Boston Baseball Monuments and Statues 2013

The 2013 baseball season is upon us, and with this sport Boston's Public Art and artists have created memorable athletic individuals and positive roll models for us all.

Two monuments celebrating "Ted Williams "by Franc Talarico and "Teammates" by Antonio Tobias Mendez are both artist and tell us about the meaning of American baseball.

Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and also was a Triple Crown winner. A nineteen-time All Star, he had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30,1918 – July 5, 2002), was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox (1939-1942 and 1946-1960).

Williams was the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941). Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone

with 500 or more home runs. His career year was 1941, when he hit .406 with 37 HR, 120 RBI, and 135 runs scored. His .551 on base percentage set a record that stood for 61 years. Nicknamed “The Kid”, “The Splendid Splinter”, “Teddy Ballgame”, and “The Thumper” because of his hitting prowess, Williams’ career was twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot. An avid sports fisherman, he hosted a television show about fishing and was inducted into the IGA Fishing Hall of Fame.

Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters who ever lived, an American patriot, and a pioneer in the development of the Jimmy Fund. Ted will forever be one of the great heroes in the history of baseball, Boston, and America. He amassed 521 home runs despite sacrificing five years in his prime to serve his country during World War II and the Korean War. He was a relentless champion of children, such as this child to whom he is offering his cap, in their battles against cancer, and helped make the Jimmy Fund at the Dana Farber Cancer Center Institute the world renowned center of research it is today.

"Ted Williams"Monument outside of Fenway Park

"The memory of Ted Williams will forever be a point of pride for the Boston Red Sox, the people of Boston, New England, and the United States of America. Dedicated this 16th day of April, 2004."

(Taken from the Bronze)

"Teammates"

"The Red Sox fans the world over, they are simply known as Bobby, Ted, Dom and Johnny."

(Taken from the Bronze)

These are our Red Sox Hall of Famers. Williams, Pesky, Doerr and DiMaggio have a permanent home at Fenway Park. Watching Ted Williams on TV hit home runs out of Fenway Park was a Sunday ritual for my father and I, as for many of us in Boston.

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"by Joe Gallo is a guidebook mapping and story telling of Boston's Monuments and Statues dotting our parks and streets of the City of Boston.