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the sports pages A weekly look at the sports commentariat.
The Splendid Splinter, Now in Cryo-Freeze
By Bryan Curtis
Posted Monday, July 8, 2002, at 4:20 PM PT
Ted Williams, 83, died of heart failure Friday. The Boston Globe 's Bob Ryan writes , "We can cut right through the clutter and get right to a reasonably solid premise. The two greatest all-around hitters of all-time were Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. ⦠But Williams clearly was the most patient and precise man who ever played the game. Take the day in 1957 when, in his first three at-bats against Hall of Famer Jim Bunning, he took three strikes, walked on four pitches, ran a count to 3-2 and then, on his first swing of the day on pitch No. 13, hit a home run that gave the Red Sox a 1-0 victory." The New York Daily News ' Mike Lupica says that Williams suffered from the inevitable comparisons to Joe DiMaggio. In 1941, the year Williams hit .406, "the writers gave the MVP to DiMaggio and his 56-game hitting streak. In '42, Williams won the Triple Crown and they gave the MVP to Joe Gordon. Williams won the Triple Crown again in '47 and they gave the MVP to DiMaggio, again, in a season the Yankee Clipper had 20 home runs and 97 RBI." Continue Article placeAd(2,'slate.homepage/slate') | |
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