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Baseball Legend Ted Williams Dead at 83

Aired July 05, 2002 - 14:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Ted Williams -- a known perfectionist as a player, as a coach and as a military veteran.

Now Bob Fiscella with CNN Sports is joining us now with a little bit more on the life and legacy of Ted Williams.

BOB FISCELLA, CNN SPORTS: Well, Fredricka, he was blunt, he was brash but to most he was unquestionably the greatest hitter to ever play the game of baseball.

Five hundred and twenty-one career home-runs, a lifetime average of .344, but to most he meant a lot more than just numbers. He could do it all when he was at the plate. And here was a man that lost more than five years of his career to military service.

Just how respected was Williams? Well, take a listen to what some of today's players had to say about him at the 1999 All-Star Game, which was held at his home field of Fenway Park.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could me by surprise just to see the people out there just roaring -- trying to just to step on the field and probably get a piece of him. I don't think that there will be any other man that's going to replace that one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the greatest hitters of the game seen and he's getting surrounded by more great hitters and players, and emotionally it was just outstanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was really nice the way everybody just surrounded him. And it was funny when they announced, "Can people please go to their dugout?" Everybody said, "No." Nobody wanted to leave. This is -- it didn't matter. It was like, "What time is the first pitch? Who cares? This is a time where we can all enjoy it."

I think it was -- every baseball player we were just -- it was just one of those things where everybody appreciated the game right there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FISCELLA: Those comments from three years ago when the All-Star Game was held at Fenway Park. Ted Williams made an appearance and he was just surrounded by all of the players.

He wasn't beloved during his hay day simply because he was such a brash person -- a strong personality. But Ted Williams -- no one will deny his hitting ability.

And we are joined now on the telephone by CNN contributor and baseball aficionado Keith Olbermann.

And, Keith, is there any doubt in your mind that Ted Williams was the greatest hitter of all time?

KEITH OLBERMANN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think so, Bob. And moreover, I was in that dugout at Fenway Park in 1999 and the -- in addition to being the greatest hitter of all time he would have been -- if he hadn't been real -- he would have been the greatest fictional character in baseball of all time.

If you think about what he has been going through the last 10 years -- how sick he has been after two strokes and open heart surgery and then think about his timing -- as ever unbelievable, impeccable, seemingly mythological, he lived to see his son actually don a Red Sox Minor League uniform just two weeks ago and then he finally succumbed to all of those illnesses. It's the Ted Williams story in a nutshell.

FISCELLA: Well, Ted Williams never had a great relationship, Keith, with the media. Why was that so? Was it because of the brash personality?

OLBERMANN: It originates in Boston at the time of the Second World War -- in the early years of it when he was the sole support of his mother who was infirm and not emotionally stable. And he got a deferment in the Second World War -- at the start of it anyway -- he later -- obviously as you heard in Laura Okmin's piece, the training he did during the Second World War -- a bomber pilot -- led to his recall as a bomber pilot himself during the Korean War.

But in Boston it was assumed that he had somehow rigged this opportunity to stay out of the Second World War. How could he be a fit, superstar athlete and, as you said, already in his second or third year evidencing the possibility of being the greatest hitter of all time and not be fit for military service?

It started there because there were columnists who said, "This is a shirker. This is essentially a draft dodger." And he never forgave that, never forgot it and never trusted the media after that and obviously with good reason.

FISCELLA: Keith Olbermann, thank you very much.

And as we heard Frank Howard say last half hour, there might not have been a better patriot than Ted Williams. Gone at the age of 83. To many undoubtedly the greatest hitter to ever play the game.

WHITFIELD: All right -- thanks very much -- Bob Fiscella with CNN Sports.

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