Today, April 8, 2023, would have been my dad’s 95th birthday. As I wander around Lafayette Hill, PA, there are many things that remind me of my dad. Everyone knew “Coach”, the nickname that followed him everywhere. My dad played baseball at several different levels and coached it at a variety of levels, and he loved teaching all the little aspects of the game to all the young athletes he coached. I remember one practice where he spent the whole time on bunting a baseball, a lost art he would say. When spring training rolls around and I see the little leaguers out on the field, the first person I think of is my dad. He loved the game of baseball! My dad didn’t think much of today’s players, “too much showmanship, not enough talent, and no love for the art of a well-played baseball game.
I thought I would dedicate my blog today to my dad’s favorite baseball player, Ted Williams, the “kid” as they liked to call him was the best hitter my dad ever saw. That is saying a lot considering he saw the likes of Mantle, DiMaggio, Mays, Aaron, and Musial play in their prime. My dad said “Williams had the most fundamentally sound swing in baseball and his eye coordination was uncanny!” Williams was a “natural”, a hitting machine.
If you ever wondered what a Hall of Fame stat line looks like, look up Ted Williams. 2654 hits, 521 homeruns, lifetime batting average of .344, 2x MVP, 19x All Star, 2x Triple Crown, 6x Batting Title, 5x ML Player of the Year. What makes this stat line even more amazing, Ted Williams lost 5 prime seasons of his career to military service. His numbers would have been off the charts if he didn’t lose that time. On Sept 28, 1960, Ted Williams took his last at bat in the major leagues, he hit a home run, man that kid can play!
My dad’s favorite story about Ted Williams was when hit .406 in 1941, the last man to hit above .400 in MLB history.
September 28, 1941. Shibe Park, Philadelphia. The Red Sox split a Sunday doubleheader with Connie Mack’s Athletics on the final day of the 1941 season. These were meaningless games in the standings; the Red Sox were in second place but 17 1/2 games behind the Yankees and the Athletics were dead last, 37 1/2 games out of first, back then, they didn’t give participation trophies for finishing second like the modern game does, you had to earn your way into the World Series, but I digress. Young Ted Williams, who had turned 23 less than a month earlier, woke up that morning hitting .39955 on the year, just .00045 below the hallowed .400 mark. Except for a stretch from July 11–24, when his batting average dipped as low as .393, he’d been hitting above .400 since May. He could have sat out the doubleheader and they would have rounded up Williams’s average to .400 and the rest would be history. The “Kid” thought differently, he wanted to legitimately hit .400 and he would not be denied. Williams went 6-8 in the doubleheader to finish the season with an average of .406, now that is ballsy! After the game, Ted said he’d never felt nervous in baseball before. Now, he said, “I was shaking like a leaf when I went to bat the first time. Then when I got that first hit, I was all set. I felt good. Gee, there’s a lot of luck making that many hits.” He turned to Jimmie Foxx and exclaimed, “Just think–hitting .400. What do you think of that, Slug? Just a kid like me hitting that high.” By virtue of reaching base six of the eight times up, Ted Williams had achieved a season on-base percentage of .553. More than half the times he came to bat in 1941, he got on base, and he struck out only 27 times all season.
Funny thing about baseball in 1941, Williams did not win the MVP that year, some kid named DiMaggio hit in 56 straight games, the summer of 1941 must have been a great year to watch baseball!
I like to think that if heaven does exist, it’s a place to go to do and see the things that you love. If so, I’m sure dad is watching the kid play baseball. The finest hitter he’s ever seen!
Happy Birthday Dad!