What is Ted Williams’s Net Worth?
Ted Williams was a professional baseball player and manager who had a net worth of $3 million at the time of his death in 2002. That’s the same as around $5 million in today’s dollars after adjusting for inflation.
Ted Williams played in MLB for 19 seasons between 1939 and 1960, entirely with the Boston Red Sox. Considered one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball, he was a two-time AL MVP, six-time AL batting champion, and two-time Triple Crown winner. In his post-retirement career, Williams managed the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers from 1969 to 1972.
Early Life and Education
Ted Williams was born on August 30, 1918 in San Diego, California to May, an evangelist and soldier in the Salvation Army, and Samuel, a US Army soldier, sheriff, and photographer. He was of Spanish-Mexican ancestry on his mother’s side and of English, Welsh, and Irish ancestry on his father’s side. Williams was educated at Herbert Hoover High School, where he was a star baseball pitcher. He also played American Legion Baseball as a youth.
Minor League Career
While still in high school, Williams signed with the San Diego Padres of the local Pacific Coast League. In 42 games with the team in 1936, he batted .271. The next season, he batted .291 with 23 home runs to help the Padres win the PCL title. Williams went on to join the Double-A Minneapolis Millers in 1938. An immediate sensation on the team, he finished the season with a .366 batting average, 46 home runs, and 142 RBI, and earned the AA Triple Crown.
Boston Red Sox, 1939-1942
Williams made his MLB debut with the Boston Red Sox on April 20, 1939. He ended up having an impressive rookie season, batting .327 with 31 home runs and a league-leading 145 RBI. Although he improved his hitting in 1940 with a .344 average, he had fewer home runs (23) and RBI (113) than in his rookie season. Williams went on to have one of his greatest career seasons in 1941, when he batted .406 with 37 home runs and 120 RBI to win his first of six AL batting championships. His .406 batting average remains the highest single-season average in Red Sox franchise history. Williams had another peak season in 1942, recording a league-leading .356 batting average, 36 home runs, and 137 RBI to win his first of two career Triple Crowns.
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Military Service in World War II
In early 1942, Williams was drafted into the military. He joined the Navy Reserve that May, and went on active duty in 1943. In 1944, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps as a naval aviator. While in Pearl Harbor toward the end of World War II, Williams played baseball in the Navy League. He was discharged by the Marine Corps in early 1946 so he could prepare for the upcoming MLB season.
Boston Red Sox, 1946-1960
Rejoining the Red Sox in 1946, Williams batted .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBI to help the Red Sox claim the pennant. That season, he also hit the longest home run in Fenway Park history, at 502 feet. Williams subsequently earned his first AL MVP Award. In the 1946 World Series, the Red Sox’s first World Series appearance in 28 years, the team lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Williams had another terrific season in 1947, leading the AL with a .343 batting average, 32 home runs, and 114 RBI to claim his second career Triple Crown. He was the AL batting champion again in 1948, with a .369 average. Williams continued his incredible success in the 1949 season, hitting a career-high 43 home runs to go along with 159 RBI. He also set an MLB record by getting on base in 84 consecutive games, and broke the Red Sox franchise record for career home runs. For his incredible 1949 season, Williams won his second career AL MVP Award.
In 1950, Williams played in just 89 games due to a broken left arm. Although he struggled with lingering arm pain in the 1951 season, he managed to hit .318 with 30 home runs and 126 RBI in 148 games. Williams went on to have truncated seasons in 1952 and 1953 due to his service with the Marine Corps in the Korean War. In 1954, another season plagued by injury, he batted .345 in 117 games. Following the Red Sox’s final game of the season, Williams announced his retirement. However, he returned one month into the 1955 season, and proceeded to hit .356 with 28 home runs and 83 RBI. In 1956, Williams reached a milestone by becoming only the fifth MLB player ever to hit 400 home runs. In both 1957 and 1958, he led the AL in batting average, with .388 and .328, respectively. Williams had his final at-bat on September 28, 1960 at Fenway Park, and hit a home run.
Post-retirement
Following his retirement from playing, Williams worked as a special batting instructor at Red Sox spring training camps. From 1965 to 1968, he served as a team vice president. During that time, in 1966, Williams was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He also had his own summer camp in Lakeville, Massachusetts called the Ted Williams Baseball Camp, where he often gave hitting clinics. From 1969 to 1971, Williams served as manager of MLB’s Washington Senators; he continued serving as manager for one more season after the Senators became the Texas Rangers.
An avid and skilled sport fisherman, Williams spent many of his summers post-retirement fishing in Miramichi, New Brunswick. He hosted a television show about fishing, and was inducted into the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame in 2000. Williams was also a prolific hunter. Among his other activities, he was substantially involved with the Jimmy Fund, helping to raise millions of dollars for cancer care and research. In 1991, Williams was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his services.
Personal Life and Death
Williams wed his first wife, Doris Soule, in 1944. They had a daughter named Barbara and divorced in 1954. Williams went on to marry socialite and model Lee Howard in 1961; they divorced in 1967. The following year, Williams married model Dolores Wettach. Together, they had a son named John-Henry and a daughter named Claudia before divorcing in 1972. John-Henry passed away from leukemia in 2004. After divorcing his third wife, Williams lived with Louise Kaufman for 20 years until her passing.
Williams suffered from cardiomyopathy in his later years, and had a pacemaker implanted in late 2000 and an open-heart surgery in early 2001. Following a series of strokes and congestive heart failure, he passed away from cardiac arrest on July 5, 2002 in Inverness, Florida. Williams’s children John-Henry and Claudia chose to have their father’s remains frozen cryonically as part of an informal family pact. After some legal snafus were sorted out, Williams’s body was decapitated and transported to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation for cryopreservation.
Florida Home
In the 1960s, Ted bought a waterfront home in the Florida Keys town of Upper Matecumbe Key. He was attracted to the area because of its ease of access to sport fishing. The 1.72 acre property has over 100 feet of ocean frontage and a 3,000-square-foot home. The year of his death, 2002, the home was sold for $1.8 million.
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