Ted Williams' Hit List

"The first pitch, he laid one right in there. I pushed at it. Line drive through the box for a base hit."

In order to break an ugly dry spell, I will be beginning a series I hope to update every other day or so. This will serve at least two purposes: (i) to finally get into the habit of consistently posting on the blog and (ii) to excite myself for the coming baseball season. This blog was started with little fanfare and less hope, but what hope there was, I take at least partial responsibility for stoking the flames. So now, I commit myself to posts of substance in the coming days, and I plan to keep on posting until I stop.

We will be looking very briefly at some of the greatest hitters of the game, based upon the observations of the Splendid Splinter himself, Ted Williams, as found in his book (co-authored): Ted Williams’ Hit List. I’ve chosen this book for the following reasons:

--Terrible Ted was himself one of the greatest hitters of all time.

--The Kid was not just a good hitter in his own right, but he thought about hitting and plainly respected the talents and skills of others. He theorized about hitting.

--Mr. Williams speaks plainly and clearly. I get the distinct sense I would have liked him if I knew him personally.

--The book is a short, easy read and easily translatable into blog-bites.

--I received the book as a gift and figured this would be a good way to use it as I otherwise was likely not going to get around to read it. And what better show of appreciation could I give to the gift’s giver than to highlight the book on our esteemed blog? Especially when I don’t remember who gave me the book, which I would otherwise be ashamed to admit publicly, but I know nobody is reading this anyway.

In Williams’ book, he chooses the 25 best hitters of all time based on his opinion worked around a makeshift statistical system. He makes plain that he is discussing the best 25 hitters, not all-around players. There are some notables that don’t make it, and perhaps we’ll get to talk about them in another post. But for the next post, we’ll discuss his “five ingredients” and mention his statistical preferences. Following that, we’ll begin with number one and work our way through to the end, barring a World War, my death, or the return of the Lord.