Ted Williams died today and so did some of my childhood. I was not even alive yet when he retired but he still had a great effect on my baseball life.
My Grandfather told me he was the greatest hitter who ever lived. He didn't say things like this easily. He did not make off hand remarks about greatness nor especially about baseball. To him baseball was a religion. A game to be honored and Teddy Ballgame was a baseball God. This had a great impact on my young mind for I knew my Grandfather had not had an easy life but I also knew that he had no regrets. He met life head on and never blinked. So when he said a man was great you knew he was great.
He had told me the feats of Williams. Not legends because legends have exaggerated facts. To exaggerate Williams would have been to belittle the heroics. There was no need.
He was the last man to hit .400. He hit 521 homeruns lifetime while taking years off to be a fighter pilot. He fought in both World War II and Korea. He had 145 RBI's in his rookie year. He won the Triple Crown not once but twice. He finished his career with a homerun in his last at bat. These are things that don't need embellished.
Later in life he became known as not only the greatest hitter ever to live but also the greatest expert on the subject. His book "The Science of Hitting " became the bible for hitters of all ages. So of course when I got old enough I saved my money and bought it. I read it over and over again until I knew every word. I commited most of it to memory but when my sons started to play baseball I bought another copy so they didn't think I was making up this unbelievable guy and his way of hitting.
The things he preached would have been laughed at if he was a mere mortal hitter like the rest of the baseball world. He said "Always take the first pitch." "Hold the bat any way it feels comfortable." He said "if you give five farm boys five axes they will all hold it different but the trees will get chopped down." Try convincing a know it all Little League coach that one.
Williams had his own ideas and he was right. He was a one of a kind. But lets not let him rest in peace. Let us commit today to spread the gospel according to Ted.
Go unto the masses and tell them the truthes. "Hitting a baseball is the single hardest thing to do in sports." "Hit with any stance that you feel comfortable." "Hold your hands any way you like." "Always take the first pitch."
If any one doubts these to be true you must explain to them that they are the words of a man who knew. A man who could hit a baseball like no other. These words belong to the greatest damn hitter my Grandfather ever saw.
I don't know about you but that's good enough for me.
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