40th Anniversary of Ted Williams Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (4 days late..sorry)
Link to a site with the entire HOF speech. Here's the text:
"I guess every player thinks about going into the Hall of Fame. Now that the moment has come for me I find it difficult to say what is really in my heart. But I know it is the greatest thrill of my life. I received two hundred and eighty-odd votes from the writers. I know I didn't have two hundred and eighty-odd friends among the writers. I know they voted for me because they felt in their minds and in their hearts that I rated it, and I want to say to them: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Today I am thinking about a lot of things. I am thinking about my playground director in San Diego, Rodney Luscomb, my high school coach, Wos Caldwell, and my managers, who had so much patience with me--fellows like Frank Shellenback, Donie Bush, Joe Cronin, and Joe McCarthy. I am thinking of Eddie Collins, who had so much faith in me--and to be in the Hall with him particularly, as well as those other great players, is a great honor. I'm sorry Eddie isn't here today.
I'm thinking of Tom Yawkey. I have always said it: Tom Yawkey is the greatest owner in baseball. I was lucky to have played on the club he owned, and I'm grateful to him for being here today.
But I'd not be leveling if I left it at that. Ballplayers are not born great. They're not born great hitters or pitchers or managers, and luck isn't a big factor. No one has come up with a substitute for hard work. I've never met a great player who didn't have to work harder at learning to play ball than anything else he ever did. To me it was the greatest fun I ever had, which probably explains why today I feel both humility and pride, because God let me play the game and learn to be good at it.
The other day Willie Mays hit his five hundred and twenty-second homerun. He has gone past me, and he's pushing, and I say to him, 'go get 'em Willie.' Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel. Not just to be as good as anybody else, but to be better. This is the nature of man and the name of the game. I hope some day Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren't given the chance.
As time goes on I'll be thinking baseball, teaching baseball, and arguing for baseball to keep it right on top of American sports, just as it is in Japan, Mexico, Venezuela, and other Latin American and South American countries. I know Casey feels the same way. . . . I also know I'll lose a dear friend if I don't stop talking. I'm eating into his time, and that is unforgivable. So in closing, I am greatful and know how lucky I was to have been born an American and had the chance to play the game I love, the greatest game."
Ted Williams
July 25, 1966
Cooperstown, New York
=======================
"I hope some day Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren't given the chance." - It is widely believed that TW's call to the HOF's members to remember the great African-American players of the late 19th and 20th Century greatly accelerated their inclusion, reducing in some small way the great blight on American athletics of racism. Williams request that the great Gibson and Paige, etc. be voted to the HOF may have been the most courageous utterance ever made by a US athlete.
=======================
Ted's Wik page
=======================
The most important books on Ted/by Ted, in one man's opinion:
The Science of Hitting, by Ted
My Turn At Bat: The Story of My Life, by Ted
published subsequent to TW's passing in on July 5th, 2002:
The Teammates, by David Halberstam
What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?, by Richard Ben Cramer (expansion of a lengthy Esquire article previously published)
It's Only Me, by John Underwood
Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero, by Leigh Montville
=======================
This is what's left of poor John Henry Williams: an unfinished web site in tribute to his Dad, one of America's Most Iconic Citizens.
=======================
My favorite TW's quote:
"I've found that you don't need to wear a necktie if you can hit."
=======================
Chestnuts:
Ted was one half Mexican-American (on his mother's side), a fact he tried his best to keep hidden, and almost certainly contributed to his tremendous sensitivity to minority ballplayers and his moving HOF Induction speech.
Ted was a virgin until after he became a professional baseball player.
Ted spent five seasons out of his prime in the Marine Corps as a fighter pilot. He called the Marines "the best team I ever played for." In fact, Ted wanted "A Marine" to be inscribed first on his tombstone, which of course was not to be.
Due to the leukemia that killed Ted's son John Henry and Ted's brother Danny, any scheme to make money off of the DNA of TW's was doomed to failure.
In Ted's only postseason appearance, vs. the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series of '46, he hit .200 with but five singles, which contemporary Boston sportswriters never let him live down. But Williams had been hit by a pitch on the elbow in an exhibition just prior to the World Series, and his range of motion was severely limited.
During WWII, TW did not see combat. The Marines considered him such an outstanding pilot that they held him back to be used as instructor. But in the final days of the conflict, he was called for duty in what was expected to be an inevitable invasion of the Japanese mainland. The war ended before his deployment.
In Korea, Ted famously was John Glenn's wingman, and just as famously, took small arms fire to his F-9 Panther during a low altitude bombing run and endured a harrowing flight back to the American border ending with a crash landing. After his escape from the burning wreckage, Ted was asked for an autograph by his commanding officer.
============================
There is no way to make a film of Williams life, since no human being could possibly could pass the believability factor for any knowledgeable audience. There was only one Ted Williams.
"I guess every player thinks about going into the Hall of Fame. Now that the moment has come for me I find it difficult to say what is really in my heart. But I know it is the greatest thrill of my life. I received two hundred and eighty-odd votes from the writers. I know I didn't have two hundred and eighty-odd friends among the writers. I know they voted for me because they felt in their minds and in their hearts that I rated it, and I want to say to them: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Today I am thinking about a lot of things. I am thinking about my playground director in San Diego, Rodney Luscomb, my high school coach, Wos Caldwell, and my managers, who had so much patience with me--fellows like Frank Shellenback, Donie Bush, Joe Cronin, and Joe McCarthy. I am thinking of Eddie Collins, who had so much faith in me--and to be in the Hall with him particularly, as well as those other great players, is a great honor. I'm sorry Eddie isn't here today.
I'm thinking of Tom Yawkey. I have always said it: Tom Yawkey is the greatest owner in baseball. I was lucky to have played on the club he owned, and I'm grateful to him for being here today.
But I'd not be leveling if I left it at that. Ballplayers are not born great. They're not born great hitters or pitchers or managers, and luck isn't a big factor. No one has come up with a substitute for hard work. I've never met a great player who didn't have to work harder at learning to play ball than anything else he ever did. To me it was the greatest fun I ever had, which probably explains why today I feel both humility and pride, because God let me play the game and learn to be good at it.
As time goes on I'll be thinking baseball, teaching baseball, and arguing for baseball to keep it right on top of American sports, just as it is in Japan, Mexico, Venezuela, and other Latin American and South American countries. I know Casey feels the same way. . . . I also know I'll lose a dear friend if I don't stop talking. I'm eating into his time, and that is unforgivable. So in closing, I am greatful and know how lucky I was to have been born an American and had the chance to play the game I love, the greatest game."
Ted Williams
July 25, 1966
Cooperstown, New York
=======================
"I hope some day Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren't given the chance." - It is widely believed that TW's call to the HOF's members to remember the great African-American players of the late 19th and 20th Century greatly accelerated their inclusion, reducing in some small way the great blight on American athletics of racism. Williams request that the great Gibson and Paige, etc. be voted to the HOF may have been the most courageous utterance ever made by a US athlete.
=======================
Ted's Wik page
=======================
The most important books on Ted/by Ted, in one man's opinion:
The Science of Hitting, by Ted
My Turn At Bat: The Story of My Life, by Ted
published subsequent to TW's passing in on July 5th, 2002:
The Teammates, by David Halberstam
What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?, by Richard Ben Cramer (expansion of a lengthy Esquire article previously published)
It's Only Me, by John Underwood
Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero, by Leigh Montville
=======================
This is what's left of poor John Henry Williams: an unfinished web site in tribute to his Dad, one of America's Most Iconic Citizens.
=======================
My favorite TW's quote:
"I've found that you don't need to wear a necktie if you can hit."
=======================
Chestnuts:
Ted was one half Mexican-American (on his mother's side), a fact he tried his best to keep hidden, and almost certainly contributed to his tremendous sensitivity to minority ballplayers and his moving HOF Induction speech.
Ted was a virgin until after he became a professional baseball player.
Ted spent five seasons out of his prime in the Marine Corps as a fighter pilot. He called the Marines "the best team I ever played for." In fact, Ted wanted "A Marine" to be inscribed first on his tombstone, which of course was not to be.
Due to the leukemia that killed Ted's son John Henry and Ted's brother Danny, any scheme to make money off of the DNA of TW's was doomed to failure.
In Ted's only postseason appearance, vs. the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series of '46, he hit .200 with but five singles, which contemporary Boston sportswriters never let him live down. But Williams had been hit by a pitch on the elbow in an exhibition just prior to the World Series, and his range of motion was severely limited.
During WWII, TW did not see combat. The Marines considered him such an outstanding pilot that they held him back to be used as instructor. But in the final days of the conflict, he was called for duty in what was expected to be an inevitable invasion of the Japanese mainland. The war ended before his deployment.
In Korea, Ted famously was John Glenn's wingman, and just as famously, took small arms fire to his F-9 Panther during a low altitude bombing run and endured a harrowing flight back to the American border ending with a crash landing. After his escape from the burning wreckage, Ted was asked for an autograph by his commanding officer.
============================
There is no way to make a film of Williams life, since no human being could possibly could pass the believability factor for any knowledgeable audience. There was only one Ted Williams.
posted by joe sweeney at 11:21 PM
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