Dick Enberg - Being Ted Williams: Growing Up with a Baseball Idol

Copyright 2018 by Dick Enberg and Tom Clavin

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Cover photo courtesy of Dick Enberg

ISBN: 978-1-68358-221-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-68358-222-9

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Authors Note

T he basic motivation for writing this book was to relate the extraordinary path taken while following my baseball idol, Ted Williamsalso known as the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame, and Thumper, but mostly as the Kid. Thanks to being influenced by my grandfather (he loved Charlie Gehringer and Tommy Bridges), who claimed to have attended 35 consecutive Detroit Tigers season openers, and by his daughter, my mother, who teethed me on a miniature baseball bat, and a father who fluttered his fork ball as a teenage pitcher in Northern Minnesotas Iron Ore Range, I have special DNA, the kind infused by baseball.

From my kindergarten years, my dream was to be a baseball player. At family reunions, I received the usual prerequisite queries from relatives, Dickie, what are you going to be when you grow up? No hesitation from me. Confidently, I d answer, Im going to be a ballplayer.

One of my earliest memories is at age 4 in my grandfathers small corner neighborhood grocery store in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. Hed coach me on some simple baseball trivia and ask me later to repeat each baseball fact. If correct, hed reach up on the candy shelf and reward me with some Superman Bubble Gum. Perhaps in a subtle way he was preparing me for my desire to be like my personal superhero, Ted Williams, a human baseball vessel in which I could pour my hopes and dreams.

Over time, Theodore Samuel Williams would become much more than my hero. He would eventually become a friend. My dreams took me to a great place. And that has continued through the process of writing this book. I have learned of qualities of my idol that have fortified my pride in trying to be like him. Not just his enormous talent, as arguably the greatest hitter in the last eight decades of modern baseball, but his off-the-field generosity and sense of fairness to his fellow man. He cared about the little guy, the sick and injured, and the inclusion of black players in baseball. Superhero stuff.

Another advantage to having sports heroes in our youth is that many of us spend lifetimes arguing with others as to which heroes were the best. As time passes, our idols dont disappear, but rather they remain part of us. We build on their extraordinary exploits, and its certainly fair game to magnify their heroic feats. For baseball fans, it is both a comfort and a thrill to rock away on the front porch reminiscing about the amazing achievements of Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, Jackie Robinson, Henry Aaron, and others who are permanent residents of Cooperstown.

More than a few readers of Being Ted Williams will contend that the Kid had a dark side. Indeed, he did. He stumbled and failed as a husband and father. He would make an old sailor blush with his wild profanity. He abhorred baseball writers. Sufficiently provoked by boo-birds, Ted would rather spit at fans than tip his cap to them. Duly noted, and there is no sugarcoating it. But this book is not about that side of the man. We dont strip the veneer of our comic and movie superheroes in order to discover whats wrong. They give us cause to celebrate what they do right, or at least better than most others. We stand to cheer their spectacular victories against the bad guys, each effort building on the next. Its interesting that Superman has survived my entire life, as have Wonder Woman and Batman. They live on because we support and celebrate their courage, their physical and mental brilliance, their fiercely driven battle for good against evil. Theres no reason to search for any personal faults. Hey, theyre superheroes , thats what they do.

My Superman was Ted Williams... even if there was some pine tar on his cape. This book tells you why, and about his career and what very few people saw and knew about him. Being Ted Williams was never easy... but idolizing him was.

This is not necessarily a biography of Ted Williams, but I was helped enormously by a couple of terrific biographies and a few other books that provided a wealth of information and insight. I want to especially acknowledge Ted Williams: The Biography of An American Hero by Leigh Montville, The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee Jr., and two books by David Halberstam, Summer of 49 and The Teammates . Also helpful was My Turn at Bat , Teds autobiography, written with John Underwood. (Except where noted, all quotes by Ted are from this book.) Im sure the autobiography revealed a lot more about Teds career and especially his life than he ever intended.

One last note: My thanks to George Mitrovich, my friend and fellow baseball lover, who introduced me to Tom Clavin and, like it or not, bears some responsibility for this book.

Prologue: Summer 1946

P readolescence is fraught with fantasies and fears. Dreaming can be a kids panacea in such immature times. Dreaming is finding hope, happiness, and even make-believe heroism in some undefined but safe place. It is there to find idols, bigger in life because we have made them so. They flourish in our full imagination. Mine did.

For me, it began in July 1946. There was no more World War II-imposed gas rationing. The Enbergs of the San Fernando Valley in California along with all Americans could exercise all the fun and freedom of unrestricted travel. We were making a first-ever visit to San Francisco to visit my fathers best friend, a fellow Finn from his schoolboy days. They grew in Northern Minnesotas iron ore country, the Mesabi Range.

While the men yo-yo-yoed (thats what Finns do when humored) over a cold beer, the women shared baby talk in the kitchen. My sister, Sharyl, was not yet a year old. I was left happily alone and was sitting mesmerized in front of the large console living-room radio. The vivid descriptions provided by the play-by-play announcers, Mel Allen and Jim Britt, of the 1946 Baseball All-Star Game guided my imagination. I had already decided, announcing to all who would hear, that when I grew up I was going to be a ballplayer. Perhaps that was a factor in my seeing that radio report in such full colorit was captivating.

There was an especially exciting feel to the Summer Classic that year because it was being held at Fenway Park in Boston, and the Red Sox were on the way to their first American League pennant since 1918. They had eight players on the American League All-Star teamBoo Ferriss, Hal Wagner, Mickey Harris, Rudy York, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and in the outfield, Dominic DiMaggio and Ted Williams.