The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams

· Sold by Little, Brown
4.1
13 reviews
Ebook
864
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

From acclaimed journalist Ben Bradlee Jr. comes the epic biography of Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams that baseball fans have been waiting for.

Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. His batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit more than 500 home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball for nearly five years in the prime of his career to serve as a Marine pilot in WWII and Korea. He hit home runs farther than any player before him -- and traveled 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 his Mexican heritage. During his 22 years with the Boston Red Sox, Williams electrified crowds across America -- and shocked them, too: His notorious clashes with the press and fans threatened his reputation. Yet while he was a God in the 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 might have been straightforward for Ted Williams, life was not.

The Kid is biography of the highest literary order, a thrilling and honest account of a legend in all his glory and human complexity. In his final at-bat, Williams hit a home run. Bradlee's marvelous book clears the fences, too.

Ratings and reviews

4.1
13 reviews
Duane McDonald
October 11, 2023
A fitting and comprehensive look at the life of "The Kid," Ted Williams. Bradlee does a terrific job with separating the facts from the legend with Williams (as we're accustomed to hearing only the legend). The amount of access and people he spoke to who knew Williams- family and friends alike- is staggering. Highly recommended for any baseball fans who want an unvarnished account of the best player in Red Sox history.
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A Google user
September 29, 2017
Interesting book that shows totally different Ted Williams that I knew. A lot of minutiae. Wonder where in the hell was the editor?
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About the author

Ben Bradlee Jr. is the author of the critically acclaimed The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams (2013) among other books. Bradlee spent 25 years with The Boston Globe as a reporter and editor. As deputy managing editor, he oversaw the Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church from July 2001 to August 2002. Bradlee lives with his wife outside Boston.

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