Ted Williams

Lore & Background

Williams was a 19-time All-Star, a two-time recipient of the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player Award, a six-time AL batting champion and a two-time Triple Crown winner. He finished his playing career with a .344 batting average, 521 home runs, and a 1.116 on-base plus slugging percentage, the second highest of all time. His career batting average is the highest of any MLB player whose career was played primarily after World War II, and it ranks 11th all-time.

Born and raised in San Diego, Williams played baseball throughout his youth. After joining the Red Sox in 1939, he immediately emerged as one of the sport's best hitters. In 1941, Williams posted a .406 batting average; he is the last National League or AL baseball player to bat over .400 in a season. Williams's career .482 on-base percentage is the highest of all-time.

Williams followed this up by winning his first Triple Crown in 1942. Williams was required to interrupt his baseball career in 1943 to serve three years in the United States Navy and Marine Corps during World War II. Upon returning to MLB in 1946, Williams won his first AL MVP Award and played in his only World Series. In 1947, he won his second Triple Crown.

Williams was returned to active military duty for portions of the 1952 and 1953 seasons to serve as a Marine combat aviator in the Korean War. In 1957 and 1958, he was the AL batting champion for the fifth and sixth time. In the process, he became the oldest player to win a batting crown at 39 and 40 years old, respectively. Williams retired from playing in 1960.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, in his first year of eligibility. Williams managed the Washington Senators / Texas Rangers franchise from 1969 to 1972. An avid sport fisherman, he hosted a television program about fishing, and was inducted into the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame. Williams's involvement in the Jimmy Fund helped raise millions in dollars for cancer care and research.

In 1991, President George H. W. Bush presented Williams with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award bestowed by the United States government. He was selected for the Major League Baseball All-Time Team in 1997 and the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.

Reader's Guide

Theodore Samuel Williams was born on August 30, 1918, in San Diego, California, and named "Teddy Samuel" after former president Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt as well as his father, Samuel Stuart Williams. Williams himself claimed that his middle name was in honor of a maternal uncle (whose name was actually Daniel Venzor) who had been killed in World War I. He disliked the name "Teddy" and later amended his birth certificate to say "Theodore" instead.

His father was a soldier, sheriff, and photographer from Ardsley, New York, who had served in the United States Army and was a veteran of the Philippine–American War. His mother, May Venzor, a Mexican-American from El Paso, Texas, was an evangelist and lifelong soldier in the Salvation Army. Williams resented his mother's long hours working in the Salvation Army, and Williams and his brother cringed when she took them to the Army's street-corner revivals.

Williams's paternal ancestors were a mix of Welsh, English, and Irish. The maternal, Spanish-Mexican side of Williams's family was quite diverse, having Basque, Russian, and American Indian roots. Of his Mexican ancestry, he said, "If I had my mother's name, there is no doubt I would have run into problems in those days, [considering] the prejudices people had in Southern California." Williams lived in San Diego's North Park neighborhood (4121 Utah Street).

He spent much of his time playing ball with his friends at a field that later became known as Ted Williams Field. At the age of eight, he was taught how to throw a baseball by his uncle, Saul Venzor. Saul was one of his mother's four brothers, as well as a former semi-professional baseball player who had pitched against Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe Gordon in an exhibition game. As a child, Williams's heroes were Pepper Martin of the St. Louis Cardinals and Bill Terry of the New York Giants.

Williams graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, where he played baseball as a pitcher and was the star of the team. During this time, he also played American Legion Baseball, later being named the 1960 American Legion Baseball Graduate of the Year. Though he had offers from the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees while he was still in high school, his mother thought that he was too young to leave home, so he signed with the local Pacific Coast League (PCL) club, the San Diego Padres.