The biography, "The Kid...The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, by Pulitzer prize winner, Ben Bradlee, Jr., promises, within its 800 pages, to go deeper and shed more light on Ted than any of the books on "The Kid" has done in the past.
I grew up in East Boston in the late 40's and 50's when the Red Sox were at, or near the top of the baseball world providing excitement daily during the season. Off season there was, what was known as "the hot-stove league" which was baseball (Red Sox) talk year round mostly about Ted, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky with the ever constant comparisons of Ted and Joe D.
There was no comparison in our minds. (my buddies and me)
Now, as the years creep by the memories still burn bright. My first meeting with Ted was when I was nine years old and he was making an appearance at a large department store in Boston. I had just received an autograph book for my birthday and was determined that Ted's would be the first autograph in it. I took the subway into Boston and waited in a long, long line for almost an hour before I got to him. He noticed how young I was and asked if I was with my mother. When I said no he asked where I came from and how old I was. When I told him I was 9 and a half, from East Boston, and came by subway by myself he had a warm smile and said, "Thank you for coming all the way here just to see me." He asked my name and then signed my book, "To my friend, Jimmy, from your friend, TED WILLIAMS." Then he shook my hand, thanked me again for coming just for him and cautioned me (with sincere concern) to be carefull going home. Needless to say that's still my most precious of memories of MY Teddy Ballgame."
When I became a sports writer my fervent hope was to do an interview with Ted. My chance came in 1980 at Sox spring training. I made the appointment with the travelling secretary, (that's how you got to interview Ted) for the following morning at 8:00 AM at the big field. (there were three smaller fields back then at Sarasota, Florida. I told Johnny Pesky about it and he advised me that I'd better be there by 7:45 or I was late. My dad was like that so I understood and got there at 7"15. Johnny also advised me to have 6 or 7 strictly baseball questions ready for him, ask him the question and then shut up. Ted would do the rest. That night I searched my memory of Ted's playing days and remembered he had said Camilio Pasqual was particularly tough on him. He also had said some things about Bob Feller and Warren Spahn.
Ted was already there when I arrived at 7:15. I introduced myself and we small alked for a minute or two until he said, "Well I guess these other guys aren't as interested as you are so why don't we take a walk down to the small fields (where the minor leaguers worked out)
I quickly caught on and asked him about Pasqual. "You remember that," he said and then went on for at least 5-6 minutes about him. Remembering Johnny's advise I kept quiet. He made it obvious that he had finished THAT subject so I jumped in with, "Tell me of your experiences with Bob Feller."
Ted got a big smile on his face and said, "Well, let me tell you something, he had the greatest fastball I ever saw but an even greater curveball." Then he sited several matchups with the great right handed pitcher for about another 5-6 minutes.
When I asked him about Warren Spahn a couple of the other sportswriters appeared and tried to speak but Ted told them, "Excuse me I'm talking to the only guy who got here on time, so if you guys just listen you'll learn something." I was shocked but felt kind of proud for the compliment by my Teddy. We finished up about 25 minutes later and the rest of the guys walked off. I walked back with Ted and, as we chatted we saw Johnny Pesky. Johnny asked me how things went. Ted said, "You know this guy, he really knows his baseball, doesn't he." Then He excused himself to go over and work with some rookies. Johnny smiled knowingly and said, "I guess you did okay."
And that ended the best day of my life (in sports) up to then.
I'll have more personal stories about Ted in this space soon.....Stay tuned