“No Easy Way: the Story of Ted Williams and the Last .400 Season”
by Fred Bowen, illustrations by Charles S. Pyle.
Dutton Children’s Books, New York, 2010, 32 pages, Grades 2-4.
Each April, hope springs eternal because the Major League Baseball Season begins.
After a long winter of snow and cold, the air freshens and summer dreams emerge. All across many countries, players start throwing on baseball diamonds and hitters pick up their bats and go to home plate.
Since a baseball is round, and the bat is round, hitting is one of the most difficult athletic skills to master. The only way players can learn to hit is to practice, practice and practice. No player ever worked harder at mastering the art of hitting than Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox. While batting .300 in the major leagues is considered a great accomplishment, very few players have even approached a .400 batting average. The last player to get close was George Brett of the Kansas City Royals. But the great Kansas City third baseman fell short.
Ted Williams accomplished this magical exploit in 1941. Fred Bowen has written an interesting children’s biography of this great accomplishment in the book entitled “No Easy Way: the Story of Ted Williams and the Last .400 Season.”
As a young boy growing up in California, Ted Williams dreamed of being a great baseball player and an outstanding hitter. Realizing how difficult the task was, Ted practiced and practiced throughout his childhood. In fact, the boy took so much batting practice that large calluses formed on the palms of his hands. With grim determination, Ted spent year after year in the batter’s box.
He realized certain things as he learned to hit. The first thing was that all pitches aren’t the same. To be a great hitter, a player needs to swing at hittable pitches. So a batter can’t just go up to the plate and start swinging at everything the pitcher throws. He must wait for his pitch and then attack the ball. The second part of hitting is the swing. The batter times the pitch and then brings the bat through the hitting zone connecting with the ball. Since Ted wanted to be a great power hitter, he had to add a slight lift to his swing. This upper cut, as it is called, allows the baseball to soar over the fence when properly executed. By the end of his youth, Ted Williams had mastered the art of hitting.
The Boston Red Sox called him up to the major leagues and soon Williams was a star in the league. During the 1941 season, Ted had a brilliant season. With two games left, his batting average stood at .399.55. All that Ted had to do was sit out the last two games to achieve lasting fame. But that seemed like the coward’s way out and Ted had never taken the easy way out. Did he decide to play the last two games and risk losing the .400 batting average?
How did integrity play into Ted’s decision? Are goals worth achieving at any price?
Have you ever really sacrificed something you had long desired? What happens to Ted Williams? To find out go to the library and check out this fine biography “No Easy Way: the Story of Ted Williams and the Last .400 Season.”
Sports books are very popular with students of all ages. This book is a fine biography about one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball. But I would encourage you to go to the library and find other fine books about baseball in the Dewey number 796.357 section of library. There are many interesting books in this section and students will greatly enjoy shelf browsing. Go with your younger family members and you can have just as much fun. Spring is here, it is time to have fun! Batter Up!
