Ted Williams quest to hit .400 did not become a cliffhanger until the last day of the regular season. On the last day of the year, the Red Sox had a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics. Williams batting average was at .39955 which would of rounded up to .400. The Red Sox's player-manager, Joe Cronin, offered to sit Ted for the games so he would finish the year with a .400 average. Ted declined the offer and said “I’m going to play. If I’m going to be a .400 hitter, I’m not going to slip in through the back door, and I’m not going to do it sitting on the bench.” In the first game Ted went four for five and was easily over .400, but he still refused to sit the second game. In the second game, Ted went two for three to finish the day six for eight. Ted finished with a .406 batting average.
Ted was twenty-three when the season ended and just hitting his prime. Back then it was not looked at as such a monumental achievement as it is now. Ty Cobb and Roger Hornsby had hit .400 three times in their careers. George Sisler had done it twice. Even Joe DiMaggio had come close just two years earlier. (wikinut)
Even though “The Kid,” which was one of his nicknames hit over .400, he finished second in the Most Valuable Player voting to Joe DiMaggio, because of his hit streak, and his large number of runs batted in. The final statistic line for Williams was one hundred eighty-five hits, thirty-seven home runs, one hundred twenty runs batted in, and one hundred forty-seven base on balls, while only striking out a total of twenty-seven times. The season will forever be one of the most historical, but what happened in December of 1941, will always out shadow this incredible baseball season.(Tedwilliams)
On December 7, 1941, the ...
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..., and a .482 on-base percentage, the best of all time. Williams batting average is the highest of any MLB player to hit over five hundred home runs. Ted Williams was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, in his first year of eligibility.
Theodore Samuel Williams died on July 5, 2002 at the age of eighty-three. He died of cardiac arrest in Citrus Memorial Hospital in Inverness, Florida. Ted wanted to be cremated, but Ted's youngest daughter Claudia and his son John Henry decided to have his body frozen cyronically. Ted Williams met his goal and have people calling him the best hitter to ever play.
Works Cited
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/tributes/mlb_obit_ted_williams.jsp?content=military
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams#Death
http://www.boston.com/sports/redsox/williams/stories/easily_he_was_the_brightest_light.shtml
tedwilliams.com
In the August 30, 1905 edition of Detroit’s Free Press, the sportswriters ran a small blurb announcing the arrival of a Detroit Tigers rookie, Ty Cobb. They stated, “Cobb left the South Atlantic League with a batting average of .328. He will not pile up anything like that in this league, and he doesn’t expect to” (Allen 177). Their prediction ironically rung true. Cobb hit better than their projected .328 batting average twenty times in his twenty four seasons (McCallum 217). Tyrus Raymond Cobb’s prolific career leads many fans and historians to believe that he deserves the title of greatest hitter of all time. However, some critics would argue that Ted Williams warrants this distinction. Unfortunately for Williams and his fans, the hitting prowess of Williams falls short of Cobb’s. While Williams arguably displayed a great hitting ability, Cobb remains the better batsman.
In 1961, Roger and teammate Mickey Mantle received national attention as they chased the single season home run record of 60 set by Babe Ruth in 1927.
As the decade opened up with the year 1950, the Yankees were celebrating an American League Pennant and a World Series victory from the previous year. It was apparent in 1950 that the team had not taken too much time off as the team posted a 98-56 regular season record, winning their second straight Pennant and a trip to the World Series where they would match up against the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1950, the Phillies were known as the Whiz kids because of their youth and amazing talent, but in the series against the Yankees they were swept in 4 games thanks to Joe DiMaggio- a legend in Major League baseball- and Phil Rizzuto- a shortstop who would enjoy one of his most productive seasons as well as the honor of earning American League MVP. Whitey Ford, a rookie pitcher for the Yanks, also enjoyed a stand out career, winning all 9 of his starts and losing only one game in relief. (Baseball History)
But a sports writer named Tris Speaker thought that maybe he should have stayed as a pitcher when he joined the Yankees when he said this, “Ruth made a grave mistake when he gave up pitching. Working once a week, he might have lasted a long time and become a great star. After Babe’s first year with the Yankees, he already looked like he was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime talent. He brought so much power to the plate and so much excitement to the game, it was unreal. In his first year with the Yankees, he had a .376 batting average with a insane 54 homeruns, the most ever in a season by a player. That wasn’t the only year he set the homerun record. The next year he hit 59 homeruns, and then he hit 60 homeruns in 1927. In Nine years with the Yankees so far, Ruth as a .355 batting average and an enormous amount of homeruns with 467. Teammates have loved playing with Ruth, including one teammate Lefty Gomez, as he said this, ”No one hit homeruns the way Babe did. They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings then take off for the
...rst all time in total accumulated bases with 6,856. He was second all time in at bats with 12,364. He was third all time in hits with 3,771. He was third all time in runs scored with 2,174. He was also third all time in games played with 3,298. He was elected into the Hall Of Fame in 1982. His autobiography, I had a Hammer, was published in 1990. In 1999, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of breaking Babe Ruth’s record, Major League announced the Hank Aaron Award, given to the best overall hitter in each league.
Many considered Clemens’ best years the 13 seasons he was at the Red Sox. After 1996 he was not re-signed by the Red Sox because they felt he was in the twilight of his career. He was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays where he struggled a lot early on. Despite these early struggles, his career had a resurgence that many did not see coming. This resurgence is what caused the speculations of steroid use. After two years with the Toronto Blue Jays he won had the Cy Young award and the pitching Triple Crown both seasons. The triple crown is awarded to the pitcher that, at seasons end, leads the league in the three major categories: earned run average, wins, and strikeouts.
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, with whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together, including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period, but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man to start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
"Ruth's Record of 700 Home Runs Likely to Stand for All Time in Major Leagues." New York Times 14 July 1934: 8.
and has been in the homerun derby many times. In 2011 he had 23 home runs, 89RBIs
...n out of the ball park. Cobb batted a career .367, he hit 117 homeruns, he had 4191 hits and he stole 892 bags. Cobb is second in career hits and second in runs scored with 2245. Ty Cobb only batted less than .320 in his career once! Cobb holds five Major League records that still stand today and they’ll probably never be beat. Cobb holds the record of highest career batting average, most steals home in a single season, most career steals home, most batting title including 9 in a row from 1907 to 1915. Cobb also batted over .400 three times in his career.
This record stood until 1961 when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs. He might have been the best baseball player who ever played the game. He led the Yankees to seven World Series and made two million dollars in his career. Jack "the Manassa Mauler" Dempsey was one of the best heavyweight boxers of all time. He was a heavyweight champion and fought and won against Georges Carpentier.
Babe Ruth is still a very well-known person in history today, even almost one-hundred years later. He did not only change the way people viewed negro baseball leagues, but he also gained a large reputation for his ability to play baseball, obviously due to his amazing abilities. Ruth’s ability to play was almost impossibly good, in fact, he was even titled “athlete of the century” for his ability. With that ability and power that he had once he won, he would become a
won 29. When he reached that number Comiskey benched him, the player resentment of this was
...ing two similar ones from Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx for being the youngest player to hit 500 home runs and then later 600 home runs. He is a phenomenal player but unfortunately again there will always be a question of whether this was because of his talent after several years or if his records should be more attributed to the drugs.
714 career home runs, had 2,209 career RBI's, and 2,873 total hits, all in only