he played before i was old enough to know what was going on. evidently there was some kind of feud or dislike between the player and the city. i would think that they would worship him. what happened?
He had a great rookie season, but a dismal sophomore season. Sports writers said he was jinxed. At about the same time, Ted’s parents were getting divorced and he didn’t visit with him. The competitive local press wrote about it and tried to dig up more dirt on the guy. Ted decided not to talk to the press anymore and mocked them at every opportunity. So, the sports writers contiued their attacks. Fans followed and began heckling him as a spoiled brat. From then on, Ted stopped tipping his cap to the fans and declared his dislike for Beantown. In 1947, he was left of the MVP ballot by a Boston sportswriter who just didn’t like him. In 1956, Ted made a special trip on the field over to the press box to spit on the reporters. And so on. Here’s a good article on the subject: Brilliant Careers - Ted Williams
Of course, now that he’s dead, he’s a beloved local hero. The news has been nothing but gushing tributes to the “Splendid Splinter”. Big deal. All this hooplah over insignficiant events that happened 60 years ago.
Mr. Williams was a loner and really only concerned about one thing–hitting a baseball. Compared to other outgoing sports heros like the Babe and Mickey Mantle, Williams looked like a jerk. The excessively rapid sports writers of the day, who make today’s sports talk radio hosts look like Miss Manners, bugged the hell out of him, and he decided not to be such a friendly guy.
After retirement, Williams later admitted his single biggest mistake was letting all this get to him, and that he wished he’d been nicer to the fans.
I suggest you get the 1940’s and 50’s innings of Ken Burn’s “Baseball” for background. Mr. Williams speaks very candidly about his time in the majors.
On ESPN - it might have been SportsCentury, or just a special program on T. Williams - the story went like this: Ted was in the outfield at Fenway one day, and a ball was hit that wound up going over his head. He went after it, of course, but because he was so tall and gangly it looked more like he was loping after it nonchalantly, instead of actually hustling. The fans nearby saw this and thought he was being lazy, and they began to boo him. Williams deepy resented this, and he vowed never to tip his cap to the ungrateful fans again. The press, of course, leaped on this.
Though of course, were he playing today, he’d be a lot like Barry Bonds - nice some of the time, surly most of the time.
thanks, everyone. the salon.com link is excellent, it answered the question very well.
This is more of a rant than an answer, but I really don’t understand why fans expect that sports figures (and other celebrities by extension) must show a certain, yet undefined, level of obescience to the fans.
I don’t buy the whole “we pay your salary” arguement for two reasons:
(1) You DON’T pay their salary. The owners/studios/record label/etc. pays their salary, from money they earned from you. You got a game/movie/book/album in return; end of business transaction.
(2) They make so much money, they owe us. Why is that? By that arguement, you should be following Bill Gates and other CEOs around, begging them for autographs.
Okay, sorry for the hijack.
Because we develop bonds of sorts with the athletes, bonds we would never in a zillion years develop with software makers. I don’t root for Bill Gates to make the perfect Windows; I do root for players to do well in their sport.
Besides it is too far for me to drive to Seattle for a tail-gate party. 
I believe it was that year that Williams got baseball’s triple-crown (one of two times he did it). I can’t remember the last time anyone has gotten the triple-crown in baseball and to have the MVP withheld shows the sportswriters were every bit as badly behaved as Williams supposedly was.
As to the cap tipping thing Williams hit a homerun in his last ever at bat in the major leagues and he still didn’t tip his cap. Apparently Bostonians were peeved at that one too. It all seemed a weird kind of love-hate relationship between Boston and Williams.
Whatever you can say about the guy he was probably the best hitter who ever lived. If he didn’t spend 5 years in Korea as a fighter pilot he might have even set the record for career homeruns (but of course that is just speculation…still, if he kept his pace he would have made it close).
A friend of mine has pointed out to me that Williams, somewhat like Woody Allen, is trying (or tried) to rehabilitate his image in his later years.
Both used to not like to give interviews, but eventually both did. Both went from being mercurial geniuses in their own way, to being (or at least appearing to be) more giving of their time and expertise.
It’s a bit of a stretch, but there are some parallels.
Carl Yaztrzemski in 1967 was the last Triple Crown winner.
Ted Williams was hated just as much in his day as Albert Belle was in our day. He was despised by the media and the fans had a very negative attitude towards him. Having said that, it’s worth noting that in 1947, when Williams lost the MVP to DiMaggio, TWO writers left DiMaggio off their ballots.
As far the 5 years he spent in the military (not all in Korea, Whack; three years in WWII) I think it’s quite likely, maybe 60% likely, he would have broken Babe Ruth’s home run record with those five seasons:
1941: 37 homers
1942: 36 homers
1943: In the Marine Corps
1944: In the Marine Corps
1945: In the Marine Corps
1946: 38 homers
1947: 32 homers
1948: 25 homers
1949: 43 homers
1950: 28 homers in 89 games, then off to war
1951: Marine Corps
1952: Marine Corps, played 6 games
1953: Marine Corps, 37 games, hit 13 homers
Williams essentially missed five and a half seasons to war; all of 1943-1945 and essentially all of 1951, 1952, and most of 1953. Furthermore, he got sick in Korea, which caused him to miss a lot of games when he got back; he played in only 117 games in 1954 and 98 games in 1955.
Williams ended up hitting 521 home runs to Ruth’s 714. I think think it’s inconceivable that givesn all those games back, at least 750-800 games by my count, he would have hit another 193 home runs; that would be a lot for him in 750 games, but given the fact that three of them were prime years and that he may have hit better after Korea AND might have concentrated on hitting homers when he got close to the record, I’d say he would have done it. He also would have had well over 3500 hits and would likely have set the major league records for runs scored and RBI, probably ending up with 2300-2400 RBI. He would have blown away the career record for walks, too.
I just have to say that I’m about to laugh out loud over the image of Woody Allen, in a Red Sox uniform, shuffling up to the plate (with Woody Allen inner thoughts voice over “Gosh I hope he doesn’t pitch inside and hit me 'cause then it would be really awkward when our wives get together in the offseason. And what if he throws a curve and I just stand there like an idiot?..”)
After standing there and taking a pitch (“What am I doing? Screwing up again! I bet my mother’s real proud right now, yeah real proud…”), he takes a silky-smooth Ted Williams swing at the next pitch and puts it into the bleachers. Then does an awkward Woody Allen trot around the bases (tripping over second base), as the ongoing voice over thinks about how ungrateful the fans are and how they wouldn’t care if he hurt himself or died a horrible death, which come to think of it is probably just around the corner, what with how his liver feels…