Subbing for Wolfe in Center Field: Ted Williams

Some stories gain their power not from what happened, but from what almost happened. My father's tale of being replaced in center field by baseball legend Ted Williams during World War II perfectly captures this truth.

As an exceptional athlete who earned athletic scholarships during the Depression, my father's promising career was interrupted when he volunteered for the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor. While stationed in Pensacola, Florida, he played center field on a Navy baseball team managed by Herman Franks (who later managed the Chicago Cubs). When deployment orders came, Franks informed my father that Ted Williams would be taking his position—promising to introduce them before departure and to send box scores comparing their performances. Williams was away fishing (his famous obsession), and those promised box scores never arrived in the war-torn South Pacific.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Audio Memoir
• 0:49 Father's Athletic Background
• 1:58 Naval Baseball in Pensacola
• 3:22 The Ted Williams Story
• 6:19 Reflections and Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Here for the memories thought-provoking audio memoir shorts filled with stories, humor, anecdotes and commentary on social, cultural, business and religious issues. Whatever Lyndon remembers and thinks will entertain, challenge and inform is a possible subject. The collection of memories about one's life allows for the development and refinement of a sense of self, including who one is, how one has changed and what one might be like in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Greetings and salutations. This is Lyndon Wolfe, and you have had the good fortune of finding my audio memoir here for the memories. Again, not a podcast, just some excerpt from my life. As opposed to writing a memoir, which probably would have been quite boring, I'm sharing it in an audio format for those that know and love me, small crowd though it may be, so that when I leave this planet they'll know something about my life, my opinions, my experiences, my stories. I have a lot of stories and most of them are true. Maybe I should say many of them are true. This one is true. It's a story not about me, but my father.

Speaker 2: 1:18

My father was an exceptional athlete. He was so good that even in the Depression he was able to get an athletic scholarship in two sports baseball and basketball at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. He, of course, did not complete his career there because World War II happened and the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, congress went to war. The day after we went to war, he was in line as a volunteer to serve in the Navy and off he went. Before he shipped overseas, he spent time in San Diego and Pensacola, Florida. There in Pensacola he was part of a team, they had a league and they had some exceptional players. One of the players on his team was a man by the name of Cal Stoll, who became the head football coach at the University of Minnesota. In their heyday, many college baseball players and professional baseball players were on these teams. Later on, my father did play briefly in minor league baseball, but it wasn't lucrative back then. Matter of fact, it's not particularly lucrative right now. So he decided to become a semi-pro baseball player in Oak Ridge, tennessee, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories, famous for its participation and work in the Manhattan Project, which produced the nuclear bombs that eventually were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, japan. Back then, big companies had their own baseball teams. It was a big deal. They had these leagues, there was a lot of pride, there was a lot of investment. So my dad was hired as an inspector of cabinetry, but in fact he was a baseball player and sometimes he played on the company basketball team as well. That's actually where he met my mother.

Speaker 2: 3:29

Anyway, back to Pensacola, he's playing on this team and his manager is a guy by the name of Herman Franks. Herman Franks spent his entire career in professional baseball. As a matter of fact, briefly, he was the manager of the Chicago Cubs. I used to watch on TV. We only got to channels where I could watch professional baseball, and one was TBS in Atlanta and I would watch the Braves and the other was WGN Chicago and I would watch the Cubs. And Dad would point out when Herman Franks was the manager, as he would waddle out to the mound to change pitchers. He was a pot-bellied gentleman. Dad would say that's Herman Franks and he was my manager in the Navy in Pensacola, and Dad was extremely good even at that level of competition.

Speaker 2: 4:25

Well, it came time for him to ship out ship from Pensacola to San Diego and then on to the South Pacific where he was in heavy combat, decorated If the Navy had a Purple Heart he would have received it. He, in my estimation, was a war hero. But before he shipped, herman Franks went to my father and said Moe, my dad's name was Elmo, he called him Moe. Moe, guess who's replacing you in center field? He said who? He said Ted Williams. The Ted Williams. Yes, and I'm going to make sure before you ship out, you two are introduced.

Speaker 2: 5:07

Well, it came time for Dad to leave and he had not met Ted Williams yet, and so he went to Herman Franks and said hey, franks, I would like to meet Ted Williams. Where is he? And he said he's been fishing and anyone who knows anything about Ted Williams? He was obsessed with fishing. So Franks said it's not going to happen, but what I'll do is I will save the box score from today's game where you're in center field and that I will save the box score from tomorrow's game where Ted Williams is in center field. Dad said well, that'll work if that's the best you can do, and off. My dad went to fight in the South Pacific. Well, I'm sure Hum and Frank's did it. The fact of the matter is the mail system to the South Pacific was so poor my dad never received those.

Speaker 2: 5:59

But the story became almost folklore and later on in my father's life he was interviewed along with several other veterans that were in their 80s about their experience in World War II. There weren't many left that were veterans and they interviewed them. And, of course, what do they want to know about Dad? They wanted to know the Ted Williams story. Now he was decorated war hero, injured, essentially a purple heart, and yet all they wanted to do was talk about Ted Williams and the Ted Williams story.

Speaker 2: 6:37

Well, as it turns out, he never did meet Ted Williams, but for the rest of his life he told everyone that Williams came off the bench to replace him. What a beautiful story, so classic, of my father. I certainly miss him, and I'm not sure whether or not I regret the fact that he did not meet Ted Williams, because it makes the story that much more meaningful. I'm Lyndon Wolfe, and this is here for the Memories. Today we've had a story about my father, and a story about my father is my story, because he's my father and I'm his son, and a part of him goes with me everywhere. One of these days I'm going to go to Fenway Park and I'm going to peer around and I'm going to imagine that it's Ted Williams in center field that day and that the day before my father was the starting center fielder.

Speaker 1: 8:03

God bless for the memories Much appreciated.