Let me make this short and sweet. Back in the 40s sometime, can't recount exactly when, my dad was paralyzed in bed for a YEAR with rheumatic fever. Who should he see one day at Boston's Mass General Hospital but YOU -- Ted Williams -- either there for an injury or to see the kids.
Comparisons in baseball are no longer objective or relevant because too many changes in the modern game have compromised its purity. But subtract the patriotic war service, and indeed your stats would have outdone ANY ballplayer who ever lived.
Although even without them, you were John Wayne in baseball threads, the best hitter in the game -- of LIFE. Why you never ran for President, I'll never know. Your life story left Ronald Reagan's in the dust, Mr. Teddy Ballgame. You were a class athlete and great communicator to boot.
But you were the best hitter in baseball not because your goal in life was to be known as such or because now you're gone and the critics are having a field day with your memory, your ghost and the superlatives.
No, you were the best because my father TOLD ME SO... more than 25 years ago.
Rest in peace, Splendid Splinter. Up in the tip top level of Baseball Heaven, there's a special batting cage reserved for you... and no one else. Get in some knocks and speak to my dad for me. Tell him I miss him too.
» Hank Festa is an eternal Boston fan who wishes he could jump in a time machine, play for the BoSox and win the brass ring alongside Teddy.
Also by Hank Festa
» Strike Talk: It's Still A Players' Game ... But Not For Long
» MLB Pride: Waxing Poetic
» June Swoon: When Human Loss Makes MLB A Kid's Game Again
» Cramer's DiMaggio Hatchet Job: A Bio Worth Burning
» Looking for Growth ... In All The Right Places
» Get Your Red Sox Here: Weep All About It!
» The Strike Zone Or Your Life: The Bean Ball Debate Exposed
» Seasons In The Sun : Baseball In The 70s
» A Closet GM's Philosophy Of Winning: Stats & Role vs. Heart & Soul
» Gibby's '88 Series Limp Shot: Baseball's Last "Earned Home Run"
» Flamethrower's Epiphany: Confessions Of A Live Arm
» In The Event Of A Strike...: The Time Off Must Be Used to Fix the Game
» More submissions
Copyright © 2002 by Hank Festa. Posted July 8, 2002.
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