描述
开 本: 16开纸 张: 胶版纸包 装: 平装是否套装: 否国际标准书号ISBN: 9780767913201
He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of
the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest
baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend –
and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? What
motivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to serve
his country as a fighter pilot; to embrace his fans while tangling
with the media; to retreat from the limelight whenever possible
into his solitary love of fishing; and to become the most famous
man ever to have his body cryogenically frozen after his death? New
York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville, who wrote the
celebrated Sports Illustrated obituary of Ted Williams, now
delivers an intimate, riveting account of this extraordinary
life.
Still a gangly teenager when he stepped into a Boston Red Sox
uniform in 1939, Williams’s boisterous personality and penchant for
towering home runs earned him adoring admirers–the fans–and
venomous critics–the sportswriters. In 1941, the entire country
followed Williams’s stunning .406 season, a record that has not
been touched in over six decades. At the pinnacle of his prime,
Williams left Boston to train and serve as a fighter pilot in World
War II, missing three full years of baseball. He was back in 1946,
dominating the sport alongside teammates Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny
Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. But Williams left baseball again in 1952 to
fight in Korea, where he flew thirty-nine combat
missions—crash-landing his flaming, smoke-filled plane, in one
famous episode.
Ted Willams’s personal life was equally colorful. His attraction
to women (and their attraction to him) was a constant. He was
married and divorced three times and he fathered two daughters and
a son. He was one of corporate America’s first modern spokesmen,
and he remained, nearly into his eighties, a fiercely devoted
fisherman. With his son, John Henry Williams, he devoted his final
years to the sports memorabilia business, even as illness overtook
him. And in death, controversy and public outcry followed Williams
and the disagreements between his children over the decision to
have his body preserved for future resuscitation in a cryonics
facility–a fate, many argue, Williams never wanted.
With unmatched verve and passion, and drawing upon hundreds of
interviews, acclaimed best-selling author Leigh Montville brings to
life Ted Williams’s superb triumphs, lonely tragedies, and
intensely colorful personality, in a biography that is fitting of
an American hero and legend.
“It is unlikely that any reader could view Ted Williams as
just a ballplayer ever again.” — New York Times Book Review
“Exceptional. Montville on Ted Williams is can’t-miss, one
of America’s best sportswriters weighing in on one of the last
century’s most intriguing figures. A great read.” —Chicago
Tribune
“Leigh Montville reaches a threshold even the mighty Williams
could never touch: perfection. The beauty of Montville’s work
is that it is not a baseball book, per se, so much as the life and
times of an oft perplexing, always fascinating man.” —Newsday
“A comprehensive look at a gargantuan life.” —People
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