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| (Brearley Collection Photo from Opening Day 1947) |
By Lew
Freedman | Staff Historian
He refused
to tip his cap to the fans after the last majestic hit of his wondrous 21-year
Major League career with the Boston Red Sox. He refused to step out of the
dugout to acknowledge the cheers filling the air at Fenway Park in the last
game of his professional life. And that was so Ted.
The
ballplayer who said his only ambition in life was to have people see him walk
down the street and say, “There goes the best hitter there ever was,” achieved
his goal and slipped away from his sport on his own terms.
Ted Williams
may well have been the best hitter in baseball history, although some can argue
statistics for Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby or Babe Ruth, those who like Williams
are in the penthouse of the Hall of Fame.
It is 52
years since Williams retired his Boston Red Sox spikes on September 28, 1960,
as was true throughout most of his career, they were going nowhere but home as
the regular-season ended. Williams saw too few Octobers in his career with the
Red Sox.