Teddy Ballgame

Extraordinary things happened during the career of Ted Williams. Unfortunately, frustrating events also occurred during his illustrious era in baseball. Ted Williams was arguably the greatest Red Sox player of all-time, even though he never won a World Series. Looking back, Williams was teammates with Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Bobby Doerr, Lefty Grove, and Joe Cronin, as well as Johnny Pesky, for whom they named Pesky’s Pole in Fenway Park. So how could a team with five future Hall-of-Famers not win the World Series? The answer is the Red Sox archrivals, the New York Yankees. During Williams’ 19 year career, the Bronx Bombers won 10 World Series and 14 pennants. Those Yankee glory years were highlighted by the grand careers of Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez and many others.
Ted’s Red Sox finished 2nd four times and 3rd five times during his career when the Yankees won the pennant. Williams and the BoSox appeared poised to win the pennant in 1949, but the Yankees mounted a furious comeback, and won the pennant on the last day by beating the Red Sox. The one time Boston won the pennant during Teddy Ballgame’s career was in 1946. They went on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Unfortunately, Ted was hurt the whole series and wasn’t really a factor. Boston led 3-2, but lost Game 6. The score was tied 3-3 in the 8th inning of Game 7 before the Cardinals pulled ahead 4-3 to win the World Series. Perhaps a healthy Williams could have propelled his team to victory, but we will never know.
We will also never know what Ted’s career numbers could have been if he hadn’t gone to war during his prime. After winning the Triple Crown in 1942 with 36 homers, 137 RBI’s, and a .356 batting average, Williams enlisted in World War 2 and became a superb pilot. He would miss the ’43, ’44, and ’45 seasons because of the war. He also fought in the Korean War in 1952 and 1953, and was noted for his bravery and work ethic. By standing up to protect his country, Williams did something that was far more important than baseball, but one can’t help but wonder what he could have done with those five seasons that were cut out of his career. He also had to overcome injuries and illnesses that he got from the wars that could have affected his play. Maybe Ted could have won a World Series with those years back. Nevertheless, he did what he felt he had to do for his country.
Besides taking away possible World Series titles, Joe DiMaggio also beat out Ted for a few MVP awards that Williams would have easily won during another decade against a different player. Ted finished 2nd to DiMaggio twice in the MVP race. In 1941, Williams led the league with 37 homers and a .406 average, but Joe D’s 56-game hitting streak and World Series title stole the show. In 1947, Williams won the Triple Crown, but lost the MVP award to DiMaggio again. He also finished 2nd to Mickey Mantle in 1957, despite recording superior numbers. The most perplexing runner-up finish was in 1942. Williams won the Triple Crown and wound up finishing in second to the Yankees’ Joe Gordon. Gordon had had a decent year, but his numbers were nowhere near Ted’s, and the Yankees failed to win the World Series that season. Some say Williams lost the MVPs because he wasn’t as popular to the media as DiMaggio and the Yankees were. But I think a more likely cause is that fact that, the Yankees either won the World Series or were very successful in the years that their players won the MVP. Williams won the MVP award in 1946 and in 1949, which weren’t his greatest personal years, but years that the Red Sox were very successful.
Although heated rivals, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio were very similar. They were both icons and images of the game. They were the best of the best. Even though he lost many MVP races and had years taken from his prime, Ted’s legacy as one of the greatest to ever play the game will always live on. He and Mickey Mantle are similar in the way that they will always have to live under the shadow of the “Yankee Clipper” Joe DiMaggio. Mantle was always compared to Joe whenever he did something great, which is the same thing that happened to Williams. Unfortunately for devoted Ted William’s fans, both of his MVPs were in years that Joe DiMaggio was severely hampered by injuries, which means that Williams never beat out DiMaggio in a fair race. The fact that great ball players are subject to comparison should never diminish their impact and importance. There really should be no higher compliment then being compared to Teddy Ballgame.