Did you know that Ted Williams and Andre Dawson are the only two Major League ballplayers to have hit a home run off a father/son pitching duo? Teddy Ballgame joined the club first when he went deep off Thornton Lee on September 17, 1939 then his son Don Lee on September 2, 1960. The Hawk became the second member when he went deep off Pedro Borbon on June 10, 1977 then off his son Pedro Borbon (Jr.) on August 16, 1995.
Ted Williams Rookie Card | 1939 Play Ball Baseball Card (#92 | Checklist)
Baseball Almanac Research Library
When Ted Williams hung-up his playing cleats in 1960, he ranked third all-time in home runs (1. Babe Ruth, 2. Jimmie Foxx), seventh all-time in runs batted in (RBI) (1. Ruth, 2. Lou Gehrig, 3. Ty Cobb, 4. Foxx, 5. Cap Anson, 6. Mel Ott), and sixth all-time in batting average (1. Cobb, 2. Rogers Hornsby, 3. Shoeless Joe Jackson, 4. Ed Delahanty, 5. Tris Speaker). Join Baseball Almanac as we take a look at some additional numbers of interest as they relate to Ted Williams, easily (one of) "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived":
1 - Ted Williams has the highest on base percentage ever put together by any Major League ballplayer in history! [Top 1,000 / On Base Percentage Record Book] Did you know that he once got on base in eighty-four straight games (in 1949), an incredible feat that remains unmated to this day?
2 - Ted Williams had two Triple Crown performances, first in 1942 (36 HRs / .356 AVG / 137 RBI), then a second time in 1947 (32 HRs / .343 AVG / 114 RBI). It is the reason we mentioned those three specific stats up above and to date, Ted Williams remains the only player in the American League to put together two Triple Crown seasons. Did you know that in both of those historic seasons, The Kid did not win the Most Valuable Player Award (losing to Joe Gordon in '42 and Joe DiMaggio in '47)?
3 - Ted Williams surrendered three hits during his two innings of work when he took the mound on August 24, 1940. Williams moved from left field to the pitcher's mound during a 12-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Williams struck out one batter, Rudy York, on three pitches. Did you know that Joe Glenn, who caught Babe Ruth last pitching appearance in 1933, was Williams's catcher?
5 - Ted Williams signed a five-year contract to manage the Washington Senators on February 21, 1969. Teddy Ballgame led the team to a winning season (86-76) that year, but then had four losing seasons, finishing out his contract with 273 wins, 364 losses, and a .429 winning percentage. Did you know Ted Williams was there at the helm, due to their relocation from D.C. to Arlington, for the last Washington Senators game (September 30, 1971), AND the first Texas Rangers game (April 15, 1972)? [Texas Rangers Managers]
6 - Ted Williams collected six hits across two games of a doubleheader played on September 28, 1941, the last two games of the season. Ted went 4-for-5 in the first game [box], bringing his batting average to .404, then went 2-for-3 in the second game [box], ending the season with a .406 batting average, making him the last player to bat over .400 in a season. Did you know that Ted Williams was actually hitting .401 the day before [box], Red Sox manager Joe Cronin offered him to sit out of the game, Williams refused, went 1-for-4, and had his batting average (before the double header) drop to .3995?
8 - Ted Williams was ranked eighth by The Sporting News when they released their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players in the history of baseball. Did you know that those who finished ahead of The Thumper were 7. Christy Mathewson, 6. Lou Gehrig, 5. Hank Aaron, 4. Walter Johnson, 3. Ty Cobb, 2. Willie Mays, and 1. Babe Ruth?
9 - Ted Williams had his number "9" formally retired by the Boston Red Sox on May 29, 1984, the first player in team history to receive the honor and one of two numbers they retired that same day - the other being #4, for Joe Cronin.
18 - Ted Williams was the eighteenth player in Major League history to end his career, during his last at-bat, with a home run, joining the "club" on September 28, 1960, with some assistance from the opposing pitcher, Jack Fisher. Did you know that after we heard the audio recording of that historic moment, we immediately created an entire page of research here on Baseball Almanac dedicated to those players who hit a home run in their last at bat?
20 - Ted Williams opened a Hitters Hall of Fame in Hernando, Florida in 1994, selecting the top twenty all-time hitters using his own "secret formula" which he stated was a combination of on base percentage and slugging average. Number twenty was Ralph Kiner, number one was Babe Ruth, the full list of his Top 20 Hitters is in our Legendary Lists section. Did you know that during the opening ceremonies he invited one active player to be attendance and it was Tony Gwynn?
22 - Ted Williams was an inaugural inductee into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, one of twenty-two enshrined in 1995. His plaque reads, "A .344 career hitter with 521 home runs and 1,839 RBI in 19 seasons with the Red Sox, Ted Williams was voted A.L. MVP in 1946 and 1949. At the age of 23 he hit .406 in 1941 winning his first of hour HR titles and first of six batting titles. The 18-time All-Star won the American League triple crown in 1942 and 1947. After a a three-year military stint he returned in 1946 to hit a league-high .342 with 38 HR. He was also a marine fighter pilot in Korea in 1952-1953. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.
93.4 - Ted Williams was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, his first year of eligibility, receiving votes from 93.4% of the writers. Did you know that prior to Ted Williams, the only inductees who received more votes were 5. Bob Feller (93.8% in 1962), 4. Luke Appling (94.0% in 1964), 3. Babe Ruth (95.1% in 1936) AND Honus Wagner (95.1% in 1936), and 1. Ty Cobb (98.2% in 1936)?
Ted Williams | National Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque | Class of 1966 (HOF)
Ted Williams served as a Naval Aviator during World War II and the Korean War. One of our favorite websites, Baseball in Wartime, has put together the best biographies on every player who served. A brief excerpt from Ted Williams biography appears below (we highly recommend you visit his page [Link] for the full story along with dozens of historical photographs):
Williams had been classified 3-A in the military draft due to the fact that his mother was totally dependent on him. When his classification was changed to 1-A following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he made an appeal to his draft board which was upheld. I am going to play ball this season, he announced. "My conscience is clear. I have as much right to be exempted as anyone else. I have my mother to support. Before my status was changed to 1-A, I made commitments which I must go through with. I can do this by playing ball this year. When the season is over, I'll get into the Navy as fast as I can."
However, the press and the fans were not happy and he enlisted in the Navy on May 22, 1942. "I'm tickled to death and I'm hoping I'll get into the air quick to start some slugging against the Axis," he told reporters. Following the 1942 season, which produced his first Triple Crown (.356, 36 HR, 137 RBIs), he joined the V-5 program with a view to becoming a Naval Aviator.
Williams was first sent, with teammate John Pesky, to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College in Massachusetts, for six months. The next four months were spent in the Preflight School at Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he turned out in the spring for the Chapel Hill Cloudbusters baseball team, featuring Pesky, Harry Craft, Buddy Hassett and Johnny Sain. "Since the arrival of Cadet Williams, Pesky and the other ex-major leaguers," head coach, Lieutenant George D Kepler, told the Burlington Daily Times-News on July 14, 1943, "most of our games have been won by one-sided scores. We have been getting good hitting and pitching, and both the cadets and officers on the team love to play baseball."
On July 12, 1943, a team of Armed Forces all-stars managed by Babe Ruth and featuring Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams played the Boston Braves in a fund-raising effort. Babe Ruth, 48 years old, pinch-hit in the 7th inning and flied out to right, but the all-stars won 9-8 on a Ted Williams home run.
Then, on July 28, 1943, in a charity game for the Red Cross at Yankee Stadium Babe Ruth led a team of former Yankees against the Cloudbusters. Johnny Sain walked the Babe in his one plate appearance as the old time Yankees lost 8-5.
From September to December 1943, Cadet Williams took primary training at NAS Bunker Hill, Indiana. He then went to NAS Pensacola in Florida for intermediate training where he set records in aerial gunnery. Williams received his pilot's wings and commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps on May 2, 1944.
Williams then attended gunnery training at Jacksonville where he once again set gunnery records. He then returned to Pensacola where he served as an instructor with the United States Marine Corps Reserve at Bronson Field. He played baseball for the base team, the Bronson Bombers, which won the Training Command championship that year.
From June to August 1945, Williams went through the Corsair Operational Training Unit at Jacksonville. He was in Hawaii awaiting orders as a replacement pilot and playing ball with a Marine flight-wing team when the war ended. Williams returned to the United States in December and was discharged from the Marines on January 28, 1946.
Back with the Red Sox in 1946, Williams hit the first spring training pitch he saw for a home run on February 26 and then led the team to the World Series. He hit two All-Star-Game home runs at Fenway Park and finished the season at .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBIs, and was named the American Leagues Most Valuable Player.
In 1952, at the age of 34, Williams was recalled to active duty for service in the Korean War. After learning to fly the new Grumman F9F Panther at MCAS Cherry Point in North Carolina, he was assigned to VMF-311, Marine Aircraft Group 33 (MAG-33) in Korea.
"By luck of the draw, we went to Korea at the same time," said future astronaut, John Glenn. "We were in the same squadron there. What they did at that time, they teamed up a reservist with a regular to fly together most of the time just because the regular Marine pilots normally had more instrument flying experience and things like that. So Ted and I were scheduled together. Ted flew as my wingman on about half the missions he flew in Korea."
"Once, he was on fire and had to belly land the plane back in," Glenn said. "He slid it in on the belly. It came up the runway about 1,500 feet before he was able to jump out and run off the wingtip.
"Another time he was hit in the wingtip tank when I was flying with him. So he was a very active combat pilot, and he was an excellent pilot and I give him a lot of credit."
Williams flew 39 combat missions before being pulled from flight status in June of 1953 after an old ear infection acted up.
Ted Williams Armed Forces Identification Card | Library of Congress Collection
