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Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. His batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit more than 500 home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball for nearly five years in the prime of his career to serve as a Marine pilot in WWII and Korea. He hit home runs farther than any player before him — and traveled a long way himself, as Ben Bradlee, Jr.'s grand biography reveals. Born in 1918 in San Diego, Ted would spend most of his life disguising his Mexican heritage. During his 22 years with the Boston Red Sox, Williams electrified crowds across America — and shocked them, too: His notorious clashes with the press and fans threatened his reputation. Yet while he was a God in the batter's box, he was profoundly human once he stepped away from the plate. His ferocity came to define his troubled domestic life. While baseball might have been straightforward for Ted Williams, life was not.
The Kid is biography of the highest literary order, a thrilling and honest account of a legend in all his glory and human complexity. In his final at-bat, Williams hit a home run. Bradlee's marvelous book clears the fences, too.
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Creators
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Release date
December 3, 2013 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781478925170
- File size: 1014958 KB
- Duration: 35:14:29
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 27, 2014
The story of Ted Williams contains more twists and turns than the great American novel, and in this epic biography, former Boston Globe editor and investigative reporter Bradlee presents an often disturbing portrayal of the man perpetually known as "The Kid." The first major book about Williams since Leigh Montville's Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero published within two years of the 2002 death of baseball's greatest hitter at age 83, Bradlee focuses on elements of the Hall of Famer's life overshadowed by his still-historic .406 batting average in 1941, including his two wartime stints in the military at the height of his playing career, cantankerous relationships with fans and journalists, and the sad end-of-life saga perpetuated by his three reproachable children that concluded with the controversial cryonic preservation of Williams's head and decapitated body at a nondescript facility in Scottsdale, Ariz. Drawing on more than 10 years of research and 600-plus interviews, Bradlee explores Williams's Hispanic heritage and troubled childhood that left him feeling "ashamed," provides possible reasons for his irrational anger, and offers new insight into the cryonics case. Despite a few extraneous chapters, this big book rewards patient readers with as complete a portrait of Williams as history likely will allow. -
Anytime an author sets out to write a definitive biography, expect many layers to be peeled back from the subject's life. Ben Bradlee, Jr., does that admirably in this exhaustive book about one of baseball's greatest hitters. Narrator Dave Mallow keeps a steady pace while maintaining a consistent tone for the listener. The author aims to paint a picture of Williams's life off the field, since "The Kid's" on-the-field accolades are well documented. Mallow resists the temptation to imitate voices for the women in Williams's world, but he brings to life the angry quotes and commentary that capture the ballplayer's bitterness toward many people, especially sportswriters. In the end, the listener is left with a well-told story about an imperfect man. M.B. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine -
July 1, 2013
On leave from 25 distinguished years as a reporter and then deputy managing editor at the Boston Globe, Bradlee gives us a biography of Ted Williams, the best hitter in baseball history. Great expectations.
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from December 15, 2013
Sprawling, entertaining life of the baseball great, renowned as a sports hero while leading a life as checkered as Babe Ruth's or Ty Cobb's. "My name is Ted Fuckin' Williams and I'm the greatest hitter in baseball." So recited Williams, by Boston Globe editor Bradlee's account, as a mantra before each game, "interrupting it only occasionally to offer a lecture on the finer points of hitting to anyone who cared to listen." He had the credentials to deliver such lectures, of course; Bradlee does indeed acknowledge him as "the greatest hitter who ever lived," and few in baseball have bettered Williams' numbers. Like Ruth, Williams was a bruiser with a chip on his shoulder; like Cobb, race was his bete noire, for, as Bradlee reveals, Williams had a Mexican mother and took great pains to conceal that ancestry, both fearful of discrimination and perhaps with an element of self-loathing. Williams had a reputation as a military hero as well, which he did nothing to gainsay, even if he did his best to stay out of the draft in World War II and resisted his reactivation during the Korean War. Williams ended life with a bit of sideways fame as well, having been decapitated and frozen after death in a cryonics venture that did not end well; Bradlee's description of the macabre proceedings is not for the faint of heart. The author dishes plenty--one of the kindest things he says about Williams as a human being was that he was "self-absorbed"--but the repeated demonstrations of flawed character do nothing to diminish Williams' outsized stature as a player. Bradlee is as enthusiastic as Vin Scully or Harry Caray when it comes to describing Williams on the field: "He allowed three hits, one run, walked none, and struck out Rudy York on three pitches. The move seemed an attempt...to placate angry fans with some pure entertainment in one of the worst losses of the year." An outstanding addition to the literature of baseball.COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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