The `B' Line... July 18, 2002
7/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 24, 2002
This is another "B" Line column, a periodic collection of news items of particular interest to members of the Baylor "B" Association. Contribute news about you or your teammates via e-mail to Dutch Schroeder (Dutch_Schroeder@baylor.edu), Reba Cooper (Reba_Cooper@baylor.edu), Kyle Penney,(Kyle_Penney@baylor.edu) or Jack Loftis (Jack.Loftis@chron.com). The mailing address is Baylor "B" Association, P. O. Box 8120, Waco, TX 76714
TEAMMATES IN 1959 - Jerry Mallett, whose promising major league baseball career in the late '50s was cut short by an injury, has some fascinating remembrances of the late Ted Williams. The two were Boston Red Sox teammates in 1959, just two years after Mallett completed his playing days at Baylor. Mallett, a retired educator who now represents the Baylor Development Department in the Beaumont-Golden Triangle area, recalls that Williams and Pete Runnels were the only players to speak to him when he first entered the Red Sox clubhouse. But that respect didn't continue on the playing field. One day the rookie Mallett was told to pitch batting practice and when Williams entered the hitting cage he asked, "Rookie, can't you throw any harder than that?" Mallett, whose arm was once described as "the best of I have ever seen" by New York Yankee Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, said he got a walking start and threw the next pitch with all his strength. "Thank goodness for the pitching screen," Mallett said. He said he fell away from the rising line drive and turned to see the ball go into the centerfield bleachers at Fenway Park. Then - before the next pitch - Williams again asked, "Can't you throw any harder than that?" . . .
ADVICE FOR A LEGEND - Mallett also remembers Williams once hitting a ball so hard that it knocked off the glove of Chicago White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox. And what made it so remarkable, Mallett said, was the fact that the Ted Williams Shift was being employed and Fox was playing in short right field . . . When Williams was preparing for his first at bat against the Washington Senators' Jim Katt he asked if anyone knew anything about his pitching style. "Williams was like a caged tiger and when nobody else responded, I told him I had batted against Katt in the minors." After Mallett described a minor, almost undetectable flaw in Katt's curveball, Williams nodded, stepped to the plate and got a base hit. "As I brought him his glove after the third out he said, 'You and I are going to get along fine.'" Mallet said. Mallett said Williams had an uncanny memory for pitches and situations. "He recalled certain pitchers, what they threw and when," Mallett said. "The difference between TW and others was if he got a pitch he ripped it. His bat was worn only on the sweet spot. No marks or imprints on the rest of it, while mine was bruised on the trademark and on both sides." . . .
ODD SIDE OF A LEGEND - But Williams, who died on July 5 at the age of 83, also had his eccentric moments, Mallett said. He recalled that Williams liked to stroll around the clubhouse in a sweatshirt, athletic supporter and shower shoes. And once when a newspaper photographer took a picture of him in that attire, Mallett saw Williams grab the man's camera and smashed it into small pieces. "The fellow was hollering and said he was going to sue him," Mallett said. "Williams quietly walked to his locker, got his lawyer's business card and handed it to him." Mallett said Williams had such a disdain for the media that the once attempted to have a stipulation written into his contract that no writers could approach him until at least 10 minutes following a game. "He knew that he could be showered and gone in that period of time and would never have to see the press." Mallett summed up his memories of the man who most baseball people consider the greatest hitter of all time, by saying: "Williams knew more about hitting than anyone I ever talked to. He was the only player I ever saw who caused everyone in the ballpark to stand up when he took batting practice. He was a great teacher." . . .
JACK LOFTIS
CO-CHAIRMAN
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
