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Post by thelavarnwayguy on Dec 17, 2013 13:52:17 GMT -5
An interesting book regarding Ted Williams is discussed below. It seems that he tried pretty hard to avoid leaving baseball and joining the service. I always lionized the guy, in large part because he was in the service, but I thought it was intentional, and extremely noble of him. That turns out not to be such a clear cut case. If any of us were him, as one of the great hitters in baseball history, would we have wanted to leave all that either? Not saying we can't cut him some slack but it was right after Pearl Harbor and I think maybe trying to avoid service at that time was not what I remembered about the guy. Not happy he tried so hard to hide his hispanic heritage either but he was a product of his times. No question a tremendous player and I think in many, many ways he got a bad rap in Boston, as even guys like Yaz did later on. Just noting that the whole nobility thing regarding his service time was to a degree not what many of us thought it was. An interesting read: www.realclearbooks.com/articles/2013/12/16/swing_and_a_myth_finding_the_real_ted_williams_74.html |
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Post by oilcansman on Dec 17, 2013 14:08:10 GMT -5
Joseph P. Kennedy went to great lengths and succeeded in avoiding WW1 service. Many people tried to avoid service. Bottom line is he did 5 years in WW2 and Korean War. Few matched let alone did more. BTW, add 160 homers and 900 hits to his career stats to total his career stats w/out service (520 to 680 hr.; 2600 to 3500 hits).
Regarding his heritage, baseball's golden age was only golden for white men - especially owners. Hispanics, asians and blacks had no place in the game. The white players had no labor rights. Very sad and the primary reason why I believe modern baseball is the best the game has ever been - a total meritocracy with everybody getting his share of the $$$$
Williams big failure was at home. Even after he retired, he fished rather than spent time with his children.
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Post by oilcansman on Dec 17, 2013 14:43:21 GMT -5
BTW. Ted Williams' OPS was over 1.000 in 18 of the 19 years he played. He batted .388 and slugged .773 with an OPS of 1.257 at age 38 in 1957, which is more amazing than his .406 year. Absolutely mind numbing greatness
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Post by rjp313jr on Dec 17, 2013 17:14:18 GMT -5
Did anyone ever talk about Ted Williams like he was nice guy? Well before my time but I've always heard he was kind of arrogant. No matter what type of guy he was, he was a great ball player and an excellent pilot by all accounts. Anything other then those things are irrelevant from where I'm sitting.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Dec 18, 2013 0:42:38 GMT -5
Haven't read the link yet, but I recall this being discussed in Leigh Montville's biography, which is the seminal Williams read.
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Post by thelavarnwayguy on Dec 18, 2013 6:22:00 GMT -5
I was surprised. I had always given tremendous respect for the fact that he took so much time out of his career, to support the war effort, as so many of those guys did. What a sacrifice WW2 was for so many, and they lined up to volunteer the day after Pearl Harbor. Korea was also. Guys and women of course also sacrificed so much to take part in those efforts. I give the guy some slack though because look what he was giving up. He was human. Who among us wouldn't have felt the same way particularly with the Korea situation.
Regarding his parenting, for those of us who grew up in that era that is no surprise. Lots of dads pretty much left the parenting to the wives. Fortunately that has changed a lot, but still has plenty of room for improvement.
I don't want to discredit the guy. I just was surprised to read the details. It wasn't what I had thought previously.
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Post by patrmac04 on Dec 19, 2013 1:16:28 GMT -5
BTW. Ted Williams' OPS was over 1.000 in 18 of the 19 years he played. He batted .388 and slugged .773 with an OPS of 1.257 at age 38 in 1957, which is more amazing than his .406 year. Absolutely mind numbing greatness Holy Bonds like late career numbers... that's flippin insane Sent from my SGH-T999 using proboards |
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Post by Oregon Norm on Dec 20, 2013 2:53:44 GMT -5
As great as the slugging was, the most telling number is the.485 lifetime OBP. Think about that. Every time he showed up at the plate, there was a 50/50 chance he'd be on base when it was over.
He was this fascinating mix of charm and bitterness, a product of a truly lousy family environment. One thing is for certain: you'd no more want to be at the end of his gunsights than you'd want to face him while standing on a pitching mound. I can't imagine he brought anything less than full intensity to either.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 14, 2014 3:11:33 GMT -5
Hopefully the book highlights what the article failed to do, mention what he accomplished in the military. For the record, Williams flew 39 combat missions and won the air medal with two gold stars (= 3 air medals). That makes him one of the most decorated airmen in the Korean war (I had heard most decorated but can't confirm). He also was the wingman for Astronaut John Glenn for half of those missions. Glenn later called him one of the best pilots he ever flew with.
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Post by michael on Feb 11, 2014 14:26:33 GMT -5
Williams was also shot down in Korea. To my knowledge by ground fire. A real life John Wayne. In fact some discussion of who should play Teddy Ballgame if they ever made the movie. Major contestants were The Duke and Rock Hudson. UnPC remarks not included
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jimoh
Veteran
Posts: 3,982 
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Post by jimoh on Feb 16, 2014 9:15:15 GMT -5
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