The last major leaguer
to hit for a .400 percentage over a year
Except for baseball aficionados
I doubt that many
would be familiar with the details of his career
In September,1941
Williams was hitting .400 with the Red Sox
Before the last two
games against the Athletics
Manager Joe Cronin
offered to let Williams
Sit out the last two
Games to assure a .400 percentage
Williams declined,
preferring the challenge
Of hitting .400 while
still active to the season's ending
He had six hits for
his last eight at bats
Ending up with a
.406 average after this remarkable batting
Williams believed
swinging at a pitch outside the strike zone
Was a batting sin that
really did matter
He very rarely swung at a
bad pitch
Greatly improving his
productivity as a batter
On one occasion an
opposing catcher questioned the umpire's judgment
As to whether on a
3-2 count, he correctly called a ball on the pitch
The umpire said he
really didn't see it, but he was sure
That if it was a strike,
Mr. Williams would certainly have swung at it
Williams was
commissioned a Marine Corps naval aviator in May 1944
And was discharged on
January 1946, his service combat-free
He had a far
different experience during the Korean War
After being recalled to
service, he served as a combat pilot from 1952 to 1953
Williams flew 39 combat
missions during the Korean War
In the same unit as
future astronaut John Glenn, whose view
Was that Williams was
one of the best pilots
That he ever knew
After Korea, Williams
returned to play for the Red Sox
And continued to play
until 1960, totaling sixteen years with the same team
He was American League
batting champion six years
And is often deemed to
be the greatest hitter who had ever been
No comments:
Post a Comment