commandant of the Marine Corps reports to the Secretary of the Navy, not the Chief of Naval Operations.

In a way, it wouldn't matter if Williams was a squid, a jar, a grunt, or a gull.

Bulls***. It mattered to Ted Williams and it should matter to all Americans. Anyone who doesn't understand that is just plain simple.

"It's a funny thing, but, as years go by, I think you appreciate more and more what a great thing it was to be a United States Marine... I am a U.S. Marine and I'll be one till I die."
- Ted Williams, Baseball Hall of Famer

[Charles Henrickson]

Ted Williams is #2 all-time in slugging percentage at .634, second to Babe Ruth's .692. Williams is #1 all-time in on-base percentage at .481 (Ruth is second at .469).

[Charles Henrickson]

In 1941, when he was 22-23, Ted Williams hit .406 with 37 home runs, a .551 on-base percentage, and a .735 slugging percentage. He led the majjor leagues in all those categories. And he struck out 27 times in 456 at-bats.

In 1957, when he was 38-39, Williams hit .388 with 38 home runs, a .526 on-base percentage, and a .731 slugging percentage. He led the major leagues in all those categories, except home runs. And he struck out 43 times in 420 at-bats.

He did not play at all in 1943, 1944, and 1945, when he was 24-27. He played only a little bit in 1952 and 1953, when he was 33-35. So he missed almost five full seasons in the prime of his career, when his numbers would have been at their highest.

What a hitter.

[BluesDuke]

I could (and do) say of my own service in the Air Force (it was during the Reagan Administration) what Ted Williams said of his as a Marine. As being a Marine meant that to him, so did being an airman mean that to me. The quintessential point is that he served his country period. That is what should matter to all Americans. The specific branch of service is in a sense irrelevant. And from what I know and have read of Ted Williams, he'd have felt likewise had he been a member of the Army Air Force.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

The quintessential point is that he served his country period. That is what should matter to all Americans. The specific branch of service is in a sense irrelevant. And from what I know and have read of Ted Williams, he'd have felt likewise had he been a member of the Army Air Force.

Shows how little you know about how Williams really felt about being called to active duty and sent to Korea. Williams wasn't very disappointed when he got sent home after four months in Korea either. By the way, in your hypothetical Ted would have been in Korea as a member of the Air Force, like former Marine Joe Foss was, not the Army Air Force. Knowing now that you served in the Air Force confirms my earlier suspicions. You just don't get it.

[BluesDuke]

Shows how little you know about how Williams really felt about being called to active duty and sent to Korea. Williams wasn't very disappointed when he got sent home after four months in Korea either.

He wasn't exactly thrilled with the way he got into the military in the first place, either. First, an account from the man himself, from his memoir My Turn At Bat:

War was imminent. I had gone to my draft board right after the season, about November of '41, and told them everything about me, how much money I had in the bank, how much I sent my mother every month, everything. I was put in III-A, which meant I had a dependent. (Note: Williams was the sole support of his divorced mother; he had a ne'er-do-well brother who had once sold out their mother's furniture from under her, an incident which was misinterpreted in the Boston press of the time as having been done by Williams himself, even though they knew it had been his brother, such already were his troubles with that town's then-notoriously cannibalistic press. - BD) I went on up to Minnesota to fish and see my girl, up where they had had that terrible blizzard, when scores of duck hunters were marooned on the lakes and froze to death.

...In January (1942) I got a notice that I could be called at any time. I had been reclassified I-A. A friend of mine suggested I go see the adviser to the governor's Selective Service Appeal Agent, an attorney, because I was the sole support of my mother. She worked for the Salvation Army, but she didn't get anything, and she and my father were divorced. So I told this man my story as honestly as I could - I've never been a liar, never could lie very well - and he said, "You're right, you should still be three-A."

He took it to the Appeals Board, but they voted me down. This really got the attorney mad, and he said he was going to go to the Presidential Board, to General Hershey. Well, I had nobody to advise me, no father, no mother there to tell me anything, no real personal big league friends to go to and say, "Tell me what to do," so I just let him take charge, and about ten days later I got word I was back in III-A - I was deferred by the Presidential Board. I thought, well, this is the top of the heap, I'm going to be all right.

In the meantime, I got my 1942 contract, and boy, I remember I put it in my wardrobe trunk. $30,000. The end of the rainbow. But now some awful things are being written about me, mean things about my draft situation. The Japanese are really running wild, and patriotism has invaded the press box. Bill Corum (a New York sportswriter - BD) takes out after me, and Paul Gallico (a syndicated sports columnist, if I am not mistaken - BD).

They're writing, "Williams ought to get in the service. He doesn't have to hide behind anybody. He can get in." And "Ted Williams isn't going to spring training, is he?" And yow, yow, yow. There are a million ballplayers in III-A - (Joe) Gordon played baseball that year, DiMaggio played, Musial played - but Ted Williams is the guy having trouble with the draft board. I remember I had a contract to endorse Quaker Oats, a $4,000 contract. I used to eat them all the time. But they canceled out on me because of all this unfair stuff, and I haven't eaten a Quaker Oat since.

Well, Joe Cronin writes and tells me I ought to go see Mickey Cochrane at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Cochrane, the great old Tiger catcher, had joined up and was running their athletic program, and by now it's quite obvious we aren't going to win the war in six months. Cochrane had a new car, a Lincoln Continental with pushbutton doors, and he drove me around the Great Lakes center. There were 10,000 guys there, and Cochrane's all decked out in his Navy uniform, buttons shining like mad, and he gave me the big pitch. I met a few of the guys and I'm weakening. I'm about to enlist right now.

Then he says, "Gee, it's going to be awful tough to play ball. You try to play ball this summer, they'll boo you out of every park in the big leagues."

Boy, I saw fire. I said to myself, I don't give a damn who they boo or what they do. I've heard plenty of boos. I'm going to play ball if I can.

Then Mr. Yawkey got into the act. He said he didn't think it would be smart for me to come to spring training. That was the first mistake the Red Sox made with me. I made up my mind that I was going to go anyway. All I could think about was that big contract, and the very fact that I was entitled to be III-A, and now for the first time in my life I would be able to get my mother out of hock a little bit and fix up that house...It turned out a lot better than I thought I would. Will Harridge, the president of the American League, called me and told me to keep my chin up, that I wouldn't have been deferred if I wasn't in the right. I heard a few remarks in the spring, not from other players, from some smart-alec fans, and I got a letter one day that was nothing but a blank piece of yellow paper, and that burned me up, but by the time the season started it was mostly over...Near the end of the season, I signed up for naval aviation, which took the heat off completely. In November, I got called, and five of us, Johnny Sain and Buddy Gremp of the Braves, Joe Coleman of the Athletics, Johnny Pesky and myself, went to Amherst College for preliminary ground school - navigation, aerodynamics, math, aeronautics, all basic stuff. I wasn't exactly overconfident about getting through, not having gone beyond Herbert Hoover High, but I had no trouble fitting in and I made up my mind I was going to give it my best.

Which he wouldn't really get the chance to give until Korea; Williams became predominantly a flight instructor and never saw combat in World War II (he'd actually made it out to Pearl Harbour by the time the war ended). Here is how he remembered his getting to the Korean War, with the backdrop being the elbow injury that he suffered in the 1950 All-Star Game, after which he wasn't quite the same hitter he had been (though he'd still be spectacular enough) and struggled (his word) to bat .318 in 1951...

Despite my damaged elbow, and despite my previous service, and despite approaching my thirty-fourth birthday, I was called up from the inactive reserves into the Marines in 1952 for the Korean War. I would not return until late the next season. Together, the two wars took four and a half years out of my career. Much has been made of this, and much speculation over what I could have done or would have done with those vital years. I wonder myself. I was not alone, of course. Hank Greenberg lost two years, most of a third, and part of another in World War II. Bob Feller lost three years plus. Joe DiMaggio lost three.

I was singled out for sympathy because I was called up twice. In my heart I was bitter about it but I made up my mind I wasn't going to bellyache. I kept thinking one of those gutless politicians someplace along the line would see that it wasn't right and do something. I know that winter my number had come up, that it would just be a matter of time. At spring training in Sarasota, there was a big cheese man from Ohio, a baseball fan who told me he knew Senator Robert Taft. "I'm going to personally see Senator Taft about you," he said. "I know him like a best friend. I'll talk to him about it."

The way I understand it, all Taft said was, "I have some reservations as to the fairness of it, but I don't interfere with a thing like that." I wish I had the letter I got from him. John Kennedy, who was a Massachussetts Congressman then, told Fred Corcoran (Williams's personal business representative - BD) he tried to do something for me but couldn't. Eveidently none of them could. I didn't say anything, but I was bitter because it was unfair.

I know well enough, in other words, the actual story. I find it intriguing, though, to note that in World War II he seems to have been a member of the Navy, but for Korea he was called into the Marine Corps. This is nothing against the Marine Corps by any means (you seem to have the impression I dislike Marines, which is simply not so), but I do note that, whereas he became properly proud of having been a Marine, it may not exactly have been his choice to become one.

By the way, in your hypothetical Ted would have been in Korea as a member of the Air Force, like former Marine Joe Foss was, not the Army Air Force.

Remember - I alluded to Williams entire terms of military service and not just Korea; in World War II it would have been the Army Air Force. And I never suggested I would prefer Williams in the Army Air Force; I said only that the kind of pride he had to the day he died in his military service should tell one that he'd have had the same pride regardless of the branch where he served - which is not the same thing as suggesting his "preference" or mine.

Knowing now that you served in the Air Force confirms my earlier suspicions. You just don't get it.

If you are or were a Marine, you've just discredited your honourable branch of service with that gratuitous crack. I was fortunate enough to be able to choose my branch of service and I have no shame whatsoever for having chosen the Air Force. It was then, it is now, and it ever will be an honourable branch in which to serve these United States, as is any branch of the military. You, sir, are the one who just doesn't get it.

[BluesDuke]

With apologies for an HTML mistake of mine, and for clarity's sake, here is how the rest of the post should have looked after the end of my excerpt from Mr. Williams's memoir:

I know well enough, in other words, the actual story. I find it intriguing, though, to note that in World War II he seems to have been a member of the Navy, but for Korea he was called into the Marine Corps. This is nothing against the Marine Corps by any means (you seem to have the impression I dislike Marines, which is simply not so), but I do note that, whereas he became properly proud of having been a Marine (I would, I repeat, expect any serviceman to be likewise proud of his service no matter which branch had the honour of his service), it may not exactly have been his choice to become one.

By the way, in your hypothetical Ted would have been in Korea as a member of the Air Force, like former Marine Joe Foss was, not the Army Air Force.

Remember - I alluded to Williams entire terms of military service and not just Korea; in World War II it would have been the Army Air Force. And I never suggested I would prefer Williams in the Army Air Force; I said only that the kind of pride he had to the day he died in his military service should tell one that he'd have had the same pride regardless of the branch where he served - which is not the same thing as suggesting his "preference" or mine.

Knowing now that you served in the Air Force confirms my earlier suspicions. You just don't get it.

If you are or were a Marine, you've just discredited your honourable branch of service with that gratuitous crack. I was fortunate enough to be able to choose my branch of service and I have no shame whatsoever for having chosen the Air Force. It was then, it is now, and it ever will be an honourable branch in which to serve these United States, as is any branch of the military. You, sir, are the one who just doesn't get it.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Not to mourn..."

There's really no mourning an 83-year-old's life when it was lived with the gusto with which Teddy lived his...although I betcha he'd still trade somethin' or other for that World Series Championship he never conquered...MUD

[BluesDuke]

True, but I cannot help thinking of how it was said yesterday that the previous months, if not years, had become physical hell for a man who above all lived his own kind of physical life. Knowing Williams, to have been removed from his beloved fishing waterways was tantamount to suffering any injury that might have turned him into a sub-.300 hitter. Johnny Pesky spoke of his quality of life having been compromised so. In that sense, it may have been a kind of sad relief that he suffers no more, even if something unique has gone from this island earth.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

I know well enough, in other words, the actual story. I find it intriguing, though, to note that in World War II he seems to have been a member of the Navy, but for Korea he was called into the Marine Corps.

Like hell you do. Williams was a Marine. One doesn't get commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Navy.

If you are or were a Marine, you've just discredited your honourable branch of service with that gratuitous crack. I was fortunate enough to be able to choose my branch of service and I have no shame whatsoever for having chosen the Air Force. It was then, it is now, and it ever will be an honourable branch in which to serve these United States, as is any branch of the military. You, sir, are the one who just doesn't get it.

Wrong again. Discredited? Gratuitous? You're delusional. Lewis Puller would be shaking my hand were he still alive. I dealt with enough of you scarf wearing prima donnas to know you clowns never get it. I'll bet that you were one of those whiney snot noses on that C-141 at Cubi Point I had to deal with crying about what a long day they had and how tired they were. You spent too much time in the country club. Pound sand.

[BluesDuke]

Like hell you do. Williams was a Marine. One doesn't get commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Navy.

Then I suggest you read My Turn At Bat, in which he specifically stated he enlisted first in the Naval Reserve after the controversy around his III-A reclassification; was assigned for flight training; and, in due course, became a flight instructor (stationed predominantly in Pensacola before a transfer to Pearl Harbour as the war wound down) for the duration of World War II. They don't designate enlisted men as flight instructors, to the best of my knowledge. By the way, I spent no time in any country club. But I should know better than to spend time engaging a battle of wits with the unarmed. Pound your own damn sand.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Pound sand."

"Pound your own damn sand."

Admit it, y'all just felt like arguin', din'tcha?!

FReegards, both...MUD