On July 22nd, 1960, the Red Sox playing at home in Fenway defeated visiting Cleveland, 6 – 4. Vic Wertz hit a three-run homer and had four RBIs. Ted Williams also homered and, in the 7th inning, stole second base. Williams set a major-league record as the first and only player to steal bases in four consecutive decades (1930s, 1940s 1950s, and 1960s). Forty years later Williams will be matched by Rickey Henderson in 2000 and Tim Raines in 2001.

Before coming across this, if you would have asked me to guess which three players were most likely to have stolen bases in four different decades, I would have been able to guess Rickey, of course, And after some further thought, I would probably have come up with Tim Raines. But Ted Williams would have been one of the last players I would have guessed. In 19 seasons he stole a total of just 24 bases.

How good was Ted Williams? Well even though he lost three whole seasons to fly airplanes in WWII, and additionally most of two other seasons to fly airplanes in the Korean War, he ended up with 521 career homers. How many more homers would he have hit in the three lost seasons and the two partial ones?

Williams, of course, is famous for being the last man to hit .400. At the age of 22 he hit .406 in 1941. What is even more amazing t0 me is that in 1957 he hit .388. At the age of 39! Between that magical year of 1941 and and 1958 he won 6 batting titles. Again, how many more batting titles would he have won in those three lost seasons and the two partial ones?

The new, advanced stats have only enhanced Teddy Ballgame’s reputation as the greatest hitter of all time.

• Led league in OPS 10 times
• Led league in OPS+ 9 times
• Led League in On Base Percentage 13 times
• Led League in Offensive W.A.R. 7 times
• In Top 10 in dozens of statistical categories

(Here is his Baseball Reference page, check his stats yourself.)

Finally, I want to end with this quote about Williams by Bob Costa.

For my money, Ted Williams is the greatest hitter of all-time. I’d take him over Ruth, I’d take him over Cobb. I’d take him over Cobb because of the combination of power and average. I’d take him over Ruth because with Ruth, you can only speculate about what he would have done in the modern era. Ted Williams hit .388 at the age of 39 in 1957. He was what few of us ever become; he was exactly what he set out to be. He said he wanted to be able to walk down the street some day and have people say “There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived”. And if they don’t say that, it’s only because they don’t know what they’re talking about.  ~ Bob Costa’s