Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams (August 30, 1918–July 5, 2002) was a left fielder in Major League Baseball. He played 21 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot. Nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame, and The Thumper, he is generally considered the greatest hitter who ever lived. ^[1][2]

Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won theTriple Crown twice. He had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. He is the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941). Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs. His career year was 1941, when he hit .406 with 37 HR, 120 RBI, and 135 runs scored. His .551 on base percentage set a record that stood for 61 years. An avid sport fisherman, he hosted a televisionshow about fishing and was inducted into the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame.^[3]

Major league career

Williams moved up to the major-league Red Sox in 1939, immediately making an impact as he led the American League in RBI and finishing 4th in MVP balloting. Williams quickly became known as one of the most potent left-handed hitters in MLB. A myth that developed was that his eyes were the best in history, being able to read the words on a record album while it was spinning. In 1941, he entered the last day of the season with a batting average of .39955. This would have been rounded up to .400, making him the first man to hit .400 since Bill Terry in 1930. Manager Joe Cronin left the decision whether to play up to him. Williams opted to play in both games of the day's doubleheader and risk losing his record, explaining that "if I can't hit .400 all the way, I don't deserve it." He got 6 hits in 8 at bats, raising his season average to .406. Williams also hit .400 in 1952 (although he only played in 6 games) .407 in 1953 (37 Games), both partial seasons; nobody has hit over .400 in a season since Williams.

In his book, Williams acknowledges that "There was some great batting done that year" and mentions Joe DiMaggio and Cecil Travis, who hit .359. He continued, "I think, surely, to hit .400 you have to be an outstanding hitter having everything go just right, and in my case the hitter was a guy who lived to hit, who worked at it so hard he matured at the bat at a time when he was near his peak physically. The peaks met."^[7].

At the time, Williams' achievement was overshadowed by Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in the same season. Their rivalry was played up by the press; Williams always felt himself slightly better as a hitter, but acknowledged that DiMaggio was the better all-around player. Also in 1941, Williams set a major-league record for on-base percentage in a season at .551. That record would last until 2002. A lesser-known accomplishment is Williams' 1949 record feat of reaching base for the most consecutive games, 84. In addition, Williams holds the third longest such streak of 69 in 1941. In 1957, Williams reached base in 16 consecutive plate appearances, also a major-league record.

Ted Williams pitched once during his career on Saturday, August 24, 1940. He pitched the last two innings in a 12-1 loss to Detroit allowing one earned run, three hits, and striking out one batter, Rudy York. His ERA was 4.50 in his lone pitching appearance.^[8]

One of Williams' other memorable accomplishments was his home run off Rip Sewell's notorious eephus pitch during the 1946 All-Star Game in Fenway Park. He challenged Sewell to throw the pitch. The first time he threw it, it was a strike. Williams challenged Sewell again and this time hit a home run. In that game, he went 4 for 4 with two home runs and five RBIs, as the AL beat the NL, 12-0.

Among the few blemishes on Williams's playing record was his performance in his lone post-season appearance, the 1946 World Series. Williams managed just 5 singles in 25 at-bats, with just 1 RBI, as the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Much of Williams' lack of production was due to his stubborn insistence on hitting into the Cardinals' defensive shift, which frequently involved five or six of the Cardinals' fielders positioned to the right of second base. This shift was a version of the Boudreau Shift, popularized by Cleveland Indians manager Lou Boudreau in an attempt to reduce Williams's effectiveness.

Williams was also playing with a sore wrist from being hit by a pitch during a pre-World Series exhibition game against a team gathered from other American League squads, while the Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers were playing a best-of-three series to determine the National League champion. However, Williams refused to use the injury as an excuse for his sub-par play.

Williams was an obsessive student of hitting. He famously used a lighter bat than most sluggers, because it generated a faster swing. David Halberstam's Summer of '49 recalls him warning teammates not to leave their bats on the ground as they would absorb moisture and become heavier. His devotion allowed him to hit for power and average while maintaining extraordinary plate discipline. In 1970 he wrote a book on the subject, The Science of Hitting (revised 1986), which is still read by many baseball players, and he was known to discuss hitting with active players enthusiastically until very late in his life. He lacked foot speed, as attested by his 19-year career total of only 24 stolen bases, one inside-the-park home run, and one occasion of hitting for the cycle. (Ironically, despite his slowness on the basepaths, he is one of only three players in history - along with noted speedsters Tim Raines and Rickey Henderson - to have stolen a base in four different decades.) He felt that with more speed he could have raised his average considerably and hit .400 over at least one more season.

Williams was considered a sure outfielder with a good throwing arm, although he occasionally expressed regret that he had not worked harder on his defense.

When Pumpsie Green became the first black player on the Boston Red Sox in 1959, Williams welcomed him.

Williams ended his career dramatically by hitting a home run in his very last at bat on September 28, 1960. The classic John Updike essay "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" chronicles this event and is usually mentioned among the greatest pieces of sports writing in American journalism.^[9]