The Pecan Park Eagle

No batter has hit .400 or better since Ted Williams did it in 1941 – and that was 73 years ago.

There has never been any doubt in my mind as a fan from childhood. Ted Williams’ last day assault upon a clearly above and beyond .400 average in 1941 was the cockiest, most confident, amazing display of personal belief in his own huge talent that any ballplayer ever has, before or since, displayed on a single day in baseball history.

Starting with the fact that he didn’t have to do it. Going into the last day of scheduled games on September 28, 1941, Williams was already at the mathematical equivalent of .400 with 179 hits in 448 official times at bat. Those numbers yield a five-digit figure of .39955 – and those round clearly into the traditional three-digit batting average of .400 by all the rules that govern approximated consequences in digitally averaged terms.

Teddy could have stayed in the dugout on the last day of the 1941 season and had his technical .400 batting average for the season that way. The problem for Teddy Ballgame – and many others of us, as well – would have been Williams living forever with the fact that – if you take the numbers out to five spaces – the “4” at the start of that string fades messily away into a “.3” – followed by “9955” – and who wants that as the prize?

Ted also understood on some clear to visceral level, even at the youthful age of 23 years, that he would have to listen to the question in his mind and certainly too in the cacophony of requests from mindless baseball writers from there to eternity about why he didn’t take his chances for nailing down a final average on the last day by playing and getting enough hits that elevated his season record clearly beyond the .400 level.

A lot of us would have felt the same way, but how many of us would have had the faith in our abilities to succeed in that pursuit by risking all on the last day?

Remember too – the Boston Red Sox were scheduled to play a doubleheader with the Athletics at Philadelphia on the last day, September 28, 1941 and the club was in second place in the AL, but way out the pennant race on the way to a 17-game finish behind the champion New York Yankees. The two games left were simply a run-on-the-table of scheduled business and Sox manager Joe Cronin was leaving the decision all up to Williams on what to do.

Sit them both out. Pay one. Play two. – “Mr. Williams, it’s all up to you” seemed to be the manager’s stance. Cronin too seemed to recognize that the decision was larger than his normal managerial authority. Had the Sox been tied with the Yankees going into this last day DH, of course, it would have been a totally different matter and Williams would have played for the good of the team with no melodrama at play about his own personal goals.

As most of you know, Ted Williams played both games and almost literally tore the cover off the ball. In Game One, Williams went 4 for 5 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI, plus a 5th inning HR off the right-handed A’s starters, Dick Fowler, It was Ted’s 37th and league leading homer of the 1941 American League season.

Williams pushed over the .400 line good and hard in Game One alone. His 4 for 5 moved his season totals up to 183 hits in 453 official times at bat for a .404 (.40397) season batting average. No need for Ted to play the second game. He had his over-the-“.4”-top mathematical batting average then – with no need to play the second and final game. Besides, the Red Sox beat the Athletics in Game One by 12-11, What was the point of Williams taking any further risk?

None, but Williams played Game Two, anyway. His motor was running and he apparently knew that he was in that zone that he found more often than most hitters ever do, even for brief moments. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that the hitting groove in which Ted Williams mostly lived was more of a station that most hitters only find by aberration, if at all. His all out assault on .400 was about the expression of his lifelong wish, even if it never became inarguable – “to be remembered as the greatest hitter that ever lived.

In Game Two, A’s right-handed starter Fred Caligiuri shut down the Red Sox, 7-1, but Ted Williams still touched him up for a 2 for 3 result that included his 33rd double of the season. Those game stats pushed Ted’s final season batting average up to the .406 (.40570) that are as synonymous to Ted Williams as  the “56”  is to Joe DiMaggio and “60” is to Babe Ruth for different, but related reasons.

Baseball history certainly isn’t about always remembering the major achievements of  the big stars, but neither is forgetting them a good idea. Back in less media prolific times, those of us who grew up in the far away from the big leagues hinterland sandlots of the game got our first taste of these early baseball heroes from books and a sadly now missing national baseball paper known as The Sporting News. Now it’s becoming a real possibility that we may soon have a book or, at least, a written profile on every legionnaire who’s ever played the game. And that’s good, but so was the amazing story of that last two games of the 1941 season in Philly.

DOUBLEHEADER BOX SCORE: BOSTON RED SOX @ PHILADELPHIA ATHLETICS, SEPTEMBER 28, 1941.

Baseball Almanac Box ScoresBoston Red Sox 12, Philadelphia Athletics 11
Game played on Sunday, September 28, 1941 at Shibe Park
Boston Red Sox ab   r   h rbi DiMaggio cf 5 1 3 0 Finney rf 4 1 0 0 Flair 1b 5 2 1 2 Williams lf 5 2 4 2 Tabor 3b 4 2 2 1 Doerr 2b 5 3 2 3 Newsome S. ss 3 0 1 1   Foxx ph 0 1 0 0   Carey ss 0 0 0 0 Pytlak c 4 0 1 1 Newsome D. p 2 0 1 0   Wagner p 3 0 1 2 Totals 40 12 16 12	Philadelphia Athletics ab   r   h rbi Collins rf 5 2 2 1 Valo lf 5 3 2 1 Richmond 3b 5 2 3 2 Johnson 1b 4 1 2 2 Chapman cf 5 0 2 1 Davis 2b 4 1 1 1 Suder ss 5 1 2 0 Hayes c 3 0 0 0 Fowler p 2 0 0 0   Miles ph 1 1 1 1   Vaughan p 1 0 0 0   Shirley p 0 0 0 0   McCoy ph 1 0 0 0 Totals 41 11 15 9
Boston 0 0 0 0 3 1 6 0 2 – 12 16 3 Philadelphia 0 0 2 0 9 0 0 0 0 – 11 15 3   Boston Red Sox IP H R ER BB SO Newsome 4.2 13 11 11 3 5   Wagner  W(12-8) 4.1 2 0 0 2 0 Totals 9.0 15 11 11 5 5   Philadelphia Athletics IP H R ER BB SO Fowler 5.0 8 3 3 0 0   Vaughan 1.2 5 7 6 3 0   Shirley  L(0-1) 2.1 3 2 0 2 0 Totals 9.0 16 12 9 5 0 E–DiMaggio (14), Finney (14), Tabor (30), Davis 2 (7), Suder (21).  DP–Philadelphia 4. Suder-B. Johnson, Richmond-Davis-B. Johnson, Richmond-Davis-B. Johnson, Davis-Suder-B. Johnson.  2B–Boston Tabor (29), Philadelphia B. Johnson (30).  3B–Boston Flair (1); Doerr (4), Philadelphia Valo (1); Richmond (1).  HR–Boston Williams (37,5th inning off Fowler 0 on); Tabor (16,5th inning off Fowler 0 on).  SH–S. Newsome (13); Davis (3).  Team LOB–7.  Team–9.  U–Bill McGowan, John Quinn, Bill Grieve.
Game played on Sunday, September 28, 1941 at Shibe Park
Baseball Almanac Box Score | Baseball Almanac Box Scores Boston Red Sox 1, Philadelphia Athletics 7 Game played on Sunday, September 28, 1941 at Shibe Park Boston Red Sox ab   r   h rbi DiMaggio cf 4 0 1 0 Finney rf 2 0 0 0   Fox rf 2 0 1 0 Flair 1b 4 0 0 0 Williams lf 3 0 2 0 Tabor 3b 3 0 0 0 Carey 2b 3 0 1 0 Newsome ss 3 0 0 0 Peacock c 2 0 0 0   Pytlak c 1 1 1 1 Grove p 0 0 0 0   Johnson p 2 0 0 0 Totals 29 1 6 1 Philadelphia Athletics ab   r   h rbi Valo lf 3 1 1 0 Mackiewicz cf 4 1 1 0 Miles rf 4 1 2 1 Davis 1b 3 1 0 0 McCoy 2b 3 1 2 0 Brancato 3b 4 0 2 2 Suder ss 3 1 1 0 Wagner c 4 1 2 2 Caligiuri p 4 0 0 0 Totals 32 7 11 5 Boston 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 1 6 1 Philadelphia 3 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 – 7 11 0   Boston Red Sox IP H R ER BB SO Grove  L(7-7) 1.0 4 3 3 0 0   Johnson 7.0 7 4 4 4 1 Totals 8.0 11 7 7 4 1   Philadelphia Athletics IP H R ER BB SO Caligiuri  W(2-2) 8.0 6 1 1 1 1 Totals 8.0 6 1 1 1 1 E–DiMaggio (15).  DP–Boston 2. Tabor-Carey-Flair, Philadelphia 1. McCoy-Suder-Davis.  2B–Boston Williams (33).  3B–Philadelphia Mackiewicz (1); Suder (9).  HR–Boston Pytlak (2,8th inning off Caligiuri 0 on), Philadelphia Wagner (1,2nd inning off Johnson 0 on).  Team LOB–5.  Team–5.  CS–Brancato (5).  U–John Quinn, Bill Grieve, Bill McGowan. Game played on Sunday, September 28, 1941 at Shibe Park Baseball Almanac Box Score |