Ted Williams from 1941 to 1947

A truly Great American

He had a good head on his shoulders...

What a 7-year stretch

Now do his legacy during Korean War era.

I dont know the full details but I dont think he saw combat till Korea. He retrained to fly jets, served in Korea with John Glenn, was nearly shot down. He came back from Korea and won multple batting titles and elected as all-star several years.

I think he’s the goat. His numbers would have been staggering with almost 5 full seasons more. 3 of which were in his absolute prime, and even after Korea he won multiple batting titles so honestly it was 5 years of prime.

All time leader in OBP and even with all that missed time he still hit over 500 homers with a near 3/1 BB/SO ratio. Doesn’t even make sense.

I’m sketchy on the details, but as a pilot, wasn’t he able to see the enemy planes before his co pilots? Same perfect eyesight that helped him in the batters box worked in the skies.

20/15 vision helps a lot, both at bat and in the air

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His numbers would have been staggering with almost 5 full seasons more. 3 of which were in his absolute prime

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This is from an article in 2018 celebrating what would have been his 100th birthday:

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Using Williams' averages from his 17 non-military seasons, we can estimate his final career numbers had he not missed any time while in the service during World War II and the Korean War. The figures in parentheses indicate where they'd rank on the all-time list.

2,332 RBIs (1st)
2,588 walks (1st)
6,020 times on base (1st)
6,202 total bases (2nd)
1,418 extra-base hits (3rd)
656 home runs (6th)
3,381 hits (9th)

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Other stats from the article:

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Williams owns the record for career on-base percentage at .482. No active player has posted an OBP that high in any season. Joey Votto, the active leader in OBP (.428), could reach base successfully in each of his next 650 plate appearances and still not reach Williams' mark.

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Joe DiMaggio batted .408 during his 56-game hitting streak in 1941. Williams batted .406 that season (in 143 games). It remains the most recent season in which a player hit .400.

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The Triple Crown in batting has been achieved six times in the past 80 years. Four of those six seasons resulted in that player winning MVP (Miguel Cabrera in 2012, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, Frank Robinson in 1966, Mickey Mantle in 1956). Williams did not win MVP in either of his Triple Crown seasons (1942, 1947) and is the only player in AL history to do it more than once. He finished one hit shy of winning the Triple Crown for a third time in 1949 (percentage points behind George Kell for the batting title).

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Williams finished in the top 10 of MVP voting 12 times, most of any player in American League history. Williams won the award twice (1946, 1949), the first of which came in his first season back after missing three years due to his military service. He is one of three players, along with Stan Musial and Willie Mays, to win MVP honors the year after returning from the service -- but he's the only one to do so after missing at least two full seasons.

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Williams recorded five seasons with 100 more walks than strikeouts; all other players in the live ball era (since 1920) have combined for four such seasons. For his career, he walked 1,308 more times than he struck out, the largest gap of its kind.

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Williams drove in 145 runs as a 20-year-old in 1939, a rookie record that stands to this day. He was eight years younger than the average big leaguer that season. In 1957, he batted .388 as a 38-year-old (which remains a record for a player that age or older), finishing five hits shy of .400. He was nine years older than the average big leaguer that season.

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He was robbed of at least 3 MVPs as well.

how much has pitching evolved in the last 70 years? how fast did pitchers throw back then? how much movement did pitches have back then? just genuinely curious