Ted Williams facts

Ted Williams

• Theodore Samuel Williams (Ted Williams) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball. He played 21 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot.
• Ted Williams was born in San Diego, California as Teddy Samuel Williams, named after his father, Samuel Stuart Williams, and Teddy Roosevelt.
• Ted Williams was the last major league baseball player to bat for over .400 in a single season.
• Nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame, and The Thumper, he is widely considered the greatest hitter ever.
• His paternal ancestors were a mix of Welsh and Irish and his maternal ancestors were of Mexican descent.
• Ted Williams would have liked to be a professional fisherman.
• Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice.
• Ted Williams interrupted his Major League career to serve in the military– twice.
• Ted Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs.
• Throughout his career, Ted Williams disliked Boston newspapers because he believed that they focused too much on his personal life as opposed to his splendid career.
• Early in his career, Ted stated that he wished to be known as "The greatest hitter who ever lived," an honor that he achieved in the eyes of many by the end of his career.
• Ted Williams pitched once during his career, on August 24, 1940. He pitched the last two innings in a 12-1 loss to Detroit; Williams allowed one earned run on three hits, while striking out one batter, Rudy York.
• Ted Williams spoke up for Negro League players during his Hall of Fame induction speech. Williams called for recognition of great Negro League players like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, who never got a chance to play in the MLB before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. This was an unprecedented call, but one that was finally met in 1971 with the induction of Paige.