Ted Williams

"Hmmm... wait until Foxx sees me hit."

"I sure have. I'd like to break every hitting record in the books. When I walk down the street, I'd like for them to say, "There goes Ted Williams, the best hitter in baseball.""

"Gee, I wish I could play here just one season just to see what I could do."

"You know why that's my favorite hit? Well, they say that the only other two players who ever hit one over there were Ruth and Gehrig. But now they have to say "only Ruth, Gehrig and Williams ever hit one over there.' Yes sir, that's putting the old string bean in some pretty fast company when they say that."

"If I'm gonna be a champion, I want to win as a champion. I'm staying in to the end."

"The unbelievable part about the Babe, of course, was that he hit only 34 homers in the first two-thirds of the season and then smacked 26 homers in the final third. Wow! What a way to finish!"

"Why do they cheer me for hitting a homer and then boo me for grounding out the next time up. I'm still the same guy, ain't I? They can all go to hell. I'll never tip my cap to them."

"Batting coaches are just as important as pitching coaches. Lefty O'Doul gave me good advice when he said: "Don't ever let them change you." I also asked for help from Cobb, Foxx and Hornsby."

"A man has to have goals — for a day, for a lifetime — and that was mine, to have people say, "There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.""

"Any pitcher throwing sinkers and hard sliders."

"A kid copies what is good. I remember the first time I saw Lefty O'Doul, and he was as far away as those palms. And I saw the guy come to bat in batting practice. I was looking through a knothole, and I said, "Geez, does that guy look good!" And it was Lefty O'Doul, one of the greatest hitters ever."

"If you don't think too good, don't think too much."

"I hope somebody hits .400 soon. Then people can start pestering that guy with questions about the last guy to hit .400."

"Williams is one batter I thought would break my lifetime batting average of .367. If he'd learned to hit to left, Ted would have broken every record in the book."

"If he'd tip his cap just once, he could be elected mayor of Boston in five minutes. I don't think he will ever do it."

"For my money, Ted Williams is the greatest hitter of all-time. I'd take him over Ruth, I'd take him over Cobb. I'd take him over Cobb because of the combination of power and average. I'd take him over Ruth because with Ruth, you can only speculate about what he would have done in the modern era. Ted Williams hit .388 at the age of 39 in 1957. He was what few of us ever become; he was exactly what he set out to be. He said he wanted to be able to walk down the street some day and have people say "There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived". And if they don't say that, it's only because they don't know what they're talking about."

"If we were choosing sides and every player was in the pool my first pick would be Whitey Ford and my second would be Ted Williams. Beyond that there would be just too many and I would be afraid of leaving somebody out. Besides, with Whitey on the mound and Williams in the lineup, the rest of the team wouldn't much matter; we'd still beat just about anybody."