Ted Williams died last week. I was reluctant to write about it, out of a fear that this site might become the obituary section of the Internet. Plus, what can I say about a player I never saw take the field, a man I never met? Yeah, I'm from Boston, a huge Sox fan, and Williams was always my trump card. When a Yankee fan got obnoxious, all you had to do is say the Red Sox had Ted Williams.
Regardless, there's not much about Williams that I can add to the articles written by just about every major sports writer in Boston, all of ESPN.com's baseball staff, and the top sports columnist in every other paper in the country.
Those stories that have poured out of every media outlet in the country the past week, however, have been some of the most engaging articles I've read in a long time (and my sentiment does not pertain to the cryonics crap, which I will not discuss).
Statistics, awards, rank amongst other players, and clutch hits provide an easy way to talk about a baseball player - many a story mentioned 6 for 8 to hit .406 in 1941, two MVPs, two triple crowns, all time leader in on-base percentage, 521 career home runs, and ending the 1941 all-star game with a three-run shot in the bottom of the ninth. In all of sports, there is no feat more magnificent than a walk-off home run. Never mind hitting a home run to end a game, Williams hit one to end his career - a feat mentioned in numerous articles as well.
Williams' war accomplishments also made for good copy - especially with our patriotic fervor still on overkill after Sept. 11. His 39 missions in Korea as a Marine pilot, landing his plane without any landing gear, and missing over four seasons due to serving his country got a lot of well-deserved attention.
Williams' philanthropic activities were equally outstanding - from the macro level of raising millions of dollars for the fight against children's cancer to the micro paying for part of the college education for a distant relative. These too were cataloged en masse.
Perhaps what's most impressive, however, are the number of great personal anecdotes about Williams. As today's journalists weren't around when Williams was playing, a writer is lucky if he has one. Of course if he doesn't, all he need do is to talk to Johnny Pesky.
The best of the Williams articles are those anecdotal ones. They might mention his performance in baseball, war, or philanthropy, but only as background. (It is a requisite for publication, however, that a piece on Williams contains the words ornery or cantankerous - and hopefully both.)
As I skirted through all of the major news sites the past few days, each article seemed to build on the one I read previously, providing a great study of the Williams character (of which he had plenty). They are almost cinematic in that they typically zoom in on a nervous journalist or baseball player about to meet the renowned Mr. Williams. They describe a few scenes - conversations about hitting and fishing, a few anecdotes about how stubborn Williams was, often there is a meal involved. Then they fade out, with the journalist leaving Williams' world, usually ending the article with a reflection - about Williams and himself.
(Of course, these writers had months to finesse their stories. In the July 6, 2002 edition of The Boston Globe, Bill Griffith's media article referred to "prepared special packages" put out by the newspapers. In case you doubted him, a look at the Williams career rankings in The Globe's special Williams section that day would confirm it. For career home runs, Frank Robinson was list as fourth and Mark McGwire fifth - both are now down a slot after being passed by Barry Bonds earlier this season.)
For me, the most impressive accolade about Williams came from David Halberstam in his New York Times Op-Ed Piece: "He was highly intelligent and he employed the full force of that ferocious, aggressive intelligence in the pursuit of only one objective." None of us will be the greatest hitter who ever lived (Williams holds that honor), but we can aim to eulogized in a similar manner.
It is that dedication to something one deems worthy that results in a career-ending home run.
» Zach Everson is the author and webmaster for www.zacheverson.com, which contains serious and (hopefully) hilarious columns combined with true stories about the exploits of readers and a workplace dictionary that gives the true meaning behind business speak. It is updated every week day. Currently he is working on a memoir of his experience as a little league manager. He is also a lifelong Red Sox fan.
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Copyright © 2002 by Zach Everson. Posted July 12, 2002.
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