Ted Williams Dead at 83

kfwb news ^ | 7-5002 | dfu

[doug from upland]

Baseball great Ted Williams has died at 83. More to follow.

[Bogie]

Now there was a genuine great!

[Thebaddog]

Who would be the pitcher serving them up to Ted in the field of dreams?

[PJ-Comix]

For some strange reason I started listing all my Ted Williams baseball cards on eBay today. I've had them for years but decided to sell them all off as soon as I heard the news today.

[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).

[xzins]

If I could see any pitcher pitch again, it would be Sandy Koufax (sp?). As a Cincy native and fan, I got to see Koufax a number of times at old Crosley field when the Dodgers came to town.

I'd love to see him with the steroid freaks of today, to see if he was as good as I remember.

[Wrigley]

I'd liked to have seen Drysdale pitch. Or even Bob Gibson. Both were before my time.

[Thebaddog]

I was born in Detroit. I have a great memory of Mickey Lolich starring in the 67 World Series saving the day for the Tigers. He might not serve them to Ted, but he has all of Michiganders of a certain time in his cheering section.

But then you haved to talk about Bob Gibson and that old lion really did own the plate for a lot of years.

[doug from upland]

I saw both Gibson and Drysdale. At about 6'6" and coming sidearm, Drysdale was an awesome presence on the mound. Didn't he marry basketball's Ann Miller? As I recall, he died of a heart attack in his young 50s.

[doug from upland]

I was fortunate to see Sandy Koufax pitch many times. I saw his first no-hitter against the NY Mets. When Sandy finally got control was when he became one of the most awesome pitchers ever. Besides the fastball, his curve came from over the top and it was like it just fell off a table when it broke. Without the circulation problem in his fingers, he would have had several more great years.

Sandy was also one of the worst hitters ever. It was very strange that he batted right handed. It jeopardizes his left arm because it was exposed to the pitcher.

[doug from upland]

Baseball is really funny. In the heat of battle, we boo the opponent. Koufax obviously got lots of boos in Cincy. We loved to boo Willie McCovey in L.A. At the end of his career, his last at bat was at Dodger Stadium. In the ninth inning, he hit a sacrifice fly. I had quite a lump in my throat when we gave him a standing O that lasted 15 minutes.

[xzins]

In the mid-sixties we got most of our baseball off the radio, but I think I remember a day when he had 17/18 strikeouts against Cincy. Is it my imagination or did Koufax strike out 21/22 once?

I remember in Cincy we ALWAYS feared Koufax more than Drysdale...(meaning we feared them both)...but what a pitching staff that was with both of them working games for the Dodgers. They were relentless.

[xzins]

What an awesome memory....it matches one of my own. It had to be before I joined the army in 1970, because Crosley field was down when I returned in '74, so it must've been around 68/69. The Giants were in town.

Willie Mays, an old man in baseball terms at that time, steps to the plate.

It started as a smattering of applause in a section on the 1st base side, then it spread to the entire stadium. Just as in your memory with McCovey, Crosley Field erupted in an extended round of applause for an old, respected baseball warrior. I can't say it was 15 minutes, but it went on and on and on....It's one of my neatest memories in all of baseball in Cincinnati.

It's part of what I love about baseball. A baseball fan loves a baseball player and understands a great play and will applaud an opponent. It's bittersweet, but it's an appreciation of the game itself and the jedi/samurai who play it.

[Chu Gary]

"Ted was also a great sportsman. A fine hunter and lover of guns."

And, a very, very serious fisherman. World class, in fact!

[doug from upland]

I think the most Koufax had was 18 in one game. As I recall, at the time he had tied Bob Feller.

[doug from upland]

From my childhood, I have two really significant memories. One bad, one great. The bad one was getting a BB gun for Christmas and (no, not shooting my eye out) taking aim at a bird on a wire just goofing around. With a fluke shot, I hit the bird. It disturbs me to this day and perhaps is why I'm a vegetarian.

The good memory was from Mr. Ellis's 5th grade class at Westmont Elementary. He let us watch the 1959 playoffs between the dreaded Braves and the Dodgers. It was getting late so we had to go home. I rode my bike home as fast as I could and caught the last several plays in extra innings. I can still here Vin Scully as if it was this morning. The batter was The Scoonj (I think that was the nickname) Carl Furillo near the end of his career. He had a rifle arm in right field. Gil Hodges was on third. And her was Scully --- "There's a bouncer...over the mound...over second base...Mantilla has it...throws low and wild and HODGES SCORES, WE GO TO CHICAGO!"

[pariah]

Kofax set a new record by strikingout 18 Giants, surpassing Feller's record of 17. I think it was in '59, before he had his big winning years. I remember hearing the game on the radio, and despite all the strikeouts, he darn near lost the game!

[doug from upland]

The most exciting times at Dodger stadium were easily the times when Maurice Morning Wills, Maury Wills, was in his base-stealing prime. One year he stole 104 bases. I think it was 1962 when we lost to the Giants in a playoff. He would get on base and 50,000 would chant "Go, go, go." The stadium rocked and the pitcher was really rocked. He was caught less that 10 times as I remember. It got so bad and was so painful to slide so many times that he had to go to a hypnotist to overcome the problem.

[pariah]

Hey, I remember in 6th grade, the teacher actually brought a radio to class so we could hear the WS games. Vin Sculley cemented my relationship with baseball.

[doug from upland]

Yes, I was 11 and took my transistor to bed to hear it. Actually, I always took the transistor to bed because I never missed a play in those days. It was in the Coliseum and there were more than 82,000 there.

[pariah]

One year he stole 104 bases.

Breaking Ty Cobb's 'unbreakable' record of 96. Wills changed the entire face of baseball by reviving the running game, but gets absolutely no credit for it, as far as I can see. Too bad he will be remembered as somebody who got lost in the world of drugs...