The Journal of San Diego History
Winter 1995, Volume 41, Number 1
Contents of This Issue
Pacific Coast League Padres ~ Index to Players ~ Hall of Famers
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Born: 8-30-1918 Padres: 1936-37
San Diego's best-known native, Ted Williams has been called baseball's greatest hitter. In his major league career with the Boston Red Sox (1939-60), punctuated by military service in World War II and Korea, he hit 521 home runs and batted .344. Baseball's last .400 hitter (.406 in 1941), "The Kid" was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1966. |
[Ted Williams interview by Jim Smith, 24 September 1989, tape recording.]
Old Bill Lane was quite an old character, you know. He was one of the owners of the Hollywood Stars, and when they went to San Diego he went down there. Earl Keller [the sportswriter] could tell you all about this. He's a great guy . . .
Before the Padres came to town, I didn't have any ambition to play up the coast for the L.A. Angels or for a big league team. My only real concern was just becoming a good hitter. The big leagues were in the next world years ago. It was just the playgrounds. I grew up right by the water tower on Utah Street.
I was always serious about playing baseball--not about my future but about my love of the game. Have you read My Turn at Bat? It's all in there. Anyway, I went to Hoover because I thought my chances of making the baseball team were better than at San Diego High. I was on the border line. Hoover was a newer school and I wanted to play on the team. I was a pitcher.
Here's a funny thing. There's not one hitting picture of me until I signed my first professional contract. All of them in high school were pitching. So the first was in a Padre uniform.
I played my last year of high school ball in '36, then went back to school and graduated in '37. So I was in my second year of pro baseball then. I probably needed at least that much seasoning. I didn't do much my first year [.271], and then I played enough [23 home runs, 98 runs batted in] so the Red Sox bought me and sent me to spring training [in 1938]. They sent me to Minneapolis and I had a big year there and things really started to come.
I remember my first at-bat for the Padres. The manager, Frank Shellenback, sent me in to pinch hit and I took three strikes right down the middle. Didn't even swing. Then he sent me in to pitch one night and I got hit like I was throwing batting practice. But that first time I pitched I also hit -- and I hit a double, I pitched two innings, and the next time up I hit a double. And then I was in the lineup. I went over to Lefty O'Doul one day and I said, "What do I have to do to be a good hitter?" He said, "Kid, don't ever let anybody change you."
That 1937 team was a good composite team: young, old, former big league players, good leadership under Frank Shellenback (the nicest man I ever met in baseball). Why we didn't win it I don't know. There was no friction. Did we win the playoffs in '37? [Yes! -Ed.]
Lane Field was an old wooden ballpark, nice park for a lefthanded hitter, and the ball carried pretty good. We played a lot of day games. I enjoyed guys like Herm Pillette (the old pitcher), Howard Craghead, Jimmy Kerr (the catcher), George Myatt, Bobby Doerr . . .
There was no particular pressure on me playing in San Diego. I didn't know what pressure was. I was nervous--not because I was born there, but because it was a whole new experience playing before crowds, professional baseball. San Diego was the nicest little town in the world. How the hell was I to know it was the nicest town in the world? I'd never been anyplace.
