Ted vs. Joe: What a rivalry!

"Diamond Duels" examines the careers of Williams and DiMaggio

EDITOR’S NOTE: Writing “Diamond Duels” gave me a chance to really dig into the careers of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio and comparing what the two did on the field —particularly against one another — with an in-depth chapter that will be a highlight, (I think,) of the book. I also got a chance to study the media coverage of the two and how it very likely had a serious impact on the Most Valuable Player award at least twice and maybe their entire careers. Can you imagine winning THE TRIPLE CROWN twice and NOT winning the MVP? “Diamond Duels” — my deep dive into baseball’s historic matchups, is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be in the stores, March 4. Thanks, friends.

They seemed to be joined at the hip, in some ways. Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox and Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees were probably the two most dominant baseball players of their era. As players and as people, they couldn’t have been more different.

Ted was loud, profane, a truly scientific student of the art of hitting a baseball who could explain the Bernoulli Principle and meticulously tie a fly while he was doing it. He didn’t drink or smoke, got right in the face of sportswriters who pissed him off and always seemed to be in a battle somewhere, wives, writers, but never the umpires or managers. He lived life large from the time he arrived in the big leagues. When the rookie was advised about the show he’d see in BP, Ted shot back “Wait’ll Jimmy Foxx sees ME hit.” That was Ted Williams.

Joe was intense, a nervous, chain-smoking, withdrawn, soft-spoken man, obsessed with one thing, something he was always asking teammates “How’d I look?” He paid no attention to his statistics, played the game hard but also carefully manipulated his image with the New York media to the point where if a writer DARED to write anything the least bit critical, DiMaggio would cut him off, he was dead to the world.

Even the great Red Smith, as important a sportswriter as we’ve ever had, was buffaloed. “I told myself not to worry. Someday there would be another DiMaggio,” he wrote. Then Red died. (Really!)

Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio - American League rivals

What was interesting in researching their head-to-head matchups, the Yankees vs. the Red Sox, of course, the Yankees dominated the series but in the individual games between the two of them, there really weren’t all that many where either Ted or DiMaggio dominated like you might think. Ted hit .345 lifetime against the Yanks, a point higher than his career average. DiMaggio was nine points higher than his career mark, hitting .334 against the Red Sox. But the Yankees had better pitching, Williams had almost three times as many walks as Joe D. (when in doubt: Walk him) and if you’re a believer in WAR (Wins Above Replacement), Williams was a far superior player, 123.1 WAR to DiMaggio’s 78.1.

Ted’s numbers are unapproachable, even with the two career interruptions for World War II and Korea. Yet when it came to the sportswriters of the day, the ones who voted every year for the league’s MVP, you had to wonder what in the world they were thinking. IF they were thinking.

DiMaggio was the MVP in 1941, the year of his 56-game hitting streak. His Yankees won the pennant, too. So give him that one. But Williams’ stats were considerably better: Ted hit .406 to Joe’s .357, hit 37 HRs to Joe’s 30, Joe had a five RBI edge, 125-120 but Ted had 147 walks to Joe’s 76 with a .553 on-base percentage, .113 points higher than DiMaggio. Ted even hit higher than Joe during that 56-game streak.

A year later, Ted got shafted again, winning the AL Triple Crown - .356, 36, 137 with 145 walks and a league-leading 141 runs scored. Yet the writers gave the MVP to the Yankees’ Joe Gordon, who had a nice year - .322, 18, 103, impressive numbers for a second baseman but come on. And get this: The other two first-place votes went to Ted’s teammate Johnny Pesky, who hit .331 with no power and one for ex-Red Sox star Vern Stephens, who hit .294 for the St. Louis Browns with 14 HR and 92 RBI. Those three votes go to Ted — as they should have — and it’s a tie.

In 1947, it was worse. Ted won the Triple Crown again - .343, 32, 114 with 162 walks, a .499 OBP and a 1.133 OPS (smokin’ numbers) and they gave the MVP to DiMaggio, who hit .315, 20 HR, 97 RBI. Joe got 8 first-place votes to narrowly win over Ted.

But the hosing was this: Yankee reliever Joe Page (14-8, 2.48) out of the pen, got 7 first-place votes and was fourth overall for a Yankee team that won the AL by a dozen games. Yeah, the bullpen was key.

For his spectacular season, a second Triple Crown, Williams got just three first-place votes, the same as the Yankees’ immortal George McQuinn (have you ever even heard of him?) McQuinn finished sixth in the voting hit .304, 13, 80, hit .248 the next year and retired.

How in the world could a sportswriter give him three first-place votes instead of Williams? Or the idea of a 14-game winner — as a reliever — like Page for a team that won by 12 games? And he gets SEVEN first-place votes? Think the New York media made a difference?

Of course, there’s a lot more to the DiMaggio-Williams saga. I can’t wait for you to check it out along with the other chapters in “Diamond Duels,” available now on pre-order now on Amazon and out on March 4. I’ll be doing a book signing at Midtown Reader on March 27. Hope to see you! Thanks, friends…