Before he became the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season, before he established the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs and before becoming a 19-time All-Star and 2-time winner of the American League MVP Award, Ted Williams honed his majestic swing on the sandlots and ballfields of San Diego, California. The tall, lean kid that would one day be known as “The Splendid Splinter” was an obsessive student of hitting and earned the attention of Major League scouts early in his high school career. Though he soon had offers from the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees, Ted’s mother thought he was too young to leave home so he signed with the local minor league club, the San Diego Padres, while still a student at San Diego’s Herbert Hoover High School. Ted’s Major League destiny could not be denied. This is the historic document that brought a then 19-year old Ted Williams to the Boston Red Sox. This exceptional piece of baseball history will be featured as part of SCP Auctions Spring, 2011 Auction. Call today to add your consignments to this extraordinary auction event.
The agreement, dated December 7, 1937, was executed between the San Diego Baseball Club of the PCL and the Boston American League Baseball Company and called for the Red Sox to give two players and $20,000 in order to obtain Williams. Signed by a representative of the San Diego club and Hall of Famer Eddie Collins in his capacity as General Manager for the Red Sox, this document paved Williams’ path to immortality as arguably the greatest hitter who ever lived.
