Tom Brennan: GOAT Ted Williams Hit .400….3 1/2 Times!

HANDS DOWN, GREATEST OF ALL TIME

While we watch accomplished players like Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor and other lesser hitters ready themselves for the 2024 season, I often wonder how much baseball pitching has toughened over the years.

This article, though, is not about that.

Thinking about that initial topic me think of Ted Williams.

His career spanned 3 decades (1939-1960), and in his final year at age 42, he hit .316/.451/.645.

My brain then took me off-topic, from changes in pitching difficulty through the years to…THE SPLENDID SPLINTER.  Here goes:

Ted Williams  missed nearly 5 full prime of his career years in World War II and the Korean War, which lowered his cumulative career stats.

Before war arrived, Ted hit an astonishing .406 in 1941 at age 22. (#1)

After he had another jaw-dropping year in 1942, he missed 3 full seasons in the Second World War.

When he finished his career, this was written:

"According to Ben Bradlee Jr.'s book, "The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams," Williams was surprised by the news. While he knew he was technically eligible, Williams purportedly had made an informal agreement with then-Commander Alexander Vandegrift at the end of World War II, consenting to remain in the reserves to help with recruiting with the understanding that he wouldn't be called back to active duty. 

A captain directly involved with the selection process later told friends that when the Marines selected Ted Williams for duty a second time, they didn't realize it was the ballplayer."

He was chosen, regardless.  He did not try to sidestep it.  He went to serve in the Korean War. Since he went overseas in April 1952, he missed all but 6 games early in 1952. He hit .400 in 10 at bats. 

Few at bats, but .400 is .400. (#2)

Then he was in the Korean War for 16 months and returned in August 1953.

In 37 games in late 1953, after a year and a half off fighting in a war, he hit .407/.509/.901.  Finished 26th in the MVP voting.  

37 games after a 16 month layoff - and he hit .407. (#3)

He crashed in the Korean war while piloting a plane. 

Survived it, then after 16 months away from the game, showing no signs of rust whatsoever, he hit .407/.509/.901.

In 1957, at the age of 38, he remarkably almost hit .400 again, hitting .388/.526/.731. Stunning numbers.

Even more remarkably, in the second half of that age 38 season, he hit .454 in 60 games.

.454. That's right, .454.  Maybe seeing it in words will help that sink in.

FOUR FIFTY FOUR.

His 2nd half slash was an absurdly great .454/.594/.855.  (That’s #3 1/2)

Yes, at age 38. Take 100 points off of each and you’d have had a still mind-blowing .354/.494/.755 for a guy that age. 

Heck, take off yet another 100 points… any current Met would love to have a .254/.394/.655 slash this year.

Williams pulled the ball, played in a tough park for lefty hitters, and still did that. 

What on earth would he have done in short porch Yankee Stadium as a pull hitter? Just 296 feet at the right field foul pole.  Hard to imagine.

Hey...when do WE Mets fans ever get our Ted Williams?

GREAT MAN...GREAT PATRIOT...AND...

GREATEST...HITTER...EVER.

TEDDY BASEBALL.

P.S. On Feb. 19, 1953, Ted Williams crash-landed his Navy F9F Panther jet following a mission in Korea. The plane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire; Williams survived thanks to piloting skill honed almost a decade earlier during World War II.

Saw this - thought this was cool:

SPEAKING OF GOATS…

We all probably know that age 42, Warren Spahn lost a 16 inning, 1-0 duel to Juan Marichal, with the game ending on a Willie Mays HR. The greatest duel ever.

Spahn preceded that 16 inning game with a shutout. He followed that game with another shutout. So, the 42 year old in a 3 game stretch threw 33.1 innings and allowed just 1 run. (Remarkably, in the 16 inning game, he fanned just two, and just 8 in the 3 games, but it worked.)

A few very remarkable quotes from an MLB article about that game by David Adler:

“Here is a guy 42 years old who still has a fast­ball," said Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell, who was in attendance that night, as he was the Giants' director of player development at the time. "He ought to will his body to medical science."

Giants manager Alvin Dark tried to take out Marichal at least three times, in the ninth, the 12th and the 15th. Marichal pointed to Spahn and said: "Do you see that man pitching on the other side? He's 42 and I'm 25, and you can't take me out until that man is not pitching."

"I've been around a long time and that's the finest exhibition of throwing I've ever seen," Aaron said. "It may be 10 years or even 20 before you see another its equal."

What more is there to say?

GREAT SCOTT!

Christian Scott started for the Mets yesterday. 

Four innings, seven (7) strikeouts, two hits, no walks, one run. Wow.  

No, as Perry White would say, “GREAT SCOTT!”

In fact, other than a so-so, 2walk, 1 K, two-thirds of an inning from Edwin Diaz, the kids pitched the other 8 innings and fanned 13 more. 

Luis Moreno had a “young Nolan Ryan”outing: 4 outs, 4 walks, 4 Ks, but Nolan Clenney and Ben Simon slammed the door after Moreno was taken out in a 6-3 win, in which mighty man of valor Brandon Nimmo had 2 hits and 3 RBIs.

Suozzi made 2 miscues and McIlwain one, but that happens with youngsters sometimes, and the Mets won anyway, folks.

Let’s get this season STARTED!