Remembering
Ted Williams: Selected Oral History
Ted Williams and Yogi Berra at Fenway (FrommerArchives)
This
is the centennial week of the birth of Ted Williams, August 30, 1918. The
Splendid Splinter did it his way. From the Frommer archives please enjoy
memories of those who had the pleasure of experiencing him.
JON MILLER: "Geez," they said, “We have this
great left-handed hitter and he keeps losing home runs out there so we’ll pull
the bullpens in and make it a little easier for him.” They called the area
Williamsburgh after Louisburgh Square in
Beacon Hill, a play on that phrase.
JAMES JIMMIE GREENE: We quickly found out
where players parked their cars. Ted Williams used to put on such a show for
us. He'd choreograph the whole thing, line us up and say “Now you girls get in
front. Tall kids get in the back.” He
looked very Californian, always in a sport coat. He never wore a tie.
DICK FLAVIN: Ted used to say Dom DiMaggio was the smartest
outfielder. Every time a ball was hit to left-center he’d yell, “You take it
Dommie.”
ROGER KAHN: Every once in a while,
Williams would lose his temper and give them the finger. People out in left
field would jeer. There was a constant clash between Williams and the
customers.
BOB BRADY: But in those years he was the only reason to
go to Fenway Park. As soon as his last at bat many would depart especially if
the Sox were losing.
ROGER KAHN: At that time, the Red Sox
clubhouse closed something like 40
minutes before a game at the request, no the demand of Williams who called reporters the “Knights of
the Keyboard.”
IKE DELOCK: He didn’t like the press. He wanted to ban
them from the clubhouse. The players said, “You can’t do that.” So he eased up. But whatever he wanted he damn well got.
FRANK SULLIVAN: I went up from A – ball in ‘53. I was 23. I saw buck shot wounds all
over the walls and learned that Ted Williams was out shooting pigeons. I heard
Yawkey also shot along with him.
BILL LEE: The long-time guy in charge of
the grounds keeping, Joe Mooney, told me that the cops came to Williams and
asked: “Ted, didn’t you worry about your stray shots going to Kenmore Square?”
Ted was supposed to have said: “You know
I was thinking about that.”
IKE DELOCK: Most of the time Ted Williams arrived very
early for games. I was like two lockers away from him. He had so many bats in
his lockers. There was a certain
respect for him from the other players. He was a good-looking guy. He could be
loud; you couldn’t miss him. Pleasant
when he wanted to be but pretty scary when he wanted to be.
BILL NOWLIN: Ted Williams was my
favorite. I thought he was going to hit
a home run every time up. I got to
see a lot of great play by him as I sat in those bleachers. I touched his home run ball - - I can’t
remember if it was Number 494 or 497 -- after it had been caught by somebody
else.
JERRY CASALE: My biggest thrill was being
next to Ted Williams. How many times we sat in that little locker room and he
would take off his pants coming in from a game, rip off his shirt, throw them
and hit me with them. Thousands of
dollars right in my face. Who thought of it then?
BOB SULLIVAN: Dad wanted my brother Kevin
and me to see Williams play before he retired. We were going to go in early and
we were going to come back relatively late considering we were so young.
I, of course, was a young Williams
fan. And Dad was a World War II veteran,
a Master Sergeant, and he was a Williams devotee. There’s a myth now that all of the Boston
fanship booed Williams. He was a prickly character. But it was the sportswriters who had problems
with him. The fans in left-field would heckle him and he’d spit and all the
rest of it, but mostly the fans loved the guy.
And Dad, as a veteran was eternally devoted to this guy. His military
background, his patriotism, his heroism.
CURT
GOWDY (Game Call) "Everybody quiet now here at Fenway Park after they gave
him a standing ovation of two minutes knowing that this is probably his last
time at bat. One out, nobody on.
BOB KEANEY: Ted dug in, wiggled his
fanny, and glared at pitcher Jack Fisher. Everyone stopped breathing. Ted swung
as hard as he could, but he missed the fat pitch and nearly sprained his
arms. Some dreamers said later that
Ted missed on purpose, so that Fisher would be fooled into throwing that fast
ball again.
CURT
GOWDY (Game Call) Jack Fisher into his
windup, here's the pitch. Williams swings -- and there's a long drive to deep
right! The ball is going and it is gone! A home run for Ted Williams in his
last time at bat in the major leagues!"
JERRY CASALE: I was in the bullpen with Bill Monbouquette and Mike Fornieles and
others. We were all up front looking over the railing. The ball went over our heads.
Williams circled the bases as he
always did in a hurry with his head down trotting out Number 521, his final
homer. The crowd stood and cheered the man and the moment.
FRANK MALZONE: When he hit a home run, it
was usually high—it wasn’t no line drive.
This time he got it all. When he hit a home run, he had a way of loping.
This time his running was like a hop.
TED SPENCER: Williams hits
the home run. I hear it on the radio. I said to myself,
“Damn, I should have been there.”
BROOKS ROBINSON: I was playing third base. He went running around the bases, and I
looked at him as he passed second base. I had my arms folded as he passed me.
That was absolutely a magical moment.
STEVE RYDER: He had that regal trot
around the bases. Didn’t tip his cap,
didn’t look at the stands, just right into the dugout.
The inning ended. Williams went out to play left field in the top of the
ninth. Just before the inning began Carroll Hardy replaced him. “The Kid” ran
in. The crowd had one more standing ovation in it.
“We want Ted. We want Ted!"
But he refused to come out for a curtain call. Later it was reported that
players and umpires tried to get him to come out. No dice.
FRANK SULLIVAN: We all wanted him
to stop and at least take his cap off but that sonofabitch, he just ran into
the dugout.That was the way that Ted was.
He went down the dugout steps straight into the tunnel. We didn’t know that that was his last game
but we all suspected it.
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