Frank Thomas

Williams Notable Sports Figures
Chronology
1918 Born on August 30 in San Diego, California
1936 Begins career with San Diego Padres
1937 Is traded to the Boston Red Sox
1939 Plays first season in major leagues
1941 With Boston Red Sox, finishes season hitting .406; wins first
of six American League batting championships
1942 After baseball season, joins Marines as fighter pilot and flight
instructor; serves three years in World War II
1946 Returns from military service and rejoins Red Sox; hits only
.200 in his only World Series
1947 Leads American League in batting average, home runs, and
runs batted in
1950 Injures elbow after crashing into a fence in outfield during All-
Star game
1952-53 Serves in military during Korean War
1957 Hits .388 and becomes oldest player to ever win a batting
championship
1960 Retires at end of baseball season, at age 42
1966 Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
1969-72 Manages Washington Senators (which became Texas Rangers
in 1972)
1994 Establishes Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame in
Hernando, Florida; establishes Greatest Hitters Award
1995 City of Boston names tunnel under Boston Harbor for Williams
2000 Receives pacemaker for heart problems
2001 Has open-heart surgery
2002 Dies July 5 of cardiac arrest at Citrus Memorial Hospital in
Inverness, Florida; son John Henry has his body cryogenically
preserved at Scottsdale, Arizona
and returned to the Red Sox in 1946, helping the team
win the American League pennant and taking home the
MVP award. Although the Red Sox lost the World Series
(the only one Williams played in) to the St. Louis
Cardinals that year, Williams’s reputation as an outstanding
hitter grew. He became known as the Splendid
Splinter and the Thumper, for his 6’3” rail-thin frame
and his power behind the bat.
In 1947, Williams won his second Triple Crown but
lost the MVP title to DiMaggio by only one vote, a slight
by the sportswriters that Williams never forgot. In 1949,
he was voted American League MVP for the second time.
In 1950, while having a great season, Williams fractured
his elbow during the All-Star Game at Comiskey Park in
Chicago; he smashed into the wall while catching a fly
ball. He finished that game, but the injury cost him more
than sixty games, although he played well during the
games he did play. He hit .318 in 1951 but then went back
into the military service in 1952 and 1953, during the Korean
War. After a crash landing of his fighter plane and a
bout with pneumonia, he was sent back to the states. He
announced his retirement from baseball in 1954 but then
changed his mind and stayed on with the Red Sox, because
he would have been ineligible for Hall of Fame
election on the first ballot if he quit too soon. He suffered
a series of injuries in the mid-1950s, but in 1957, at almost
forty years old, he hit .388 and became the oldest
player to ever win a batting championship. He hit .453
during the second half of the season. Williams was more
1776
Awards and Accomplishments
1939 Led American League in RBI
1940-42, All-Star Team
1946-51,
1954-60
1941 Led American League in batting and home runs
1941-42 Named Sporting News Player of the Year
1942, 1947 Won American League Triple Crown
1946, 1949 American League Most Valuable Player Award
1947, 1949, Named Sporting News Player of the Year
1957
1948 Led American League in batting
1949 Led American League in home runs and RBIs
1957-58 Led American League in batting
1966 Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1969 Named American League Manager of the Year
1995 Boston named tunnel under Boston Harbor for Williams
1999 Was honored at the All-Star Game with a pregame ceremony
at Fenway Park, Boston
Triple Crown is given to player who leads league in batting, home runs, and
runs batted in.
popular than ever before and finished second only to
Mickey Mantle in MVP balloting. The following year,
Williams batted .328, still high enough to lead the league
in batting. During this part of his career he won the nickname
Teddy Ballgame, although his favorite nickname
for himself was always “The Kid.”
“Terrible Ted”
Williams was known for his indifference, even hostility,
toward the press and sometimes the fans, earning him another
nickname, Terrible Ted. Constantly chasing the perfect
hit, Williams was often gruff and critical. S. L. Price, of
Sports Illustrated, once wrote that Williams’s speech was a
“uniquely cadenced blend of jock, fishing and military
lingo, marked by constant profanity.” Price also called him
“savagely independent.” Williams called hitting a baseball
“the hardest single feat in sports,” and at age nineteen he
said his goal was “to have people say, ‘There goes Ted
Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.’”
He might have been the greatest hitter, but Williams
would not smile for the camera, and he once spat toward
the stands after being booed for dropping a fly ball. He
was fined by Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey for spitting at
the pressbox during a home run, and he once flipped his
bat into the stands after a strikeout, hitting a woman on
the head. Boston fans booed him, but Hall of Famer
Eddie Collins said, “If he’d just tip his cap once, he
could be elected mayor of Boston in five minutes.”
At the height of his career, Williams was the highest
paid player in the major leagues, earning $125,000 a
year. His theory was that if he was being paid so much
money “the very least I could do was hit .400.” He made
every trip to the plate an information-gathering session
and said in his autobiography, My Turn at Bat, “I honestly
believe I can recall everything there was to know