| Spring is here, and with it the Boston Red Sox and hope. Hope for the Red Sox is
spelled T-E-D. It stands 6 feet 4 inches high, weighs at the moment a bulky 224
pounds and swings a baseball bat as perfectly as a herring gull flies ... The
high regard that Sammy White and the other members of the Boston Red Sox feel
for Ted Williams is not based solely on the esthetic appreciation of Williams'
great skill with a bat, though no ballplayer could watch Williams' hitting and
not admire it. No, for the Red Sox the presence of Williams in spring training
means something else: very possibly the fulfillment of a frequently frustrated
dream. Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees was, with considerable logic, named
Most Valuable Player in the American League last year, but let no one tell you
that any player in the league means more to his team's chances of success than
Theodore Samuel
Williams.
--From "Ted is Hope", Sports Illustrated, March 12, 1956, by Robert
Creamer
|
