Ted Williams

[icollectDCsports]

He played in Boston, not New York, and it didn’t help that he wasn’t on good terms with the media.

[cgjackson222]

He never won a championship, and in the only World Series he played in, he batted .200 with no extra base hits.

Of course, that hasn't stopped Cobb from being highly collected, as he never won a World Series and underachieved in the postseason as well.

[brunswickreeves]

I think Williams has some of the best card art, and love their relative affordability. He had a lot of strong competition from Mick, Mays and Jackie, all of whom won a World Series.

I gave his two 54 Topps cards as a thank you to my kids. The signed card was a gift from my brother for a milestone Birthday. And the photo was a parting gift from a retiring coworker.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Rightly or wrongly, he was overshadowed by two folk heroes, first DiMaggio, then Mantle. He was perceived as aloof or even surly, didn't win, and was not considered a great fielder or baserunner.

Imagine 50s baseball -- Mays and Mantle, Williams and Musial, Aaron. Will we ever see anything close?

[G1911]

I think it's more that Joe D. is overpriced. Ted seems about right generally, it's just that the 2 Yankees are boosted that makes people say Williams/Mays/Musial/literally-every-other-player is undervalued.

Williams certainly got some of the best looking cards in a lot of sets.

[robw1959]

This has the ring of truth, as do the other members' comments. Even though playing in a smaller market and never winning a WS hasn't hurt Cobb's value, It does seem to have hurt most everyone else to some extent, especially Musial and Williams, I think. Musial was on par with Dimaggio, and Ted Williams was a way better hitter.

I never heard anything negative about Ted's fielding skills before, so that is a bit of a revelation to me, and, of course, could contribute to holding down the value of his cards as well.

[Aaron Seefeldt]

He wasn’t in the early Topps “glamor” sets, that possibly contributes. He is on the very short list of best hitters of all time. As mentioned, he missed a lot of time to serve in WW2 & Korea so his counting stats were affected dramatically.

[CW]

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Aaron Seefeldt

He wasn’t in the early Topps “glamor” sets, that possibly contributes.

Funny you refer to them using that term, as one thing most can agree on is that his 1955 & '56 Topps have to rank among the most glamorous of the decade. The '57 ain't too shabby, either. Man, that guy could pose for a card! The '54 Wilson's is a work of art.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by robw1959

This has the ring of truth, as do the other members' comments. Even though playing in a smaller market and never winning a WS hasn't hurt Cobb's value, It does seem to have hurt most everyone else to some extent, especially Musial and Williams, I think. Musial was on par with Dimaggio, and Ted Williams was a way better hitter.

I never heard anything negative about Ted's fielding skills before, so that is a bit of a revelation to me, and, of course, could contribute to holding down the value of his cards as well.

Ted was very self deprecating about his fielding but he wasn't all that bad.

He used to joke that Dom DiMaggio belonged in the HOF as the only player who played LF and CF every game.

[the-illini]

Williams and Musial are both underrated IMO and both missed key parts of their careers due to war service

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by robw1959

This has the ring of truth, as do the other members' comments. Even though playing in a smaller market and never winning a WS hasn't hurt Cobb's value, It does seem to have hurt most everyone else to some extent, especially Musial and Williams, I think. Musial was on par with Dimaggio, and Ted Williams was a way better hitter.

I never heard anything negative about Ted's fielding skills before, so that is a bit of a revelation to me, and, of course, could contribute to holding down the value of his cards as well.

Musial 1946.