Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero

Leigh Montville's biography of Ted Williams is exhaustive in its analysis of one of baseball's greatest hitters. At times childish and self-absorbed, but always focused upon his art, Ted Williams emerges as a troubled genius in this wonderful book. Some of the anecdotes about Williams' intensity evoke a character who loves a few things in life to obsessive delight while ignoring almost everyone and everything else. An absolute master in the science of hitting a baseball, Williams loves his talent and nourishes it in a way that illuminates how beautiful, powerful, and fragile is the human desire to achieve greatness. A must for baseball fans. Donald Gallinger is the author ofThe Master Planets

Ted Williams was the greatest hitters in baseball history. But there is so much more to him than baseball. Leigh Montville's biography is comendable on many levels, though far from perfect. Four and a half stars would be more adequate rating than I gave the book. Still the book is worth the price. The books starts out jumping all over the place, making the story hard to follow. But once it begins the chronological story of his life, the book is well written. Montville plainly writes of the childhood neglect that influenced Williams life. The absence of his parents is largely the reason he behaved so immaturely early in his career. He was not used to living with rules, so the structure of professional baseball was an adjustment that caused a talented player to spend an extra year in the minors. Ted's only focus was baseball during his youth and career. He always picked people's brains, learning from anywhere he could about hitting. His dedication made people take notice. It is also how he developed his philosophy of hitting. Winning triple crowns and hitting .400 were among his great achievements. He would have hit .400 more than once if batting average were figured as it is today with sacrifices and walks not hurting the average. John Wayne was an actor, but Ted Williams lived the role. He served his country during World War II and the Korean War. Had Williams not sacrificed those years for his country, we would surpassed Ruth's home run record and no doubt other records as well. Yet he is still recognized as the greatest hitter in baseball history. During his career the media gave the public the impression that Williams was a bad apple. But during his late career and in retirement, the public saw otherwise. Williams did have a foul mouth. His works of charity tell where his heart was. Knowing the good human being he was, it is unfortunate to read how his final years were spend. The way his son manipulated him is beyond shameful. Despite the somber note most biographies end with, Montville had a different approach. He ended the book with an epilogue that is a collection of humorous antidotes with Williams as the star. It is wonderful that the book did not end on the same note as Ted's life.

What Richard Cramer did for a biography on Joe DiMaggio, Leigh Montville has done for a biography on Ted Williams. The book is nearly 500 pages long, and I remained riveted to it until I finished it in a few days. All facets of Ted's personality, warts and all, are included in providing us with information on Ted's dysfunctional family, his love of fishing on the Florida Keys and the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, his initial success in managing the Washington Senators, his hair trigger temper that produced a string of profanities, his difficulties with his marriage partners, and his experiences in World War II and the Korean War. In regard to baseball his obsession with hitting led to his goal of being known as the greatest hitter that ever lived. Ted paid the price to reach his goal in studying hitting as no other hitter has ever done before. He enjoyed picking the brain of Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby who told Williams the secret in hitting is getting a good ball to hit. By this he meant getting ahead in the count (2-0 or 3-1) so the pitcher was put in a situation where he would throw the pitch you, the batter, would be looking for to hit. The book is full of anecdotes of Williams's teammates and opponents from his playing days. It also includes the controversial freezing of Williams's body by son John Henry and sister Claudia while Williams's first child, Bobby-Jo opposed it. Whether Ted, himself, approved of this is left open to question. To me, an interesting story is told by one of his nurses, Virginia Hiley-Self, a Christian, said that Ted Williams accepted the fact that God forgives and provides eternal life. "He prayed," Hiley-Self says. "He knew that Christ was his savior." I have read other biographies of "Teddy Ballgame", but this effort by Leigh Montville stands above the others. Williams's last few years were marred by poor health, but he lived a full life serving his country in two wars, carving out a Hall of Fame baseball career, and fishing for game fish on the Florida Keys and for salmon on the Miramichi River. His was a life fully lived and Leigh Montville has done a wonderful job in presenting all sides of the personality of Ted Williams. To me, this rates as the top baseball book of the year, and maybe even the top biography of anyone for the year.

Throughout his 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams was perpetually in quest of the perfect batting stroke. Wherever he went, Williams would be swinging a bat. Or a cardboard tube. Or a hotel pillow. Or a rolled-up magazine.In his mind, he could see the ball approaching from 60 feet, 6 inches, spinning and cutting and whirling toward home plate until -- thwack! -- Williams swung away. His friends understood. That was just Ted. Crazy Teddy.The thing is, Williams was chasing the impossible dream of a 1.000 batting average. Though he expected to drive the ball every time he dug into the batter's box, the best he could do was hit .406 in 1941. No man has batted above .400 since.Much like Williams' successful pursuit to become known as the best hitter who ever lived, there has long been an effort to write the definitive Williams biography. Throughout the years, no fewer than 10 authors have taken cracks at Williams' life. The best -- Ed Linn's "Hitter: The Life and Turmoils of Ted Williams" -- is fantastic. Others -- Michael Seidel's "Ted Williams: A Baseball Life" and "I Remember Ted Williams" by David Cataneo -- come up short for one reason or another.In "Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero," Leigh Montville reaches a threshold even the mighty Williams could never touch: perfection. If his book is not the best baseball biography ever written, that's only because there are a handful (Jane Leavy's "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy" and Richard Ben Cramer's "Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life" come to mind) at an equally outstanding level.Montville interviewed more than 400 people for the project, and it shows. "Ted Williams" leaves absolutely no stone of its subject's life unturned, from his boyhood in a modest San Diego neighborhood to his final hours at a hospital in Inverness, Fla., three years ago. The beauty of Montville's work is that it is not a baseball book, per se, so much as the life and times of -- like DiMaggio, Williams' greatest rival throughout the 1940s -- an oft-perplexing, always fascinating man.We are presented a Williams who is as loud and obnoxious as Babe Ruth at his inebriated best, who strings together four-letter words with impressive indecency and wages a career- long battle with the Boston media that borders on militant. Williams could be biting and irrational and childish, as well as unforgivably selfish. How else to describe a person who intentionally missed the births of his three children to go fishing?Yet Montville makes it impossible to hate Williams. There is a genuine decency to the man, and it has little to do with his work as a U.S. Marine pilot during World War II and Korea (Williams, Montville tells us, did everything he could not to fight) or his three-year tenure as a cuddly major league manager. No, what brings the likeability to light are the little things. Williams, who refused ever to wear a tie, once ordered lunch at a stuffy country club dining room -- tie required. Writes Montville:

This is a magnificent book.It is difficult to delineate why this book is so special. Perhaps the book succeeds based on the fact that Ted Williams was a much larger than life person, with great achievements, extraordinary character, heroic courage, and tragic flaws. Or, the book could be so wonderful because of the writing talents of Leigh Montville. Either way, this book is appealing to a wide range of readers: Red Sox fans, baseball followers, or even those who have a general interest in the history of 20th century America. As a sports book, this is a gem. And as a biography, it is exceptional.Although not as well known as a David Halberstam or David Remnick, I feel confident in saying that Leigh Montville is as great a writer and biographer. Among those who have followed his work for decades with the Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated, Montville is known as the sportswriter's writer. When you want to see a very unusual feature story, or a conventional story with a unique point of view, Montville is the writer to read. This is a "sports" book which could well qualify for all of the biography book awards this year.You will not regret putting this book at the top of your reading list. Wonderful work! TEN stars!