(Disclaimer: As of yet unread by author of blog)
Historically speaking, few Americans contributed as much to the American cultural landscape as former Major League Baseball player Ted Williams. Nicknamed “the Kid,” “the Splendid Splinter,” “Thumper,” and “Teddy Ball Game” for his prodigious hitting prowess, Williams was nothing sort of a phenomenon when it came to the “science” of placing bat on ball. And to him, it was a science. Literally.
However, Williams’ contributions to the American experience exceed mere baseball. Sure, it was common for baseball players of his era to have served in World War II, but not all players of his caliber participated in roles that put their lives in danger. Williams, himself, was a flight instructor and ace fighter pilot who returned to action during the Korean War, begrudgingly but voluntarily… All at the height of his career.
Recently, President Trump suggested revamping the process by which annual national honorees at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. are selected. While the honors, not restricted to American citizens, have typically shone a light on a wide variety of performers and contributors to American culture, from Luciano Pavarotti to Queen Latifah, President Trump has, perhaps with another agenda in mine, proposed his own list of worthwhile honorees, including another great American baseball player: Babe Ruth.
While Ruth’s own personal history of childhood “delinquency” and residence in a boys’ reformatory school is noteworthy in and of itself, perhaps the President would be heartened by Williams’ story as well. At his induction ceremony into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, Teddy Ball Game made sure to acknowledge the great African American players excluded from enshrinement up until that point.
He also once made the statement that had he had his mother’s last name he never would have been allowed to play professional baseball. That is to say, the “Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived,” the last man to hit .400 for a season, would have been prevented from playing the game.
Williams, the son of May Venzor, was Mexican American.
Perhaps President Trump will revise his list to encompass an even more DIVERSE array of American heroes.
Observations from the Brink 