Ted Williams

is in the Fishing Hall of Fame: '"They had this beautiful babe in a bikini at one end of the casting pool with a cigarette in her mouth and Ted would try to knock it out of her mouth," said Gartside. "He always did it."'

'Theodore S. Williams
1918 - 2002
1999 Inductee
Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters if not the greatest in the history of baseball, also ranks among the best of saltwater and freshwater anglers. Williams fell in love with fishing at about the same time he fell in love with baseball, and his pursuit of both sports followed similar paths. Williams grew up in San Diego, joined the Boston Red Sox in 1939, and remained with the team throughout his career except for nearly five years as a fighter pilot during World War II and the Korean War. Even with five seasons taken out of his career, Williams accumulated six American League batting titles, won two triple crowns, two MVP awards, four home run crowns, and four RBI titles. In addition to naming him Player of the Decade (1950s), The Sporting News cited Williams as Player of the Year five times. "The Kid" made the All-Star team sixteen consecutive seasons. When he retired from the Sox in 1960, homering in his last at bat, Williams was third on the list of all-time home run hitters with 521. "Teddy Baseball" was simply one of the best to ever play the game. Six years after retirement, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with a record 282 votes. It was during his war years, while Williams was stationed in Florida, that he fell in love with angling in the warm waters of the Atlantic. He returned to Florida early each spring and during the Red Sox off-season to fish. Williams mastered the art of fishing just as he mastered hitting: he studied every detail from fly tying, to the habits of fish, to the strategy and physics of casting. He consulted experts. And he practiced. He was determined to be the best. In retirement, Williams devoted himself to fly fishing for tarpon and bonefish in the Florida Keys winter through summer. During the fall, his quest was salmon on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. Although he fished for virtually every species, his book, Fishing the Big Three: Tarpon, Bonefish, Atlantic Salmon, makes it clear that Williams ranked these three as the greatest game fish on earth. He caught more than 1,000 of each species, but kept few of them. "Releasing a great fish," he said, "is about the greatest thrill I get from fishing.”'

He also had a brand of fishing boat.