My Turn At Bat:
The Story of My Life
- by Ted Williams with John Underwood (Simon & Schuster, New
York, 1969, 1988) ISBN: 0-671-63423-2
A great read in Ted's own words that makes takes you from the sandlots
of San Diego through the frustrations of managing the pathetic Washington
Senators, with hundreds of fascinating anecdotes and pointed opinions
interwoven throughout.
- "I'm glad it's over. Before anything else, understand that
I am glad it's over. I'm so greatful for baseball -- and so greatful
I'm the hell out of it." (p. 7)
-
Ted Williams: A Baseball Life
- by Michael Seidel (Contemporary Books, Chicago, 1991) ISBN: 0-8092-4254-0
Seidel has written the definitive history of Williams' life in baseball.
Impeccably researched, the book is broken down by year from 1939 through
1960 and interlaces the details of Ted's career with contemporary events.
Summer of '49
-
by David Halberstam (William Morrow, New York, 1989) ISBN: 0-380-71075-7
After a heartbreaking World Series loss in 1946 and a crushing one-game
playoff defeat for the American League title in 1948, the Red Sox seemed
poised to overtake their hated rivals in New York and Cleveland in the summer
of 1949. Halberstam brings everyday of that incredible season to life
and brings you up close to many of the great personalities involved, including
Williams and DiMaggio.
Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures
- Dick Johnson and Glenn Stout,
ed. (Walker and Company, New York, 1991), ISBN: 0-8027-1140-5
Highly readable with contributions from a whole bunch of writers that give
a great overview of Williams' career. It's the photos included throughout the
book, though, that make this one a must for your library.
For further study...
I have read the books above (a couple of times over) and therefore can
recommend them wholeheartedly. A bunch of you have recommended more titles
to me, both familiar and unfamiliar, which now constitute my reading list for
the next year. If you would like to work ahead of me, here they are (in no
particular order):
- Ted Williams Hit List, Ted Williams and Jim Prime
(Masters Press, Indianapolis, 1996), ISBN: 1-57028-078-9.
- Hitter: The Life and Turmoils of Ted Williams, Ed Linn
(Harcourt Brace & Co., New York, 1993), ISBN: 0-15-193100-3.
- The Last .400 Hitter, John B. Holway (Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque,
1992), ISBN: 0-697-14129-2.
- The Ted Williams Reader, Lawrence Baldassaro, ed. (Simon &
Schuster, New York, 1991), ISBN: 0-671-73536-5.
- Ted Williams: The Seasons of the Kid, Richard Ben Cramer
(Prentice Hall, New York, 1991), ISBN: 0-13-515693-9.
- The Science of Hitting, Ted Williams and John Underwood
(Simon and Schuster, New York, 1970), ISBN: 0-671-62103-3 Pbk.
Thanks to Alan Nathan for the publisher information.
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