Born: August 30, 1918
Died: July 5, 2002 Place of Birth: San Diego, California
Major Notes:
Ted William is considered by many as the most effective hitter ever in baseball.
As a youngster, his parents were very hard working people and left Williams to have time on his hands for baseball.
That fact, coupled with the weather, let him take advantage to play pick-up ball year-round as much as he could.
He had extremely good eyesight and he wisely learned as a teen not to swing at bad pitches.
Williams was signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1936 and farmed out to their San Diego affiliate.
In his first season with Boston in 1939, Ted Williams broke the record for runs batted in by a rookie.
As a rookie, Williams had an egotistical attitude and his remarks at times disturbed other players, fans, and reporters.
In 1941, Ted Williams led all major league hitters with an unbelievable .406 average.
He won the coveted American League Triple Crown in 1942 but did not gain the MVP award.
Williams missed three seasons of baseball when, in late 1942, he joined the Marines and became a pilot and flight instructor.
In his first return season to baseball, he led the Red Sox to the league championship but the team lost out in the World Series.
Ted Williams was presented the MVP award in 1946 and again in 1949.
The Korean War interrupted his playing career a second time and Williams missed most of the 1952 and 1953 seasons.
He flew along side a future astronaut, John Glenn, for many of his missions.
Williams, at age 40 in 1957, became the oldest player to win a major league batting championship.
He retired in style hitting a home run in his last at-bat at the end of the 1960 season.
He returned to baseball in 1969 to manage the Washington Senators for a period of three years.
Williams was a noted fisherman and often spent time fishing on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, Canada.
The "Splendid Splinter", as he was often called over his career, missed five probably productive seasons of baseball and experts
suggest Ted Williams lost out in the record books because of this.
Ted Williams was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.
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