Ted Williams Quotes

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 9 May 2005 17:16:05 -0400, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>Here's two for the ProQuest and Newspaperarchive experts, particularly
>the baseball-oriented ones:
>
>a) Can anyone help me trace how far back Ted Williams' line to the effect
>that "Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed
>three times out of ten and be considered a good performer" goes?

I haven't found any attributions to Williams before 1977.

>b) Bernard Malamud's 1952 book The Natural has Roy Hobbs stating
>something about wanting people to look at him going down the street and
>say "There goes Roy Hobbs, the best who ever played the game."  Ted
>Williams probably said something similar about being hailed as the best
>hitter who ever lived.  Which came first, i.e., is there any pre-1952
>evidence for a similar Williams quote?

Here's a slightly humbler version from 1941:

-----
_Nevada State Journal_ July 6, 1941, p. S2
"Sport Scribes Call Ted Williams Base-Hit Crazy"
By George Kirksey, United Press Staff Correspondent
Long, lanky Ted is easy to interview because he loves to talk about
hitting. I asked him if he had any desire to hang up a consecutive game
hitting record like Joe DiMaggio.
"I sure have," Ted replied. "I'd like to break every hitting record in the
book. When I walk down the street I'd like for them to say, There goes Ted
Williams, the best hitter in baseball'."
-----

By the time Williams published his memoir _My Turn At Bat_ in 1969, the
quote had become more Hobbsian:

-----
I wanted to be the greatest hitter who ever lived. A man has to have goals
-- for a day, for a lifetime -- and that was mine, to have people say,
"There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0671634232/?v=search-inside&keywords=goals
-----


--Ben Zimmer