By Geyv Kathoke
February 7 2003

It is often noted that great hitters make out seven times out of ten. Not all of them. Ted Williams was the last .400 hitter in the Major Leagues back in 1941. In the 13 years that followed he led the Majors in batting average. Teddy Ballgame hit at a phenomenal .351 clip. Williams also led the Majors in walks in each of the eight seasons in which he played the majority of games. He missed the second half of the 1950 season because of an injury sustained in the All-Star Game, and missed part or most of 5 other seasons due to National Service. In this 13 year period his On-Base percentage was an unbelievable .497!!

Of course with such a fantastic average and walk ratio's you'd expect him to be a contact, singles hitter, lead-off type of guy, right? Well not quite. Williams hit 512 career HR's. So he had just a little bit of pop. Bear in mind, Williams missed 5 seasons thru military service. He was unlucky enough to be drafted for the latter three years of World War 2, and Korea in the early 50's. He played only 43 games over the '52 and '53 seasons. It is not unreasonable to add an arbitary 40 HR a season, which is roughly how many he hit per year over the years he was playing. That would have given Ted 712 career HR. It is possible to imagine, given how driven that Williams was, he might have played one more season to beat The Babe's total of 714 HR's.

An example of Williams' drive cited in Jim Bouton's Ball Four. 'He would take extra batting practice everyday, in which he woudl talk out loud to himself. "I'm Ted F*cking Williams, they can't get me, here comes Jim Bunning with that sh*tty slider, does he really think he can get me out with that sh*t?"' (Incidentally Jim Bunning is one of only four pitchers to throw a no-hitter in both Leagues, so he had some pretty good stuff).

A final example of the type of player Ted Williams was. In the final game of the 1941 season he had a .39955 average. This is, in effect, a .400 average. But that wouldn't have satisfied the statisticians or the man himself. He played both ends of a double header, against two southpaws that he'd never faced before. He went six-for-eight, and finished the season with a .406 avg. He took those final at-bats because "otherwise it wouldn't have been honest".

Ted Williams goal wasn't to hit .400, it was to be a .400 hitter, he respected the game. That's why he will be forever known as Teddy Ballgame.