Ted Williams

"A man has to have goals — for a day, for a lifetime — and that was mine, to have people say, "There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.""

"Hmmm... wait until Foxx sees me hit."

"If Im gonna be a champion, I want to win as a champion. Im staying in to the end."

"I hope somebody hits .400 soon. Then people can start pestering that guy with questions about the last guy to hit .400."

"Official Ted Williams Web site"

"Batting coaches are just as important as pitching coaches. Lefty ODoul gave me good advice when he said: "Dont ever let them change you." I also asked for help from Cobb, Foxx and Hornsby."

"If you dont think too good, dont think too much."

"You know why thats my favorite hit? Well, they say that the only other two players who ever hit one over there were Ruth and Gehrig. But now they have to say "only Ruth, Gehrig and Williams ever hit one over there. Yes sir, thats putting the old string bean in some pretty fast company when they say that."

"Williams is one batter I thought would break my lifetime batting average of .367. If hed learned to hit to left, Ted would have broken every record in the book."

"If hed tip his cap just once, he could be elected mayor of Boston in five minutes. I dont think he will ever do it."

"For my money, Ted Williams is the greatest hitter of all-time. Id take him over Ruth, Id take him over Cobb. Id take him over Cobb because of the combination of power and average. Id take him over Ruth because with Ruth, you can only speculate about what he would have done in the modern era. Ted Williams hit .388 at the age of 39 in 1957. He was what few of us ever become; he was exactly what he set out to be. He said he wanted to be able to walk down the street some day and have people say "There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived". And if they dont say that, its only because they dont know what theyre talking about."

"If we were choosing sides and every player was in the pool my first pick would be Whitey Ford and my second would be Ted Williams. Beyond that there would be just too many and I would be afraid of leaving somebody out. Besides, with Whitey on the mound and Williams in the lineup, the rest of the team wouldnt much matter; wed still beat just about anybody."