Gods Do Not Answer Letters

I just finished reading John Updike's classic essay Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu which is an account of Ted Williams' last professional baseball game.  It is only 30 pages or so but it is amazing and really makes you think about how athletes are viewed today compared to how they were viewed in the past.

Updike writes about Williams as if he was a benevolent being that graced everyone with his presence.  The reverence in which he refers to Williams can only be reserved for a true fan and the essay itself was actually written before Updike became a very successful journalist.  At the time he was just another fan who was at the game and felt that it needed to be recounted as so few people actually attended it.  

Now imagine this happening to any baseball player currently playing.  Of all the guys still playing who would get this kind of reaction?  Derek Jeter is the only person I can think of and outside of New York no one really has a lot of love for him and unlike Williams who was an effective player until the day he retired Jeter is slipping statistically and will no doubt continue to do so eventually becoming a utility player.  Times have changed and there are no more heroes or immortal figures left in baseball.

The title to this post is from the essay and is one of the most famous lines in sports journalism history, it refers to Williams refusal to come out and tip his cap after he hit his final home run of his career in his last at bat ever.  After he hit the home run he did was he always did, ran the bases quickly with his head down as if he was running through a storm and was trying to get out of the rain and went to the dugout and sat down.  Williams never tipped his cap after his 520 previous home runs and he wouldn't do it on the 521st time despite lengthy pleas from the crowd, the umpires and the players.

Gods do not answer letters.

As a Red Sox fan I always knew Ted Williams was one of the best baseball players ever but after reading this essay and doing a little research I finally understood just how great he actually was.  Here are a few stats that show just how great Williams was (keep in mind he gave up 5 years of his prime to serve as a pilot in the Korean War):

19x All-Star Selection

521 home runs (18th)

2,654 hits (69th)

1,839 RBI (13th)

2x MVP

.344 career batting average (8th)

2x Triple Crown Winner (lead the league in batting average, home runs and RBI)

6x Batting Champion

Last person to hit over .400 when he hit .406 in 1941

12x Led the league in On Base Percentage

.482 Career OBP Highest in MLB History

One interesting note about Williams career is that although he was a dominant hitter, one might argue the best pure hitter in baseball history, he doesn't own very many records.  He is in the top 10 in a number of categories but other than OBP and being the last man to hit above .400 he doesn't have much to stake his name to.  He did have the distinction of being the oldest man to win the batting title but he lost that in 2004 when Barry Bonds won it at age 40 a fact that is about to launch a mini rant:

I have been reading more books about the history of baseball lately and trying to learn more about the great names from the past.  Guys like Mantle, DiMaggio, Musial, Williams, Cobb and Foxx and they are all interesting guys who seem likable and worthy of the constant high praise they receive.  Yet they are all continuously falling down the leaderboards in various categories because they are being passed by guys from the "Steroid Era."  

Now if you read this blog regularly you know that for the most part I don't have a problem with steroids as everyone was cheating so who cares.  When A-rod was caught I shrugged it off as just another guy using drugs, there is a list of 103 he is just one of them.  But after reading these books its kind of starting to piss me off that all these cheaters are passing legends whose accomplishments were achieved based solely on skill and heart.

Ted Williams is tied for 18th on the home run list but was passed by guys such as Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez (Jim Thome is also ahead of him but I think he is clean).  All these guys were caught cheating and all achieved their records through the use of performance enhancing drugs.  They all tarnish the names of Williams, Mantle and Foxx by moving them further down the list and off the radar screens of newer fans who live on stats.   

This never used to bother me but after learning more about the past generations of players I now see the error of my ways.  In my mind Hank Aaron is still the home run king and Barry Bonds never broke any of Williams records.  To me Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire are just punchlines in a joke about baseball and steroids.  They are both lairs, frauds and cheats and Chael Sonnen  should bury them where they stand.

But Ted Williams was about more than just stats.  He was a humanitarian, through his ongoing work with the Jimmy Fund, and an honest man who felt people should be paid based on merit.  In 1959 Williams had his first sub .300 season and went to management and demanded a pay cut.  He was also a tolerant man as unlike many other players at the time he was open to black players in baseball and lobbied to get excluded blacks into the Hall of Fame.
 

He wasn't without his faults though as he had a rough relationship with the Boston fans and absolutely despised the media.  He also had some bad habits on the field as he would routinely spit everywhere and would throw a tantrum if things didn't go his way but I would attribute those actions more to his competitiveness and desire to be the best.


In 1941 going into the last 2 games of the season ( a double header) Williams was batting .3955 and would have had his average rounded up to .400 if he had sat out.  Williams would have none of this and went out and had 6 hits in 8 at bats over the two games finishing with a .406 average.

He loved to win and hated to lose, in sports that's called passion.  Of his desire for greatness Williams summed it up best when he said, "I want people to say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."

When you watch people talk about Ted Williams a smile always appears on their face and they always have this look of wonder like he needed to be seen to believed. I only wish I had been able to see him play live and be able to fully appreciate his greatness the way others do.   

Random YouTube Video