Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero
by Leigh Montville
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Book Summary Information
Author: Leigh MontvilleEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-03-15
ISBN: 0767913205
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero
Book Review: Solid Job - Excellent Biography of the Complete Person
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed the book and would buy it again. Having said that the book only rates 4 stars because the author spends too much time - in my opinion - on non baseball issues after Ted Williams had retired.
Here is my rational. This is a detailed biography written by the former Boston Globe sports columnist Leigh Montville using a combination of many interviews and lots of background research. He puts it all together with a nice selection of photos to produce a detailed and comprehensive biography of Ted Williams. It is about 500 pages long and remarkably fair. Although the book is 500 pages long the author dedicates only about 175 pages or 1/3 to his actual playing career. The rest covers a lot of detail on some crazy subjects such as the "Refrigeration" and his other marriages or many fishing trips. I think the book would have been better with more baseball and less post baseball, but that is my opinion that it deserves just 4 stars for him as a player but maybe 5 stars as a "personal" biography covering his whole life. But I bought the book as a baseball fan so as a baseball book it gets 4 stars.
I have read and posted reviews on other baseball books from David Cone to Pete Rose, Babe Ruth and DiMaggio, and on the Oakland A's, Cooperstown, and the Cal Ripkin's book on baseball skills recently published. This book is similar in quality and scope of the DiMaggio book "The Hero's Life" - a book that I thought was excellent and sparked controversy about DiMaggio's personal life - and interestingly covers the same time period including that famous 1941 season when Williams broke 400 in Boston while DiMaggio had the 56 game streak with the Yankees.
The book is somewhat similar to the DiMaggio book - in that it gives a fairly well researched and informative picture on and off the field. There is much to discuss about the book such as his exhibition game with Babe Ruth, the 1946 world series, his days in the marines air corps, Korea, etc. But again, the book covers a lot more than baseball. It is 500 pages long and by page 260 the vote is in and he is on his way to Cooperstown, so it covers him to the end of his life in detail with about half on his post playing career. His actual MLB playing is covered in about one third of the book and for myself those sections where he is playing for Boston are the most interesting parts of the book, and I skipped a couple of late chapters, I had read enough, and did not need to read 35 pages on the "Refrigeration" episode at the end of the book and similar stories about fishing or other marriages.
In comparing him to DiMaggio it is clear that Williams was more of a loner on the field than even the reserved DiMaggio, no matter what either did off the field. Williams has a complex and thin skinned personality. He takes time to help many young fans and sick children and for that he is loved and admired. He is bigger than life. Unfortunately, and even though in some ways Williams is likeable in the book, Williams reminds me of some modern players that are often surly around the press, sometimes poison in the dressing room, and seem more interested in their personal contract than the win loss record of their own team. We are told in the book that sometimes it was clear that team's winning came second to his personal performance in determining his post game mood in the clubhouse. But taking that to the next step and saying that is why they never won a World Series is not 100% clear since Boston did not seem to have the player roster depth of other teams like the Yankees, and Williams had an elbow injury during the 46 World Series - the best Boston shot of winning that championship when he played - and when he had his so called "choke". So it is impossible to make a definitive conclusion from the book. In any case, he is one of the best hitters to have ever played, and if he had been a Yankee I am sure he would have been on many winning teams.
Quite good and I learned a lot about Ted Williams and baseball, but I skipped most of the last half, the personal trivia.
Summary of Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero
He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend ? and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? What motivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to serve his country as a fighter pilot; to embrace his fans while tangling with the media; to retreat from the limelight whenever possible into his solitary love of fishing; and to become the most famous man ever to have his body cryogenically frozen after his death? New York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville, who wrote the celebrated Sports Illustrated obituary of Ted Williams, now delivers an intimate, riveting account of this extraordinary life.Still a gangly teenager when he stepped into a Boston Red Sox uniform in 1939, Williams?s boisterous personality and penchant for towering home runs earned him adoring admirers--the fans--and venomous critics--the sportswriters. In 1941, the entire country followed Williams's stunning .406 season, a record that has not been touched in over six decades. At the pinnacle of his prime, Williams left Boston to train and serve as a fighter pilot in World War II, missing three full years of baseball. He was back in 1946, dominating the sport alongside teammates Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. But Williams left baseball again in 1952 to fight in Korea, where he flew thirty-nine combat missions?crash-landing his flaming, smoke-filled plane, in one famous episode.
Ted Willams's personal life was equally colorful. His attraction to women (and their attraction to him) was a constant. He was married and divorced three times and he fathered two daughters and a son. He was one of corporate America's first modern spokesmen, and he remained, nearly into his eighties, a fiercely devoted fisherman. With his son, John Henry Williams, he devoted his final years to the sports memorabilia business, even as illness overtook him. And in death, controversy and public outcry followed Williams and the disagreements between his children over the decision to have his body preserved for future resuscitation in a cryonics facility--a fate, many argue, Williams never wanted.
With unmatched verve and passion, and drawing upon hundreds of interviews, acclaimed best-selling author Leigh Montville brings to life Ted Williams's superb triumphs, lonely tragedies, and intensely colorful personality, in a biography that is fitting of an American hero and legend.
Leigh Montville's Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero is the definitive biography that baseball fans have been waiting for. Montville, who was a sports columnist for the Boston Globe and then a senior writer for Sports Illustrated is an admitted Red Sox and Williams fanatic, and his passion for his hero rings clearly from every page, along with his clear baseball expertise. But Montville does not hide Williams's flaws. The young Williams was temperamental and justified bad behavior with batting prowess that could excuse just about anything. Quick to anger, "the Kid" had a gift for foul language, too.
Montville's study offers insides accounts of Williams's obsessive development as a hitter and his constant struggle to perfect his swing (mistakenly called "natural" by sports writers with little understanding of his extensive preparation). The chapter on 1941, perhaps the greatest year in his career, draws on research and interviews never before published. Montville lets whole passages stand uninterrupted--from Williams's manager, Joe Cronin, from his teammate Dom DiMaggio, and from other players and baseball officials who tell the story of Williams's quest for a .400 batting average. The tale of the final day of the season (when he refused to be benched and went six for eight in a double header to jump from .39955 to his final total, .406) is as pulse-pounding as any thriller.
Alongside its essential focus on Williams's baseball life, the book also delves into his military service during both World War II and the Korean War, his passion for sports fishing, and his commitment to helping children through the Jimmy Fund. Finally, Montville devotes a chapter to the controversy after Williams's death, exposing the back-and-forth among Williams's heirs in the bizarre decision to freeze his body in a cryogenic warehouse in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Montville's biography makes a good case that Williams was, if not the greatest hitter ever to play the game, certainly among them. For his focused, scientific approach to hitting, Williams is unmatched in the history of the game. His life, marred perhaps by a temper and occasional immaturity that soured his reputation in Boston, is one of true sports greatness. Early in the book, Montville argues that Williams is less appreciated today than he might be because he played out most of his 19-year career in the era before televised highlights. But with Montville's efforts to capture first-hand accounts of Williams's achievements, The Splendid Splinter's legacy is assured. --Patrick O'Kelley
Williams, Ted Books
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