The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams

Summary

At long last, theepic biography Ted Williams deserves—and that his fans have been waiting for.

Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. Hisbatting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player whohas hit more than five hundred home runs has a higher career batting average.Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball fornearly five years in the prime of his career to serve as a Marine pilot in WorldWar II and Korea. He hit home runs farther than any player before him—andtraveled a long way himself, as Ben Bradlee, Jr.’s, grand biography reveals.Born in 1918 in San Diego, Ted would spend most of his life disguising hisMexican heritage. During his twenty-two years with the Boston Red Sox, Williamselectrified crowds across America—and shocked them, too. His notorious clasheswith the press and fans threatened his reputation. Yet while he was a god inthe batter’s box, he was profoundly human once he stepped away from the plate.His ferocity came to define his troubled domestic life. While baseball mighthave been straightforward for Ted Williams, life was not.

The Kid isbiography of the highest literary order, a thrilling and honest account of alegend in all his glory and human complexity. In his final at-bat, Williams hita home run. Bradlee’s marvelous book clears the fences, too.