100 years ago on August 30, 1918 the “The Kid” was born in San Diego, CA
Ted Williams remains the last man to hit over .400 for a complete American major league baseball season. He finished the 1941 season with a .406 batting average, going 6-for-8 during a season-ending double-header to push himself over the .400 mark. Williams played for the Boston Red Sox from 1939-42 and from 1946-60. (During World War II he served as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy. His 1952 and 1953 seasons were interrupted by his service as a Marine Corps pilot; he flew 39 combat missions in Korea, many as John Glenn’s wingman.) Ted Williams hit a home run in his last at-bat, at Boston’s Fenway Park, and finished his career with 521 homers and 2654 hits. He was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1966. His 1969 autobiography was titled My Turn At Bat, and his 1971 book The Science of Hitting remains a popular baseball manual.Many of today’s Hall of Fame players credit his book, Science of Hitting, as a major help to their developing into a great hitter.Thousands of players throughout Japan still read it today. He died at age 83 in July of 2002.
All of us at the Ted Williams Museum who had the honor to know him, and the new staff that continue to serve his memory, celebrate August 30, 2018 as the day he would turned 100 years old!
The crowds that continue to tour his Museum in Tropicana Field bear witness to the impact he had on so many lives.
“A Man has to have goals for a day, for a lifetime. And that was mine, to have people say, There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.”
