Welcome to the American Story.

Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful

and worthy of our love.

This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.

I call this one Teddy Ballgame.

If there was ever a real life John Wayne, or the character Wayne played so well, it was Ted Williams.

Self-confident, fiercely independent, and capable of physical feats that few if any could match.

Williams was a Hall of Fame baseball player and by his own well-founded estimation

maybe the greatest hitter who ever lived.

He was the last major leaguer who batted 400.

He did so after insisting that he play on the last day of the 1941 season, a double-headed. If he didn't play, his batting average

of 3-9-96 would have been rounded up to 400.

But Ted Williams was not a round up sort of guy.

He played, went six for eight, and finished the season at 406.

No one has been there since.

Williams was also an avid outdoorsman,

widely known for his proficiency with all forms of fishing.

He achieved what some called the triple crown of fishing,

tarpon, bonefish, and Atlantic salmon.

He was inducted into the International Game Fish Association's Fishing Hall of Fame.

Back in those days, fishing and hunting were big features in newspaper sports pages.

What calls my attention to Williams at the moment is the fact that in the prime of his

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