Facing Ted Williams by Dave Heller

Author:Dave Heller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: PLAYERS FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF BASEBALL RECALL THE GREATEST HITTER WHO EVER LIVED
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2013-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

But it was fun pitching to Williams. Here’s a guy, he’s supposed to beat your brains in, you know? So after that game—it was a Saturday or Sunday— the next day we’re standing on the sidelines and I start talking with him. Because he hit a ball I thought was going out in center field. He says, “Nah.” Our center fielder caught it in front of the monument.

Then he said, “I’m 3–13 off of you, Vito.” So he counted those three walks as times at-bat. He was probably 3–13 because he wanted to hit the ball four. But anyway, that’s what he said to me.

He walked a lot and had one home run off me. It’s like I say, pitching to those guys was like . . . what are you going to be nervous about? It’s the .220 hitter that you got to worry about if he gets a base hit or a home run. The other guys—[Mickey] Mantle and Williams—that’s what they’re supposed to do!

He had a great batting eye. I remember striking him out once in Washington. He had a bad wrist, his wrist was taped up and he just took the pitch, you know. Got a called third strike on him.104 It was just a fastball, but the lights weren’t that great in the old Washington stadium; maybe that had something to do with it. Normally when he took [a pitch], the umpire called it a ball. He had great eyes, being a pilot and all. He probably would have broken all kinds of records [had he not gone off to war]. The guy didn’t have any weaknesses. I mean, your best bet was maybe a changeup and to just mix it up [against him].

I don’t [remember the home run], I really don’t. I don’t know if it was in Washington or Cleveland. I’d like to know what ballpark it was in, because that Washington ballpark was a big park. In the old days, it was pretty big, and then they shortened center field.105

Was he the best? I think he was the best power hitter, but I think [Stan] Musial . . . well, I was a right-handed pitcher and Musial was left-handed, and so was Williams. But Musial, one day pitching to him—that son-of-a-gun—I could see him switch his feet like he was going to hit the ball over the third-baseman’s head . . . and he did. I pitched him outside and he hit the ball over the third-baseman’s head. So he was a pretty good hitter, a cagey hitter. Well, the records show, right?106

I mean you’re going to get them out once, maybe, once out of four, twice out of four? But you’re not going to get them 0–3 or 0–4, not those guys. But they’re going to hit the ball hard someplace.

I’d hardly see him hit the ball to left field. He was going for the home run; he was going for the downs on every pitch he could pull. I think he was, yeah.

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