Teddy Ballgame

Actually, if you average out what Williams was doing in his prime, at least with home runs, he would have finished with exactly 700 home runs, give or take a few. He was a monster. He, undoubtedly, is the greatest pure hitter of all-time. The way he could work the wood (insert joke here) was a melody unto itself. He was the definition of excellence. And, he was robbed out of four Most Valuable Player Awards. Think about that. Robbed. Flat out, bold faced, robbed.

In 1941, Ted Williams batted .406. In 1941, Ted Williams finished second in the MVP voting.

at his career WAR page over at baseballprojection, it’s easy to see that wars probably cost him something along the lines of 40-45 wins. He was an 11 win player in the mid 40s when he didn’t play at all from 1943-45. There’s 33 wins right there. He was “only” about a 7 win player in the early 50s. In 1952, he recorded 0.3 WAR and he recorded 2.2 WAR in 1953. Add 11-12 wins that he lost for those 2 seasons and you get 45 wins over most of 5 seasons.

His career total was 125 wins which places him 11th among position players all time. Adding 45 more gets him to 170 and puts him behind only Ruth and Bonds. If he would’ve had about 3 additional wins among those 5 seasons, he’d have had the most all time.

As far as the raw numbers go, I’m not sure but I think it’s pretty clear he’d be in the top 3 in all time WAR had he not missed the time b/c of the wars.

before every game, when Ted took BP, in between every pitch, he would shout “I’m Ted Fucking Williams” and just crush the ball. (citation: Ball Four)

Total badass.