Ted Williams Painting - (1948) Sporting News

Remember "The Baseball Bunch with Johnny Bench"? I watched every Saturday. One episode in the mid 80's, a 65 year old Ted Williams made a guest appearance. He stepped into the box and took the most beautiful swings. At 65! Imagine what it must have been like to see him play at Fenway!

I created this series of original paintings, "Lost Ballparks Legends" because selfishly I wanted to find a way to bring those special moments of my youth back to life.

This item, "The Splendid Splinter", featuring Red Sox legend Ted Williams on an actual Sporting News newspaper from 1948, is displayed on an 11x14 wood canvas. It is 1 of 1. There is no other like it.

 "All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street folks will say, 'There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived." - Ted Williams

Ted Williams lifetime batting average was .344. Let me repeat that. .344!!! He was a 19x All-Star, 2x AL MVP, 2x Triple Crown winner, 6x AL batting champion and his .482 career on base percentage is the highest of all time! And oh by the way, he hit .406 during the 1941 season!!!

"Ted looked at me and said, 'If I knew that hitting .400 would have been so damn important, I would have done it more often.''' - Tony Gwynn

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

Man, this one was fun to create!

-Mike