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SN 140 Moments: No. 107 - Ted Williams goes 6-for-8 in final day to hit .406 in 1941 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Ted Williams had a decision to make entering the final day of the 1941 baseball season. His Red Sox had nothing to play for, their pennant hopes long since dashed by the Yankees. Yet the 22-year-old Williams was sitting on one of the game’s magic numbers, a .400 batting average for the season.
Williams was technically already there as that Sunday dawned; his average of .39955 would be rounded up to .400 if he sat out the final day. But as his manager Joe Cronin told reporters, “He wouldn’t think of getting out of the lineup to keep his average intact.”
Instead, the man who proved to be one of the greatest hitters the game has ever known finished with an exclamation point. Williams recorded hits in his first four trips to the plate in the first game, including his 37th and final home run of the season. He reached on an error in his final at-bat of Game 1, then singled and doubled in the nightcap before flying out his final time up.
That 6-for-8 day put his average at .406, making him the first player to top .400 since Bill Terry in 1930. Eighty-five years later, only Williams in 1957 and Rod Carew in 1977 have approached .400 in a full season, with both finishing at .388.
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