Ted Williams Dead at 83

kfwb news ^ | 7-5002 | dfu

[doug from upland]

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

[silver fox two]

Godspeed, Ted, and thank you for all the exciting moments at Shibe Park when the Red Sox played the A's back in the 40's.

[lavrenti]

"Distressed aircraft" was putting it mildly.

Regarding Boston sportswriters: Hell's newspaper has the editorials written by Nazis, the news coverage by Communists, and the sports pages by the Herald and Globe.

[freebilly]

I spoke to my father yesterday about Teddy Ballgame. In 1946 dad was on an extended furlough and practically lived at Fenway Park. Servicemen got box seats for $1.65.

Williams was the best pure hitter the game has ever seen. He played in an era where they didn't wear helmets, and pitchers weren't ejected for throwing at batters. The hitters didn't wear armored arm pads, and they played with a ball that was unjuiced by today's standards.

Give Williams back the years he missed, in his prime, due to military service. Give him a lively ball, an armored elbow pad and a helmet
and he would have hit 60-70 homers per season (The Babe would've hit 80+).

[lavrenti]

The Babe wasn't the only ballplayer Frazee sold to the Yankees. In the course of five years the Yankees got fifteen of them from him.

As for the curse: it is uncanny how the Red Sox always lose the seventh game or an end-of-season playoff.

It was too bad the Yawkeys didn't wisely trade Ted for Joe D when they were offered. They could have had the brothers in the outfield together while New Yorkers would have been entertained by Ted Williams breaking Ruth's home run record, that is, if Stengel had let him. Imagine the WAR that would have produced!

In that case, Teddy Baseball, angry at being platooned, probably would have stayed in the Corps after Korea—maybe eventually become a Gemini man.

Unlike Glenn, Ted would stick it out, eschewing the pull of the crowd for another challenge. With his drive, elan and conditioning he'd be picked for Apollo.

Yeah, I could visualize Ted climbing down from the Eagle in 1969, planting the flag then pulling out a bat and ball...

"I'm Ted @%#^^$% Williams and I just hit this #%^&$@ baseball on the #%&^!^%%$ Moon!"

[My back yard]

Rest In Peace. My dad wanted to name my older brother after him. My mom didn't go for it. But my dad told us regularly his name should have been Ted, as he was a fine ball player, himself.

[awelliott]

I don't have the figures right with me but I'll wager he picked up a whole lot of doubles off the Green Monster.

I don't know - if so, it wasn't by intent. Williams was a dead pull hitter, which is why Lou Boudreau invented the Williams Shift by moving the shortstop to the other side of 2nd base to defend him. In an old SI article, he said that he refused to go to the opposite field because he couldn't stand the thought of being late, i.e., having his hands ahead of the ball at contact, plus there was too small a margin of error. All of which makes his accomplishments, especially his lifetime batting average, even more impressive.

[X-FID]

The "Splendid Splinter," so-called because of his thin frame was one of the all-time greats. Lou Bodreaux, manager of the Cleveland Indians, had created the "Williams Shift," to defend against Ted. It essentially moved the left fielder to left center and the infielders to toward the right side

And he still ripped them a new one.

[spald]

your #116: "And also in 1949. That was even a bigger jobbing. And I am a Yankees fan."

You probably mean 1947 cause I think Ted won the MVP in 1949 (and I agree that he took a jobbing once again).

[spald]

your #162: "Who would be the pitcher serving them up to Ted in the field of dreams?"

Have to be a National league left-hander of the same generation, just to keep it interesting. The Major League all-time left-hander for victories? Warren Spahn with 363

[L`enn]

You are right. For some reason I thought they gave it to DiMag that year due to the fact the Yanks were struggling under Stengel and Joe D had a heel injury. He came back in July after missing the first half of the season and went like 8-10 with 3HR his first weekend back. Then Yanks turned their season around and barely beat out Williams and the Sox in perhaps Ted's greatest year numbers wise. Some reason I thought Joe got it that year but you were right, Ted did and deservedly so. Perhaps the best Red Sox team ever, and nothing to show for it.

The Red Sox of the 40's and Dodgers of the early 50's remind me of the Wilt Chamberlain teams of the 60's. All sorts of numbers on the board, in fact on paper the Yanks shouldn't have been able to compete, much like the Celtics in the 60's. But they play these games on solid ground, not paper.

[BohDaThone]

I had just sent this privately to DFU, but he suggested that I post it:

actually, he was at .39955, which would have rounded to exactly .400, under the rules. He got 4 hits in the first game of the closing doubleheader, 2 in the second, to close at .406. So, he couldn't have fallen very far below .400, if at all, even if his first at-bat was an out. Also, today's NYT says that the sacrifice fly rule (SF = no at bat) wasn't in place then, so that by today's rules he would have hit about .415!!

[pepsionice]

He stands 10 ft tall compared to todays players. They can pump up all the steel they want and inject steriods all day long....but they cannot match up to the legend.

[doug from upland]

Would anyone who came close to .400 since Ted did it have made it to the magic mark had the SAC fly rule been in play? When was it adopted?

[BohDaThone]

I don't think so. It must have been after 1960, as one account said that williams would have won the batting crown in 19(58, I think), which he lost, something like .3439 to .34375, but he had one more sac fly than the winner.

None of the accounts have mentioned that Gwynn, etc. would have done any better, so I am assuming the new scoring convention went in in the 60s.

[doug from upland]

I just found it. The SAC fly rule was not in effect for the years 1940-53. It was reinstated in 1954. The early rule in the early 1900s gave an RBI but the batter was charged with an at bat.