Ted Williams: a true All American"A man must have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, so that people would say: "There's Ted Williams , the greatest hitter who ever lived'" ("My Turn At Bat" 128).Theodore Samuel Williams was born on August 30, 1918 in San Diego, California. His father, a photographer, named him after the late president Teddy Roosevelt's mother was a Mexican-born salvation worker ("My Turn At Bat"15). His parents, whom he later came to resent, were poor and constantly working ("My Turn At Bat"). 16).This left Ted with a lot of free time so he hung out on the baseball fields and developed a batting stroke that would become legendary. After graduating from Herbert Hoover High School, Williams' talents took over. earned a contract with a minor league baseball team in San Diego ("My Turn at Bat" 26). His progress was very rapid and two years later Williams was the starting left fielder for the Boston Red Sox. During the two decades that Ted Williams played, he was a baseball icon. His first season was extraordinary. As a rookie in 1939, Williams hit .327 and hit 31 home runs over the walls at Fenway, giving Red Sox fans a glimpse of what they would see in the years to come. He was quickly nicknamed The Splendid Splinter and The Kid, attracting attention as a natural hitter (Wikipedia). He had one of the game's most glorious seasons in 1941, hitting for a .406 average at the age of twenty-three. He is the last player to achieve this feat. Nonetheless, he lost the Most Valuable Player award that year to Joe DiMaggio, who had his 56-game hitting streak that same year. He most likely lost this MVP award due to his lack of respect and arrogance towards many sports writers and media outlets, who are the ones voting for the winner (Nightingale). Williams responded by going out the following season and winning the treble. crown. He led the league in hits, home runs, and RBIs (Wikipedia). Despite the praise from Boston fans, it was Williams who would hear their boos the loudest. After making a mistake that brought a roar of boos, he vowed to never again tip his hat to fans in appreciation and he never did. Boston writers attacked him in the press as arrogant and ungrateful ("My Turn At Bat" 88).