Ted Williams' Hit List

Ian A. Andrews is a high-school social sciences teacher and editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus.

Ted Williams was arguably the best hitter in the history of baseball, a
lifetime .344 hitter who was the last to post a .400 average (.406 in
1941). During his career, Williams hit 521 home runs despite losing
several productive years to military service in both World War II and
the Korean War. Journalist and Nova Scotia baseball enthusiast Jim Prime
(whom Williams refers to as “the most persistent son of a bitch I ever
met in my life”) was able to persuade this Hall of Famer to
scientifically evaluate and rank the top 20 hitters in the history of
baseball.

According to Williams, the five major traits a player needs to become a
successful hitter are intelligence, courage, sharp eyesight, power, and
timing, each of which he briefly explains with appropriate examples. He
uses a constructed formula (PRO=OBP + SLG/Production = on base
percentage + slugging average) to produce the rankings. “[T]he proof
of the hitter is in the numbers,” he states, and the numbers show that
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are the top two, with such other legends as Ty
Cobb and Stan Musial ranking sixth and seventh. The most recent retiree
on the list is Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt, who occupies the 19th
spot.

Short, illustrated vignettes are provided for each of the top–20
choices as well as for several consolation choices. Although Williams
would not rank himself, Prime’s calculations have placed him second on
the list, between Ruth and Gehrig.

Although the book is straightforward and generally easy to read, the
jargon-filled text (e.g., “baseballically alert”) and the clichés
make the book more suitable for baseball aficionados than for the
sometime fan.