5 notable facts about Splendid Splinter’s life and career

Ted Williams had a season for the ages in 1941. But the Hall of Famer additionally loved a outstanding profession — and life. Here are 5 highlights from his iconic life you must find out about.
1. Military profession
Like many ballplayers of his period, Williams was referred to as to service — first throughout World War II and once more through the Korean War. Yet, in contrast to a lot of his MLB comrades, the Splendid Splinter was a casualty of lively fight — shedding a part of his listening to and surviving many harmful encounters whereas flying 39 missions as a captain within the Korean War, in keeping with the Marine Corps Association.
“Some people came back in from the sports world who were put to work as coaches for the baseball teams or something like that,” mentioned John Glenn, who later grew to become an astronaut and U.S. senator, to MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo. “Ted was not that way. Ted fit right in. He was a Marine pilot just like the rest of us and did a great job.”
Williams’ first navy stint had a rocky starting, at finest. With a 1A standing, he obtained a deferment months after the 1941 season — attributable to his mom’s dependence on him — which the media portrayed as “un-American,” contributing to one of many many fractures in his relationship with the press. Williams voluntarily enlisted within the Navy reserve a yr later and spent the following three seasons studying to fly.

Teddy Ballgame was identified for his outstanding imaginative and prescient on the plate, and that prowess translated on to his navy tenure. According to Mayo, Williams set data for hits, capturing from wingovers, zooms and barrel rolls, in addition to a scholar gunnery report, in reflexes, coordination and visible response time — a excessive mark that also stands at present.
“Much as I appreciate baseball, Ted to me will always be a Marine fighter pilot,” Glenn informed Mayo. “He did a great job as a pilot. Ted was a gung-ho Marine.”
2. A bridesmaid, regardless of a Triple Crown marketing campaign
If a .406 batting common in 1941 wasn’t sufficient to win the American League MVP Award — that honor went to Joe DiMaggio, who recorded a 56-game hit streak that is still a report — one would assume a Triple Crown the next yr would do the trick.
Williams’ trifecta featured a .356 clip, 36 homers and 137 RBIs in 1942. But he was as soon as once more the runner-up to a Yankee for the AL MVP Award, this time to Joe Gordon.
Gordon belted half as many homers, posted a .900 OPS that was 247 factors decrease than Williams’ mark, although his Yankees received the AL pennant by 9 video games over Williams’ Red Sox. Gordon did, nonetheless, lead the league in two classes: strikeouts (95) and double performs grounded into (22).
A nine-time All-Star, Gordon revolutionized the middle-infield customary. He supplemented his defensive prowess with energy, as he grew to become the primary AL second baseman to belt 20 homers in a season — a feat he achieved seven instances in his 11-year profession.
Gordon was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009, 21 years after his dying. While he’s thought-about among the many best center infielders of his period, the 1942 AL MVP Award is taken into account by many to be one of many greatest snubs Williams endured.
Of the 13 Triple Crown winners since MVP awards had been established, six didn’t obtain the excellence — together with Williams twice (additionally in 1947).
3. Williams lastly wins the AL MVP Award
In his first full season following World War II, Williams lastly received the AL MVP Award in 1946, whereas main the Red Sox to their first pennant in 28 years.
Williams led the league with a gaudy 1.164 OPS, a mark that is been reached solely 14 instances since (together with by Williams once more in 1957) by simply seven different gamers: Barry Bonds (2001-04), Mark McGwire (1996, ’98), Mickey Mantle (’56-57), Larry Walker (’97, ’99), Frank Thomas (’94), Jeff Bagwell (’94) and Sammy Sosa (2001).
Yet, regardless of the breakthrough, that yr culminated in disappointment. In an exhibition recreation 4 days previous to the Fall Classic, Williams was hit by a pitch on his proper elbow and — regardless of his downplaying it — skilled main swelling, in keeping with the Boston Globe archives. He would play in all seven video games of the World Series, however went simply 5-for-25 (.200) with one RBI and no extra-base hits, because the Red Sox fell to the Cardinals.
Williams received the AL MVP Award once more in 1949, however he by no means performed within the World Series after the ’46 heartbreak.
4. Williams places .400 season in danger
Williams stays the final participant to exceed the .400 mark. But he put that milestone on the road on the ultimate day of the 1941 season.
With the Red Sox 17 1/2 video games behind the first-place Yankees within the standings and Williams sporting a good .400 common coming into that afternoon, there was little incentive for Boston’s All-Star left fielder to play. Since the postseason solely consisted of the AL and National League champions assembly within the World Series on the time, the Red Sox’s title hopes had ended weeks earlier.

Yet, Williams risked shedding his .400 mark by taking part in in each ends of a doubleheader in opposition to the Philadelphia Athletics. The Splendid Splinter delivered in dramatic vogue, as he went a mixed 6-for-8 to vault his common to .406. Had he gone hitless that afternoon, Williams would have completed with a .393 common, and Rogers Hornsby’s .424 mark in 1924 would have remained the final time a participant eclipsed .400.
5. Six batting titles (nearly eight)
Only six gamers — Ty Cobb (12), Tony Gwynn (eight), Honus Wagner (eight), Rod Carew (seven), Hornsby (seven) and Stan Musial (seven) — received extra batting titles than Williams, although the Splendid Splinter misplaced two titles by the narrowest of margins.
Williams completed 194-for-566 (.3427) in 1949, whereas George Kell went 179-for-522 (.3429), a separation of simply .0002 factors in favor of Kell. Had Williams gotten one hit on the ultimate day of the season in opposition to the Yankees — he went 0-for-4 — he would have received the title. Adding harm to insult, the Red Sox misplaced the AL pennant on that day to — you guessed it — the Yankees.
Williams did the AL MVP Award that yr. But, as was the case all through Williams’ profession, it got here with a caveat.
Williams posted a .345 common in 1954 that may have been the AL’s finest. But he completed with simply 386 at-bats, 14 shy of the league minimal to qualify. Williams had 526 plate appearances that season, however his MLB-high 136 walks wound up being a hindrance. MLB altered its rules in 1957 to accommodate plate appearances as an alternative of at-bats in figuring out batting titles.