Ted Williams...ROBBED!

[SteveMitchell]

The ultimate dissing of Ted Williams came by way of the BBWAA branch of the Fourth Estate in Ted's 1966 Hall of Fame results: 93.4%. Back in the good old days of 1966, such a number was not good enough to round up to a 94% and, therefore, was merely a "high B" in terms of letter grade. Imagine, the Baseball Writers thought so little of The Greatest Hitter of His Time that they gave him a "B" ranking!

Originally Posted by blametony

I am still mystified by the following...

1941 - Ted Williams hits .406 and DOES NOT win the MVP Award.

1942 - Ted Williams win the Triple Crown and DOES NOT win the MVP Award.

1947 - Ted Williams win the Triple Crown and DOES NOT win the MVP Award.

It's simply mind-boggling. In '41 Williams .406 average was the highest since Rogers Hornsby hit .424 in 1924.

When he won the Triple Crown in '47, he became the only the second player to accomplish that feat. Rogers Hornsby being the other.

[Peter_Spaeth]

If Richard Ben Cramer's DiMaggio biography is to be believed, Joe was worse as a person -- much worse in many ways -- than Ted.

[yanks4]

If you get a chance watch the HBO special on Williams on YouTube......this guy was an exceptional man and ballplayer....

[yanks4]

Very well done....

[Fred]

Can you imagine if Ted didn't miss almost 5 seasons serving in the military? He probably would have averaged about 35HR, 110RBIs, 120Runs and 180Hits a season for that time. Let's just say it was 4.5 seasons missed that would put his lifetime totals at 678HR, 2334RBIs, 2338Runs and 3464Hits (probably almost 700 doubles). That would have put him in the all time lead for RBIs and Runs, plus also be a member of the 3000 hit club. To think that three of those years was between his triple crown seasons in 1942 and 1947 is mind boggling when you consider what he probably could have done.

[egri]

Originally Posted by Fred

Can you imagine if Ted didn't miss almost 5 seasons serving in the military? He probably would have averaged about 35HR, 110RBIs, 120Runs and 180Hits a season for that time. Let's just say it was 4.5 seasons missed that would put his lifetime totals at 678HR, 2334RBIs, 2338Runs and 3464Hits (probably almost 700 doubles). That would have put him in the all time lead for RBIs and Runs, plus also be a member of the 3000 hit club. To think that three of those years was between his triple crown seasons in 1942 and 1947 is mind boggling when you consider what he probably could have done.

If those were his totals at the end of 1960, I’m sure he comes back for 1961/1962 as well. The numbers he put up in his last season (29 HR, .316/.451/.645) guys in their prime won’t come close to, and he put them up playing 113 games for a seventh place team.

[A2000]

Boston finishing 17 games behind the Yankees in 1941 probably didn't help his MVP cause.

[nsaddict]

I’m certainly in the camp that Ted was short changed in those 3 years. The numbers stand out for sure. By the voting mindset, a player on a last place team could never get the nod regardless of stats? But the biggest head scratcher is the 1934 voting. Gehrig has a monster year and finished 5th in voting, outrageous!

[tedzan]

Hi Tony

Back in the 1980's, I had several conversations with Ted while meeting him in Cooperstown. He was one of the friendliest BB players I ever met. These
were not short conversations, either. Ted loved to talk BB with you.

I'm a Yankees fan, too. My nearby (2 blocks away) neighbor when I young was Phil Rizzuto. A really great guy, everyone in the neighborhood loved him.

I will never forget Ted's response to me when I told him...."I would root for you to hit a HR into the upper Right Field stands at Yankee Stadium".

He replied…."I don't understand, you say you're a Yankees fan."

I responded with...."I knew your HR's wouldn't really matter, because at the end of the season, I knew the Yankees would win".

Ted cracked up laughing. Then he turned serious, and said...."If Rizzuto played for the Red Sox back then, we would have been the A.L. Champions".


Ted was quite serious when he said that to me. What I understood from that was that Rizzuto was a great Lead-Off batter who would Hit, Bunt, Walk,
etc. to get on base. Then he would eventually score 3 times at of 4.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Fred

Can you imagine if Ted didn't miss almost 5 seasons serving in the military? He probably would have averaged about 35HR, 110RBIs, 120Runs and 180Hits a season for that time. Let's just say it was 4.5 seasons missed that would put his lifetime totals at 678HR, 2334RBIs, 2338Runs and 3464Hits (probably almost 700 doubles). That would have put him in the all time lead for RBIs and Runs, plus also be a member of the 3000 hit club. To think that three of those years was between his triple crown seasons in 1942 and 1947 is mind boggling when you consider what he probably could have done.

How about the fact that his was probably the greatest season by a retiring player ever. .329, 29 HR's 1.096 OPS. Yes he was only playing 2/3 of a season at that point, but who knows how much longer he could've kept hitting. Add in the WWII and Korea years and he might've been motivated to take a run at Ruth and keep playing. How crazy would it have been if a guy who only hit 40 HR's in a season once became the guy to beat the Babe?

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

After Stan Musial I would say Lou Gehrig. That guy was a RBI machine. If I could have one player in history up with the game on the line and you couldn't walk him #4 is my guy. I can see a line drive down into the right field corner and the winning run scoring. It would have been interesting to have seen his stats if not for the ALS. I bet he would have played during WW 2 and beyond.