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His teammates loyally assert that Ted is also the best leftfielder in the business —a statement that arouses derision even in many sections of Boston. Ted has injudiciously said many times, "They don't pay off on fielding." Often enough, he does manage in the heat of the season to look like a tired and slightly bored businessman, slouched back on one heel, his shoulders drooping, when he is on station in left field. Nonetheless, his long legs cover a lot of territory, his long arms take in a lot of sky, and he works slickly with crackerjack Center-Fielder Dom ("The Little Professor") DiMaggio (Joe's little brother). Despite legend and his own old scorn of the fielder's art, Ted has become one of the best outfielders in the big time.
Last year, for the second time, Ted was voted the Most Valuable Player in the American League. Tom Yawkey, millionaire owner of the Sox, evidently agrees, for he is paying Ted about $110,000 this season—the highest salary in baseball history. Like the rest of Boston, Yawkey counts on Ted and such other veterans as Shortstop Vernon Stephens, Third Baseman Johnny Pesky, Second Baseman Bobby Doerr and Dom DiMaggio to sew up the pennant for the Sox this year.
Pitching & Prophecy. At bat, the well-heeled Sox are the most dangerous club in either league. Comparatively weak in seasoned pitchers, they boast two fine ones on 1949 form: Left-hander Mel Parnell, 27, who won 25 games, and Right-hander Ellis Kinder, 35, who won 23. Back of them are two young lefthanders, Chuck Stobbs, 20, and Speed Artist Maurice Mc-Dermott, 21, who are both marked "promising." On paper the Sox have the best first team in the business, but they are weak "on the bench," i.e., in replacements. Midseason injuries to such mainstays as dependable Bobby Doerr and hustling, hard-hitting (39 homers last year) Vernon Stephens could well put the Sox out of the running.
Pennants are never won on paper, and for the past two seasons the Sox have been nosed out of the race on the last day. This year, as last, the Yankees may well outrun them, but no expert would care to guarantee the outcome of the 1950 race. As the Yankees' manager, wily old Casey Stengel, puts it, "We'll all be knocking our heads together this year . . . Detroit is much better. Cleveland will be a lot tougher, and so will Connie's Athletics." (The A's are out to win one more pennant for 87-year-old Connie Mack, to celebrate his 50th, and perhaps last, year as their manager.)
Sox Manager "Marse Joe" McCarthy, who could teach taciturnity to a quahog, agrees it will be a tough race. Ted Williams, never a bawling optimist, figures the Sox have a 50-50 chance ("at the outside"). Says Ted: "I'd sure like for us to get it. It would be one of the greatest thrills of my life."
Golden Platitude. Williams has been getting thrills out of baseball since grade-school days: "I was always the first to get there in the morning," he remembers, "so as to be on hand when the janitor opened the closet where they kept the athletic equipment. By the time the other kids showed, I'd have the bat in my hand, to be first up. We'd play until school started and then again at recess."