Baseball Can Cause Anger

Joe D versus the Splendid Splinter

We enjoy debating and sometimes arguing about who is the best or what team should have won. In the forties, HOF outfielder Ted Williams, turned his anger at the Baseball Writers Association who make the choice of who is worthy of each league’s Most Valuable Player Award.

The competition between Jolting Joe and the Splendid Splinter for the decade’s best hitter in baseball started in 1941. This was the year that DiMaggio broke all records by hitting in 56 consecutive games and Ted Williams batted .406. No one has challenged these marks since. The two great hitters took over the headlines. DiMaggio launched his streak on May 15, broke Wee Willie Keeler’s record of 44 straight on July 1, and wasn’t stopped until game 57 on July 17 by the Cleveland Indians. Amazingly, he picked up right where he had left off the next day by getting a hit in 16 straight games. Combined two streaks combined equaled hitting in 72 out of 73 games. Joe finished the season with a .357 BA, 30 HRs and 125 RBIs.

Meanwhile, Williams was hitting close to .440 in June, which was largely overshadowed by DiMaggio. On the last day of the season, he was at .39955, rounded out to .400, but accepted the challenge to play in a scheduled doubleheader to quash any doubts. He went 6 for 8 to finish at .406. He also led the league in homeruns with 37. Williams was not pleased when DiMaggio was voted the league MVP and voiced his displeasure, This would be the start Ted’s rocky relationship with the writers and fans for what he perceived as their lack of support for the rest of his career.

To Ted’s credit he had good reason. The very next year, Williams won the American League triple crown hitting .356 with 36 home runs, and 137 RBIs for the second-place Red Sox. Evidently, in the minds of the writers, it wasn’t enough. That year the award went to another Yankee, 2B Joe Gordon whose .322 batting average, 18 home runs, 103 RBIs did not compare with Williams. The bias for the Yankees was apparent and Ted’s media criticism of the writers was surely the reason for being overlooked. In 1947 Williams was again a triple-crown winner, batting .343 BA, 32 HRs,114 RBIs, but again, was passed over as the MVP in favor of Joe DiMaggio, .315, 20 HRs, 97 RBIs. He did win the MVP award in 1946 and 1949, however, it was not enough consolation for Ted to forgive the Baseball Writers of America.

Williams never relented in his anger. In his final game on his very last at bat in 1960, he hit a homerun and received a long running standing ovation from the Fenway Park fans chanting for him to emerge from the dugout and tip his cap. He refused to do so.