(1 copy, 3 holds in LINKcat)
Link to September 26 New York Times article, "Tribute to a Hero in Twilight".
Excerpt: Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of Ted Williams’s last game, in which, with an impeccable sense of occasion, he hit a home run, a miraculous line drive to deep right center, in his final at-bat.
Ted Williams in the clubhouse after his last game, on Sept. 28, 1960. Updike later wrote a memorable essay on the game for The New Yorker.
“Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams” came out this year.
There was no Red Sox Nation back then. The club was a bottom-dweller in the old eight-team American League, and its following amounted to a village of lonely die-hards. The weather was dank that afternoon and so overcast that in the sixth inning, the lights at Fenway Park were turned on.
Only 10,455 fans turned up to say goodbye to Williams, who was 42, hobbled by aches and pains. Among them, sitting behind third base, was 28-year-old John Updike, who had actually scheduled an adulterous assignation that day. But when he reached the woman’s apartment, on Beacon Hill, he found that he had been stood up: no one was home. “So I went, as promised, to the game,” he wrote years later, “and my virtue was rewarded.”
Ted Williams in the clubhouse after his last game, on Sept. 28, 1960. Updike later wrote a memorable essay on the game for The New Yorker.
“Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams” came out this year.
There was no Red Sox Nation back then. The club was a bottom-dweller in the old eight-team American League, and its following amounted to a village of lonely die-hards. The weather was dank that afternoon and so overcast that in the sixth inning, the lights at Fenway Park were turned on.
Only 10,455 fans turned up to say goodbye to Williams, who was 42, hobbled by aches and pains. Among them, sitting behind third base, was 28-year-old John Updike, who had actually scheduled an adulterous assignation that day. But when he reached the woman’s apartment, on Beacon Hill, he found that he had been stood up: no one was home. “So I went, as promised, to the game,” he wrote years later, “and my virtue was rewarded.”
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