Posted on 07/05/2002 9:47:56 AM PDT by doug from upland
Baseball great Ted Williams has died at 83. More to follow.
Ted Williams use to fish salmon in New Brunswick, Canada. A lot of people who met him, sometimes only briefly, became great Boston Red Sox fans. My uncle, a decorated WWI Canadian army vet, being one of them ... remember him smoking his pipe and listening to Red Sox baseball on the radio.
GO BO-SOX!
What awakenings these happenings are...to my own mortality.
RIP Ted, in the field of your dreams...
FMCDH
That show was one of my favorites. It was on Sundays at 3pm Eastern. I think it preceded The Wide World of Sports on the schedule.
I do remember the Burt Reynolds episode. My favorite was the one with Bing Crosby and Phil Harris, goose hunting with Curt Gowdy in Canada....
Bing sings: "Oh Mr. Harris?
Phil replies: "Yes sir?
Bing: "Oh Mr. Harris?"
Phil: "Uh huh?
Bing: "We have come here way up north to get a goose..."
Phil: "That's right."
Bing: "And I do believe we'll get one...
Phil: "Yes?"
Bing: "If you'll fire when you see one..."
Phil: "I will."
Bing: "If you don't then we will simply cut you loose!"
Classic stuff.
Here is the email I sent...
Dear Mr. Williams,
In 1976, you wrote a forward for my uncle's book, "Pioneer of the Florida Keys, The Life and Times of Del Layton".
After going through some of our old books, I found this one on the bookshelf. I then proceeded to read your forward one more time...
Having had such great memories of fishing in the Keys with my Uncle Del and family, I thought I would just drop you a line.
Although I do not know you, it sure seems that you too have had many great days of fishing in the Keys!
My wife and I live in California now, but a few of my family members still live in the City of Layton.
God Bless and Best Regards,
I wonder if Ted ever got to read teh email...
The inheritor of William's legacy, Tony Gwynn, also had 20-15 vision and said that he too could see the seams on a pitched ball.
The Splendid Splinter was a San Diego native. Often I drive home from work via State Route 56 -- Ted Williams Parkway.
R.I.P.
On this day when this and other news broke, MSNBC has seen fit to spend the past hour raving about the tacky Julia Roberts.
In his last at bat in 1960 he homered. What a way to go out........Wow. How fitting. Thanks.
At Fenway Park, to this day, the seat in the right field seats where that ball landed is painted red, where all the others are blue.
I think the myth is always bigger than the man, good bad or indifferent. Above his baseball playing I respected his military service, not once but twice, few other ballplayers can match that, not DiMaggio or Mantle or countless others. The finger bit? Yes I recall that episode. Still a gentleman in my book.
Baseball, I saw him whack one off the facade in right field of Yankee stadium in late 50s.
At one point, they exchanged good-natured jabs at each other. Ted said that hitting a golf ball was much easier than hitting a baseball, inasmuch as it wasn't moving. Sam responded that Ted wasn't obliged to go up into the stands and find his foul balls and hit them again.
I agree with you 100%, strider. However, don't forget that Mays played very little, if at all, during 1952-1953, because of military service.
IMHO, Mays would've ended up with at least 714, but we're splittin' hairs.
RIP Teddy Baseball.
One time I wrote to Jim Britt - a popular newscaster, and asked him why the fans treated such a great player the way they did. I knew why, of course, but it still was a rotten way to treat a true sport hero. The fans were so fickle! Britt answered that Williams would be pleased to know what a good fan he had. I cherished his words and still have that letter somewhere. Silly now, but I was a devoted love-struck fan, then.
The closest I ever got to hear him speak, was in New Brunswick, Canada. My husband and I (both flyfishers) were fishing for salmon on the Miramichi with Jim Bashline, a great salmon fisherman. Ted Williams name came up and I spoke of my crush for him. Bashline said that Ted lived only a few houses up the river, picked up the phone to call him so I could profess my undying love. Alas - he was not at home!
Rest well, Ted.
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