Being Ted Williams by Dick Enberg

Ted Williams and Dick Enberg on the cover of Being Ted Williams. Courtesy of Skyhorse Publishing.

Sports broadcaster Dick Enberg’s 2018 book, Being Ted Williams: Growing Up with a Baseball Idol, is part-memoir/part-biography. The book was timed to what would have been the Splendid Splinter’s 100th birthday. Unfortunately, the book was published posthumously as Enberg died in 2017.

I finally got around to reading Enberg’s book shortly at the end of 2024, finishing it just after the year started. What helps in reading so quickly is that the entire book runs a total of 176 pages. Had I done more reading during the week, I would probably have finished reading the book much sooner.

If you’re looking to read a biography of The Kid, this book will more or less give you a skimmed version of previous biographies. Enberg writes in his author’s note that “this is not necessarily a biography.” He acknowledges the previously published biographies and the ballplayer’s own memoir in providing “a wealth of information and insight.” It’s been a very long time since reading Ben Bradlee Jr.’s biography so I had completely forgotten that Williams was half-Mexican. He was able to hide this throughout his career, no doubt because of having Williams for a surname.

Enberg opens up by remembering Ted Williams hitting a home run in the 1946 All-Star Game. He was only 11 years old at the time but the Teddy Ballgame quickly became a hero. It is not an understatement to say that Williams had a special ability behind the plate. Since retiring after the 1960 season, the only player to come close to touching his .344 lifetime average is San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn. Because Williams lived in San Diego and Gwynn played for the hometown team, the two grew a special bond. I still get chills thinking of the 1999 All-Star Game appearance at Fenway Park! Other ballplayers coming close were Stan Musial, Wade Boggs, and Rod Carew. Interestingly, they are all left-handed hitters. Is this the trick?

Both Williams and Musial played during the same era. Musial hit 475 home runs to Williams’s 521. However, Musical drove in more St. Louis Cardinals runs than Williams did for the Boston Red Sox. But as Enberg notes, Musial only missed a single season to serve in the military. Williams served his country during four seasons and parts of a fifth. Like Bob Feller and other players of this era, one always thinks about the what-if when it comes to their final numbers. If not for the war, Feller would have finished with close to 350 wins and 3500 career strikeouts. As for Williams, he’d have become the second member of the 700-home run club or very close. Babe Ruth‘s home run record would have been within striking distance. He would also be a member of the 3,000-hit club. In any event, I am grateful for his military service.

The Boston Red Sox were one of the final teams to add a Black ballplayer to their lineup. Williams embraced any ballplayers of color in baseball and it’s more than because of his own Mexican ancestry. He was the type of person who would treat others in a way that they should. He stood up for ballplayers who dealt with racism, including at Florida hotels during spring training. Williams spoke up after the hotel turned an Oakland player, John Odom, away and a room was magically available.

Ted would use his own Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech in 1966 to campaign for the induction of the great Negro League baseball players. You cannot call it the National Baseball Hall of Fame without including Negro League players. A Hall of Fame without the likes of Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson would be incomplete. But anyway, traits like these are why Enberg admired Williams and considered him a hero long before the two became friends. If anything, this is what baseball fans remember the most from his induction speech:

“Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel. Not just to be as good as someone else but to be better. This is the nature of man and the name of the game. I hope that Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren’t given the chance.”

The Negro League Committee would select Paige in 1971 for induction. They would select Gibson in 1972.

Even in death, Williams serves as an influence for baseball players through his book, The Science of Hitting. It’s a book that Joey Votto kept with him at home and on the road. Cincinnati Reds fans might be critical, as Enberg notes, but Votto is just following Williams in choosing to hit good pitches. Why swing at a bad pitch when you could draw a ball? Votto frequently led the National League or all of MLB in either walks or on-base percentage for having a good eye.

There are plenty of personal stories in the book, either about Enberg, Williams or both. Even though it’s a quick read, you could not go wrong with Being Ted Williams.

Being Ted Williams is available in bookstores.