[Luis Gonzalez]

Splendid Splinter

"John Wayne never portrayed a baseball player in the movies. There was no need. Ted Williams held the role in real life."

Mike Berardino--Sun-Sentinel Staff writer.

[Luis Gonzalez]

FYI

[First_Salute]

Thank you.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"DiMaggio was regal. But Williams was real. Joe D met the world like an icy myth of a starched man and liked it that way. Ted wore his rough edges and his opinions on his sleeve. And if you didn't like his dock shoes and his shirttail out, then tough. You never landed a jet that was on fire, jumped out, then ran back to kick the plane because you were so mad somebody shot you down."

[uncbob]

You never landed a jet that was on fire, jumped out, then ran back to kick the plane because you were so mad somebody shot you down.

Williams risked crash landing his shot up jet rather than ejecting because he said he was afraid if he ejected he would break his kneecaps ( cockpit was tight for a man of his height ) and never be able to play ball again

Most people are unaware that Gerry Coleman of the Yankess was a pilot in the same outfit in Korea as Williams

[LonePalm]

"Hey, Ted! You're batting clean-up for the Angels tonight."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[gumboyaya]

I just wish some of today's players would read this and stop for a moment and think. So your going on strike, that is just brilliant. Your taking steriods to look grotesk and hit the ball a ton, big deal. You jump teams for a few extra bucks every few years, how special. Ted, Joe D, Hutch, Mickey would not be at all pleased. As a group tell your union reps to stop this madness and go back to playing the game as it should be.

[iconoclast]

Good article. but I'm gettin tired of reading this sentence ...

never played on a world champion?

How many other great Bosox are in the same boat? a few hundred?

[rohry]

Thanks for posting this. It sums up the Ted that I knew...

"He started asking questions. One last interactive seminar on hitting a baseball. Socratic, as always."

I had the opportunity to go to his baseball camp in Lakeville, MA during the magical summer of '67 (Impossible Dream Red Sox). I was there for three weeks, played baseball for 8 hours a day. Ted came for a visit during the end of my first week there. He would stand behind the backstop while we hit, a constant flow of comments, critcisms, and suggestions. I'm sure that he imagined himself being in our place and this was a carbon copy of the way he talked to himself while at bat.

The next day it rained all day. Here we were, a couple hundred baseball junkies aged 9-18 with nothing to do. We even tried playing catch indoors. After lunch, (Ted ate with us although he sat a table with the counselors/coaches) Ted started talking about hitting a baseball. He talked for almost three hours. Nobody moved, everyone (even the 8 year olds) sat in awe, listening intently. He talked with a passion, an excitement that you rarely see anymore. He would get up with a bat in hand, demonstrating the proper angle of a swing, explaining adjustments that you needed to make in an at bat, etc.

He did all this using the Socratic method that Boswell refers to, asking questions in that big voice of his and then excitedly barking out the answer. All the while a couple hundred kids that loved baseball sat under the tent on picnic tables in awe of a man bigger than life. Bless you Teddy Ballgame...

[Mudboy Slim]

"In his ninth decade, he remained a symbol of American competitiveness, craftsmanship, curiosity, patriotism, individualism and iconoclasm, a combination that would've cheered the founders' hearts."

FReegards...MUD

[mlibertarianj]

Ted Williams belongs to that class of athletes, that Babe Ruth once said "It ain't bragging, if you can do it" I was reading yesterday's thread about Ted Williams, and the one post I enjoyed( which was submitted by BluesDuke)was about his profanity laced tirade at Jim Bunning, during batting practice. This guy like Ty Cobb, was larger than life. One more thing, I never agreed with Major League Baseball, retiring only Jackie Robinson's number, I believe if you are going to do that, the retire the numbers of all the great players of the game. Ruth, Gerhig, DiMaggio, Williams, Mays, Mantle, Clemente, et. al.

[rkrtgw]

what John Wayne Played in movies Ted Williams lived in his life

[happytobealive]

Does the fact that the article doesn't mention his family mean that he ignored his wife(ves) and children, which would make his professional and avocation accomplishments meaningless, or maybe dark?

[JulieRNR21]

Luis:

Thanks for alerting me to this wonderful tribute to Ted Williams.....we will never see like him again.....God Bless him.

I like to imagine Teddy Ballgame, Jolting Joe and the "Boys of Summer" (my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers) playing an All Stars game at the heavenly Elysian Fields Stadium!

Freeper Friends:
Don't miss this splendid tribute to the Splendid Splinter.

[Budge]

Thank you, Luis.

And THANK YOU TED WILLIAMS!

[185JHP]

I read something about Ted that, if true, is wonderful. Great hitter that he was, I've read that he said to other players: "Two strikes, choke up!"

[No!]

I say he was the greatest when BASEBALL was ALSO the greatest...

Sadly, BOTH are dead now as far as I'm concerned... oh, I like the game, but it will NEVER be like it was from Williams through Stan the man...

[Reagan Man]

Ted Williams was the greatest pure hitter of all time. But he was merely an average fielder at best and wasn't one of the swiftest of runners on the base paths who ever played the game.

His ranking among the best all around players ever, would not place him in the top ten, or even the top twenty. Williams wasn't a Cobb, Mays, DiMaggio, Aaron or a Mickey Mantle.

Nonetheless, Ted Williams standing in baseball history is safe and his honorable military service to his country is a matter of record.