In the not too distant past we had people on the national stage we could all admire and look up to. People who could serve as role models for our kids. Sadly, that is no longer the case. Today we have sports figures negotiating contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars while ticket prices have risen to a level preventing families from attending sports events. Spouse abuse, drug use and cheating have tarnished those who could have been our heroes.
It was not that long ago we had the likes of Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Joe Montana, Y.A. Tittle, Neil Armstrong, and dozens of others we could be proud of. Today we endure scandal after scandal in the world of both sports and politics.
Consider Ted Williams:
In the 40s and 50s, we had Ted Williams. Most remember him as a larger than life figure in professional baseball. The last man to bat .400 for a season. He was more than a baseball player. Ted lost five years out of his baseball career as he served in the military. He could have avoided military service with any number of exemptions. Instead he served as a Marine Corps fighter pilot in both WWII and Korea. His fellow pilots described Ted as “a natural pilot who flew as if he were a built-in part of the machine”. In Korea, Ted flew the F9F Panther fighter jet often serving as wingman for another Marine fighter pilot, John Glenn, who would later be the first American to orbit the earth in the Mercury program. Ted’s fighter jet was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. He survived the crash and returned to baseball.
Ted played his entire career with the Boston Red Sox. He was recognized as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Nineteen times an all-star. Twice the American League MVP. At age 40 he was the American League batting champion for the sixth time. Upon meeting Ted for the first time in 1943, Babe Ruth greeted him by saying “Hiya kid, you remind me a lot of myself. If anyone ever breaks my record, I hope it is you”.
In the last game of Ted’s 19 year career, the Red Sox manager offered to pull him from his final at-bat as his .400 batting average would be lost if he struck out. Ted refused and hit a home run.
In 2002, Ted died of a heart attack at the age of 83. He was only human and had his faults but he died an American Hero.
Ted specified in his will that he be cremated and his ashes buried at sea. It is truly bizarre that his children challenged his will and instead had his body shipped to a cryogenic facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, where today his head is in one container of liquid nitrogen and his body in another. The facility operator says the kids never paid the bill. Ted would turn over in his grave if he had one.
Author: Staff
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