Philly Front Office

To anyone who reads anything I write, please know that I hate Boston with all my heart. My disdain for the Red Sox is neck and neck with the Yankees (Mets are obviously most hated). I want nothing to do with them or their fans…but I absolutely love Ted Williams. I never owned a Ted Williams baseball card and never saw him play, but looking at his Baseball-Reference page is the statistical equivalent of seeing the Grand Canyon. You could gaze at it for an hour and still not take it all in.

World War II and the Korean War

Depending on how his story is told, you either get Ted’s military career first or last. It is an astonishing caveat to an already unbelievable career that he lost three years of prime statistics to being a pilot in World War 2 then two more in Korea. For his ages 24-26 season while most of the greats are building their Hall of Fame resumes, 2nd Lieutenant Williams was instructing other pilots and preparing for deployment in the Pacific. 7 years later, Captain Williams was called into active service for the Korean War and missed all but 43 games of the 1952 and ’53 seasons (ages 33-34). This time he would see full on aerial combat over the Korean peninsula. He was’t just any pilot either, he was phenomenal and earned the praise of wingman John Glenn as the best he ever saw. So, when taking into account all the stats you are about to read know that he missed basically 750 games in active service. That’s crazy.

Monday, July 21 at 6:45p – Zack Wheeler vs Walker Buehler (R)
Tuesday, July 22 at 6:45p – Cristopher Sanchez vs Richard Fitts (R)
Wednesday, July 23 at 7:00p – Jesus Luzardo vs Lucas Giolito (R)

at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA

Career Stats

Let’s start with the averages:

• OBP .482 – First all-time. He led the league in OBP 12 times in 14 qualifying seasons. That does not include the .451 OBP he recorded in 1960 as a 41 year old in his final season. His 113 games didn’t qualify but he was soundly in the lead over Richie Ashburn’s .415.
• AVG .344 – Tenth all-time, and only behind the guys who played closer to the turn of the century. Tony Gwynn is the only modern player anywhere close to him at .338. He led the league 6 times. His two lowest career averages were in his final 2 seasons at .254 and .316!
• SLG .634 – For someone who hits for average, you’d be shocked at his power numbers. His career slugging percentage of .634 is second all-time behind only Babe Ruth. He led the league 9 times including going over .700 twice.
• OPS 1.116 – Second all-time. Do you know how many times his OPS dipped below 1.000? ONCE!!! At 40 years old! 1959 was his one bad season in 22 years. He led the league 10 times.
• OPS+ 191 – Second all-time behind Babe Ruth. For those who don’t know, this is not just OPS revisited. OPS+ is your value against league average for the most part, with 100 being that average. So, yes, throughout his career he was worth damn near two baseball players instead of one. He led the league 9 times. There have only been 108 200+ seasons ever and Ted Williams has 6 of them.

His career numbers are still incredibly high but aren’t revered the way they should be due to the 5 lost seasons fighting for his country. I’m going to add his 162 game averages for those seasons in which the extra games should account for the prime years lost:

• Runs 1798 – 20th all-time behind Rickey Henderson’s 2295. 616 lost to War would put him at 2414, most all-time.
• Hits 2654 – Ted Williams not getting to 3000 hits doesn’t make much sense. He walked a ton, but still. Throw in the 897 he missed and that takes him to 3551, 5th all-time.
• Doubles 525 – He missed out on 186 doubles. They would have taken him to 705, 5th all-time.
• Walks 2021 – This is already 4th all-time despite missing the 5 years. Barry Bonds is far and away the leader at 2558. If you include the 693 he missed though, he crushes Bonds with 2714.
• RBI 1839 – Hank Aaron leads the way at 2297 with Ted Williams down in 16th place. He missed 613 though which would again make him first with 2452.
• Home Runs 521 – The 500 HR Club is the most hallowed club in baseball and has 28 members including Ted Williams. There are only 9 members of the 600 HR Club though and Williams would have been damn close to passing through that one too with an additional 170, which would have left him at 691 or 6th all-time.
• WAR 121.8 – This ranks Williams 11th all-time among position players and 14th overall. He was crushing 10+ WAR seasons before and after WW2 though. He missed out on 40.7. His 162.5 projected WAR would be .3 behind Barry Bonds’ 162.8 for first all-time for position players and 5th overall.

Phillies Series Preview: Willie Mays Only Had How Many MVPs???

Single Season Facts and MVP Robberies

I won’t go through every season because there are too many (and you should really take a look for yourself to marvel). But, who am I to not get mad at some blatant bullshit?

Maybe the greatest hitter of all time only won 2 MVPs (just like Willie Mays) . Somehow, these were NOT the two years he won the Triple Crown! How is that possible? In 1942 and 1947, despite leading the league in HRs, RBI, and average, he finished 2nd in MVP voting. In 1942 Joe Gordon of the Yankees had a solid year, but Williams and his 10.5 WAR had one of the greatest seasons of all time. He lost to Joe DiMaggio in 1947, which you would think is understandable, except this was a down year for the Clipper at a 4.5 WAR and The Kid whipped him handily in every category.

His other two runner up MVP finishes were after two of the greatest seasons of all time, 1941 and 1957. The 1941 season is the one you know, the last time anyone hit over .400. Aside from the .406 average, Williams led the league in damn near everything that year and finished with a 1.287 OPS, 14th best ever (behind 9 seasons from Josh Gibson, Babe Ruth, and Barry Bonds). Despite beating DiMaggio in every category except runs, voters gave it to him walking away. Then at 38 years old, Williams put in one last electric season with a .388 average, .526 OBP and a 1.257 OPS, all league leaders. His 9.5 WAR wasn’t enough to beat the monster 11.3 WAR put up by Mickey Mantle that year though.

There were others too. In 1951, his 7.1 WAR paced the American League, but he finished 13th in the voting!¹ In 1954 Williams finished 7th behind Berra again despite his 1.148 OPS leading the league by .200 (Minnie Minose was 2nd at .946 but he finished 4th). Still Williams received MVP votes in every season he played including 1953 when he just got back from Korea and played only 37 games. Somehow, he was voted to 19 All-Star games in 19 seasons.

One of my favorite Ted Williams statistics is his relationship with strikeouts. In his first year in the Majors, he struck out 64 times, his most ever in a season. He never walked less than striking out either, finishing with 2021 walks to only 709 Ks. That’s a nearly 3-1 ratio. No one in baseball history had that good an eye and that much power. The guy was simply the best hitter ever.

Philadelphia?

Ted Williams never played against the Phillies. There was no interleague play back then except in the World Series and that matchup never happened. He did play the Athletics at Shibe Park though. In 111 games and 513 plate appearances, he hit .353 with a 1.199 OPS, his 3rd best park to play in.

This makes loving the Splendid Splinter that much easier. No bad memories. Plus, he HATED Boston too. Let any old Red Sox fan tell you about that one.

1. Yogi Berra won his first of three undeserved MVPs this season and I am going to be unnecessarily mean to one of the most beloved baseball players of all time when we play the Yankees next week. ↩︎