This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 6/27/2002.
It's almost incredulous: the owner of a .344 lifetime batting average, 18 All-Star game selections and 521 career home runs was actually left off 20 of the 302 ballots in 1966, when his name came up for election to Baseball's Hall of Fame. In a way, this tells a lot about "The Kid," who for parts of four decades battled the Yankees, our nation's enemies through five years of military service, and most tellingly, the Boston sports writers. The HOF "snubs," many of them from Boston's own reporters, stemmed from the frustration of constantly losing to the Yankees and the inevitable, unfavorable comparisons to Joe DiMaggio. From baseball's golden era, the years glorified by authors David Halbestein, Bill Stern and Roger Kahn comes a spectacular flannel jersey of the greatest hitter of that era. This 1948 Boston Red Sox home flannel jersey of HOFer Ted Williams has the "Wilson" label in the neck with the size "44" tag adjacent. Below this is a felt patch with the name "Williams" in black chain stitch. On the inside left front tail is the year tag "48." Across the front of the jersey is the name "Red Sox" and on the back is the player number "9." Both the name and number are made of red on blue felt. There are several repair marks on the bottom of the shirt. The shirt shows good game-use, and with the exception of the repair marks, appears to have no other alterations of any kind.