100 years ago today, Teddy Ballgame, the Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams was born!

and his knees!


www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-30/john-mccain-loved-to-tell-this-ted-williams-story


Williams, a Marine aviator during World War II, was called back into military service during the Korean War at the peak of his baseball career. He usually flew in formation with John Glenn, the future astronaut and senator. On one of his initial solo flights, Williams's plane caught fire. He approached the airbase and crash landed, then jumped out just before the plane exploded.



For years, McCain had heard this story and wanted to ask Williams why he didn't parachute out of the burning plane. When he finally met the baseball great, Williams explained that he was then 34 years old and figured that if he bailed out, he might break his knees and never play baseball again.



On that bumpy flight from North Carolina all those years later, McCain gleefully remembered Williams's typically foul-mouthed answer:



"So I said, screw it, let's bring it in." (Except that he didn't exactly say "screw it.")



McCain loved the story, no doubt because it recalled his own derring do. He spent the rest of the flight talking about Williams, the intrepid fighter pilot and the fabulous hitter with perfect eyesight. More sports stories followed.