Ted Williams: a Real American Hero
Baseball Legend, Wartime Combat Pilot and the True Life John Wayne
Sep 5, 2007
Ted Williams lived a great 20th century American life. Born Teddy Samuel Williams in San Diego in 1918 to a sheriff father and a Salvation Army employee mother, the boy was named after the country's 25th President, Teddy Roosevelt.
Williams was a standout baseball player who received an offer to join the New York Yankees in 1937, but turned it down because his mother thought that he was too young to leave home. So Williams stuck around San Diego, playing two years for the Padres of the Pacific Coast Minor League, and building a legend that would make him one of the most prominent and accomplished Americans of the century.
A Hall of Fame Baseball Career
When the Boston Red Sox offered him a contract to play for the big league club in 1939, Williams jumped at the chance. Still just 20 years old, the Kid, as he was soon nicknamed, made an immediate impact on baseball when he hit .315 with 29 home runs and 145 RBI. That season was just the beginning, however.
In a career that spanned four decades, Williams batted .344, hit 521 home runs, and collected 1,839 RBI. Williams is also the last major league player to hit .400, reaching that mark with his .406 batting average in the 1941 season. He also won two MVP awards, two (and almost three) Triple Crowns, six batting titles and four home runs crowns. Williams also made history when he hit a home run in his last Major League at bat in 1960.
Of course, as impressive as his lifetime statistics are, they could have been much better if WIlliams hadn't missed five years of baseball to fight in two wars.
Ted Williams - Fighter Pilot
After the 1942 season, Williams joined the U.S. Marine Corps. During World War II, he learned to become a fighter pilot and then trained others to do the same. When the Korean Conflict erupted, Williams re-enlisted at age 34, and spent the next two years on combat duty. One of his close friends in the unit to which he had been assigned was future astronaut and senator, John Glenn.
Williams flew a total of 38 combat missions and, on February 16, 1953, he had to crash land his K-13 fighter after a mission. He survived, was was awarded the Air Medal by President Harry Truman, and eventually, returned to baseball at the end of the 1953 season. He played another seven years and won two more batting titles.
A Second Sporting Career
Williams was also an expert fly fisherman and deep-sea fisherman. He spent many of his summers after he retired from baseball fishing the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, Canada. In 2000, Williams was named to the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame.
Some opined that Williams was a rare individual who might have been the best in the world in three different disciplines: baseball hitter, fighter jet pilot, and fly fisherman.
Shortly after Williams's death, conservative pundit Steve Sailer called him "possibly the most technically proficient American of the 20th Century, as his mastery of three highly different callings."
The "Real Life John Wayne" and Other Quotes About Ted Williams
Perhaps Williams can best be summed up by those who knew him, observed him and wrote about him most. Here are some quotes that help define not just Ted Williams the ballplayer, but Ted Williams the man.
"Ted Williams was what John Wayne would have liked us to think he was. Ted was so big, and handsome, and direct, and unafraid in that uniquely American Cowboy way." - Writer Robert Lipsyte
"He studied hitting the way a broker studied the stock market. " - His Successor, Carl Yastrzemski
"An outfield composed of Cobb, Speaker and Ruth, even with Ruth, lacks the combined power of DiMaggio, Musial and Williams." - Connie Mack (Philadelphia A's manager from 1901-1950)
"He could hit better with a broken arm than we could with two good arms." - Yankee Jerry Coleman
"It was typical of him to become a Marine Air Corps pilot and see action and almost get shot down. He was a remarkable American as well as a remarkable ballplayer. His passing so close to a national holiday seems part of a divine plan, so we can always remember him not only as a great player but also as a great patriot." - Hall of Fame Announcer Vin Scully
______________________
Was Ted WIlliams the Best Hitter Ever?
