Teddy Ballgame
Has everyone seen the HBO program on Ted Williams? I just saw it and thought it was great. I should add that I believe that Williams is in fact the greatest hitter who ever lived, and aside from defense is the best player in the history of the game.
Has anyone ever done a projection of what his seasons missed in the war would have looked like? He missed nearly 5 full seasons in his prime to serve in the Armved Forces during WWII and the Korean War. Has anyone seen Pecota, or Zips, or something like that that might replicate what he would have done?
No real reason for this, he is in the HOF, and is generally regarded as one of the best ever, but I wonder how far up some of the career leader boards he would be if he had not missed those seasons. Some approximations might be 700 HR, 3600 hits, 2300 rbi, and perhaps the most WAR all time.
Any thoughts?
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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.
Just looking
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.
"Soccer style kicker graduated from Collier High June 1976, Stetson University honors graduate class of 1980, holds 2 NCAA Division One records, one for most points in a season, one for distance, former nickname “The Mule,” the first and only pro-athlete ever to come out of Collier County and one hell of a model American."
Plus,
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.

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