Great Piece on Ted Williams

[Mex86]

There's some great tidbits in here, as well as the interesting thought that it's a lot tougher to hit .400 in the modern era, due to less complete games and less at-bats against the starting pitcher, who the hitter gets to know pretty well by the third and fourth at-bat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/sports/baseball/ted-williamss-406-average-is-more-than-a-number.html

[RickD]

Nice article. Thanks for sharing. I like how he went out and had a stiff soft drink since he rarely drank alcohol!

[catman]

Ted Williams was one of the most interesting people in the history of baseball. He was very misunderstood during his playing days, but true fans appreciated his abilities.

[Mickey Mental]

Thanks Mex.....

During his 56-game hitting streak, DiMaggio batted .408. During the same stretch of games, Williams hit .412.

William's longest hitless stretch was seven at-bats.

Sacrifice flies were counted as at-bats. Under today’s rules, Williams might have hit .411 to .419, based on accounts of games that season.

He would make strangers show him their batting swings. Then he would correct their flaws.

DiMaggio won the MVP award with nearly twice the number of first-place votes as the runner-up Williams, who had led the league in home runs and missed the triple crown by five runs batted in.