| | '''Ted Williams''', Theodore Samuel Williams (San Diego, CA. 30 August 1918 - Crystal River, FL. 5 July 2002) was a [[Major League Baseball]] player; he spent 19 seasons with the [[Boston Red Sox]]. Williams was perhaps baseball's finest hitter, setting numerous batting records without the use of steroids. A 502-foot home run that Williams hit at Fenway Park in 1946 -- a year that he won the Triple Crown -- remains the record for the longest homer ever at that park.<ref>https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/07/13/why-aren-there-more-foot-home-runs/RYL4nuQcFltbTsf0lwABiK/story.html</ref> Williams batted left-handed but was actually right-handed in writing and throwing. | | '''Ted Williams''', Theodore Samuel Williams (San Diego, CA. 30 August 1918 - Crystal River, FL. 5 July 2002) was a [[Major League Baseball]] player; he spent 19 seasons with the [[Boston Red Sox]]. Williams was perhaps baseball's finest hitter, setting numerous batting records without the use of steroids. A 502-foot home run that Williams hit at Fenway Park in 1946 -- a year that he won the Triple Crown -- remains the record for the longest homer ever at that park.<ref>https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/07/13/why-aren-there-more-foot-home-runs/RYL4nuQcFltbTsf0lwABiK/story.html</ref> Williams batted left-handed but was actually right-handed in writing and throwing. |
| − | Williams' accomplishments include a .406 season in 1941,<ref>Under modern scoring, he batted .411 due to the lack of penalty today for sacrifice flies. [http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/tributes/mlb_obit_ted_williams.jsp?content=holtzman]</ref> two Triple Crowns, two MVPs, six American League batting championships, 521 home runs, a lifetime average of .344, 17 All-Star game selections, and universal reverence. [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/detail.jsp?playerId=124341 THE HALL OF FAMERS]. Most modern statistical analyses place Williams, along with [[Babe Ruth]], [[Stan Musial, and [[Barry Bonds]], among the greatest hitters. | + | Williams' accomplishments include a .406 season in 1941, which under modern scoring would have been a .411 due to the lack of a penalty for hitting a sacrifice fly today.<ref name="MLB">http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/tributes/mlb_obit_ted_williams.jsp?content=holtzman</ref> two Triple Crowns, two MVPs, six American League batting championships, 521 home runs, a lifetime average of .344, 17 All-Star game selections, and universal reverence. [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/detail.jsp?playerId=124341 THE HALL OF FAMERS]. Most modern statistical analyses place Williams, along with [[Babe Ruth]], [[Stan Musial]], and [[Barry Bonds]], among the greatest hitters. |
| | {{cquote|[[God]] gets you to the plate, but once you're there you're on your own.}} | | {{cquote|[[God]] gets you to the plate, but once you're there you're on your own.}} |
| | Williams was elected to the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]] by Baseball Writers in 1966. He also volunteered and served with distinction as a fighter pilot in the [[Korean War]], which interrupted his career and prevented him from setting even more baseball records. | | Williams was elected to the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]] by Baseball Writers in 1966. He also volunteered and served with distinction as a fighter pilot in the [[Korean War]], which interrupted his career and prevented him from setting even more baseball records. |
| | + | Williams had 20/10 vision, and his left eye was stronger than his right perhaps due to having been struck in his right eye by a walnut as a youngster. But he rejected the rumor that he had some kind of supernatural eyesight in seeing the pitched balls. He said he could not see the seams on a pitched ball, "but in the last 20 feet I could see which way it was spinning."<ref name="MLB"/> |