Ted Williams lost 5 years in two different wars. It's reasonable to expect he would have...

[Captain Hilts]

gotten 200 extra home runs to break Ruth's record.

Michael Wilbon and Rick "Doc" Walker are talking about time missed by athletes.

Roger Staubach missed several years.

Tiger Woods missed little in comparison.

They've also talked about what an integral part of baseball that cheating is. Different eras, different cheats. Spitballs, juiced balls - they bounce now in a way they did not use to.

[rockymountaindem]

1. Ted Williams: All-American hero

Too bad his crazy son had to go and freeze his head. Shoulda just cloned him :)

[Captain Hilts]

3. Indeed.

I know he's a solid, Hoover conservative, but he's right up there with Katharine Hepburn, Sonny Jurgensen, the Beatles and Eleanor and Franklin in my book. Put them all in a room and they'd have quite a conversation.

[Captain Hilts]

7. He's everything John Wayne pretended to be. nt

[flvegan]

2. Ted Williams is, IMO, the best hitter to ever play the game.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Yes. He hit line drives. Didn't swing for the fences. nt

[MrPerson]

19. What about Ty Cobb?

[Kingofalldems]

5. I got to see him play--1956 vs. the Washington Senators

In Griffith stadium. I remember he went something like 3 for 4 with a homer. He actually had his own personal replacement for late innings, a guy named Stephens.

[Captain Hilts]

6. That's SO cool! We lived in DC in late 60s and we never went to a Nats game.

You had to drive and my folks heard so much about how your car got vandalized outside the stadium.

I have an autographed Frank Howard poster.

[KamaAina]

8. You never went to a Nats game in the late '60s?

That's odd. They moved to DC in 2005. And I'd always assumed you were able to time-travel. :P

[Captain Hilts]

9. The Senators were always called the 'Nats' in the DC papers. nt

[El Supremo]

10. The greatest player in my lifetime.

And the first manager of my Texas Rangers.

He had one of the best eyesights ever. He could see by the rotation of the stitches on the ball which way it would break.

[Captain Hilts]

12. Uh, oh, man did Ted HATE to have folks bring up his eyesight. nt

[hughee99]

11. Probably not an extra 200

but at least 150. He only hit 40 once in his career (43 in '49), and given the right field dimensions of Fenway, the fact that he was a pull hitter, and the number of times they pitched around him, he probably wouldn't have made it to Ruth but would have come close to 700.

[MrSlayer]

13. Ted Williams was an amazing person.

His hand-eye and reflexes were off the charts. Not only the greatest pure hitter baseball has ever seen, he was also the greatest fighter pilot of his era and after retiring became one of the greatest fishermen ever.

Taking out the two shortened seasons he played (6 games in 1952 and 37 in 1953), Williams averaged 27 homers per season. So five years at that average would be 135 more. Adding that to his career total of 521 would have given him 656 total.

[never cry wolf]

14. Actually, his 162 game average was 37

http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/willite01.shtml

Imagine a player taking off from the game for three years at age 24 thru 27, not facing major league competition for that long and coming back to win MVP...

It is tough to compare eras but teddy ballgame is on the baseball mount rushmore in my world...

[joeybee12]

15. You're right, it's not just 3 years, it's 3 years of his prime...

...had he played all those years, and even without breaking the HR record, his numbers would be even more impressive. He was kindof a jerk while playing, but he felt sorry in his later years, and the fans forgave him.

[MrSlayer]

16. Yeah but they didn't play 162 back then.

I saw that stat but instead went with average over his career because I felt it would be more accurate. Considering the prime years you mentioned he most likely would have been above average. Either way Williams was outstanding.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. We Just Have To Look At The Numbers

He hit 37 & 35 homers on both sides of his WWII absence. Then, his two years in Korea he hit something like 35 the year before and 30 something when he got back. That's 160 homers, maybe. If he was that close to Ruth, he might have played another year. And, his last year was pretty darned good. Geez, he hit a homer in his last at bat!

I also think he lost about 1000 hits to those absences. He might have been pushing 4000 hits had he not gone off to war.

I think he's the best pure hitter ever!
GAC

[MrPerson]

18. Mario Lemieux missed a lot of time with injuries.

One of the reasons why people say Gretzky was better.

I disagree.

[Mendocino]

20. Hank Greenberg

In his four full seasons before WWII and his first full season after he averaged 43 HR, 145 RBI and a .316 BA. Add those stats to his career marks, for totals about 550 HR, 2000 RBI and .315 BA.

[ticapnews]

21. He was John Glenn's wingman

You don't get that privilege because you can hit a breaking ball. Williams once had a plane shot out from under him and still managed to land at a US base.

[Captain Hilts]

22. He landed the plane because he knew, at 6'3" he couldn't eject.

He said he knees would never have made it out.