Teddy Sendoff

Apparently it was 50 years ago that Ted Williams gave baseball the "most famous farewell in baseball history." I've always known and admired his "fuck you" refusal to acknowledge the fans even after this landmark sendoff, but there's some other nice tidbits as well:

- Williams not only ended his 1960 season with a home run but began it with a home run, as well. In his first at-bat on Opening Day, he hit a tape-measure shot over the 31-foot-high wall in center field (421 feet away) at Washington's Griffith Stadium. Ted pulled a muscle during his Opening Day home run trot and was out of the lineup for almost a month.

- The announced attendance for Williams' finale was just 10,454. In other words, when the greatest player in Red Sox history played his final game, Fenway Park was two-thirds empty for his goodbye. It was a different era.

- Williams' home run inspired a classic piece of sportswriting, John Updike's "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" for the New Yorker. In it, Updike explains Williams' refusal to tip his cap despite the fans' desperate pleas, by writing this famous line: "Gods do not answer letters."

- Ted's final game came 19 years to the day after he went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader on the final day of the 1941 season to finish the year at .406. He is the last major leaguer to hit .400 in a season.

You can read Updike's awesome story HERE.

Also there's a nice listing of other greats' final at bats. Mickey popped up  :(

No mention, however, of how Williams' final at bat stacks up against my own. Interesting.

Of course I went 4 for 5 with the GW RBI, then followed the next week going 7 for 8 in a 2-game All-Star tourney against Lancaster & Northumberland (including my last-ever LL at bat, a triple that should've been a fucking "Thanks Little League, it's been for reals!!" Home Run Finale send off, but I was held up at third base by Drew Allen's fucking father. Thanks, "Coach." Grrrrrrrrr.)