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Tag: Ted Williams

  • James Taylor Lauds Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park With New Original Song

    James Taylor returned to Fenway Park in Boston this weekend–home of the Boston Red Sox–to laud both the baseball team and the venue with an original song. ‘Angels of Fenway’ has been a labor of love for the singer. He’s worked on it ever since the Red Sox broke their 86-year title drought back in 2004, winning the World Series.

    It was then he came up with the music for ‘Angels of Fenway,’ but it took him quite some time to create the lyrics.

    “It took me a long time to get back into the saddle of writing lyrics again,” James Taylor said during a recent interview with Billboard.

    ‘Angels of Fenway’ debuted on the public address system Sunday, as the Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Yankees. A video with Red Sox highlights throughout the years accompanied the music.

    The song and the video will be hosted at Fenway Park starting on Monday, May 4th. James Taylor will release the album on which ‘Angels of Fenway’ is featured, on June 16th.

    So how did James Taylor become such an avid Boston Red Sox fan?

    He hails from the Boston area. When his family moved to North Carolina, he kept his interest strong. He returned to attend high school in the Boston suburb of Milton, becoming even further ensconced in the city’s baseball scene.

    James Taylor threw out the ceremonial first pitch in Boston on Sunday. Dressed in a Red Sox T-shirt and a baseball cap featuring Ted Williams’ retired No. 9, he also sang ‘America the Beautiful’ during the seventh-inning stretch.

    James Taylor will return to Fenway Park in Boston on August 6th, where he is scheduled to do a concert with Bonnie Raitt.

    He will likely share ‘Angels of Fenway’ yet again with the Red Sox fans who grace the park to hear him perform.

  • Ted Williams Auction: Babe Ruth-Signed Ball Headlines Historic Sale

    Baseball fans and sports historians alike are anticipating a giant auction of legend Ted Williams’ memorabilia on Saturday. The auction, set to take place at Boston’s Fenway Park on Saturday has plenty of incredible items, including pieces from Williams’ personal firearms collection, coin collection, and various autographed materials.

    The auction is being held by Hunt Auctions:

    We are honored to present a historic live auction event featuring the personal collection of Baseball Hall of Fame member Ted Williams. The live public auction consists of a large quantity of Williams’ personal items including his 1949 Most Valuable Player Award and his 1957 American League Batting Champion Silver Slugger Award. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the auction will be donated to The Jimmy Fund, a prestigious Boston charity which is forever affiliated with Ted Williams, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Boston Red Sox.

    Hunt Auctions will take a commission, obviously, but the main charity taking the spoils is The Jimmy Fund. It was founded in 1948 and has since raised over $750 million to fight cancer in children and adults. They run over 585 charity events each year, involving over 4,000 volunteers.

    Hunt Auctions president David Hunt told USA Today that he expects one of the biggest items to be a baseball signed by the Great Bambino, the Colossus of Clout (The Colossus of Clout!) himself, addressed to Williams.

    “When you get an event like this, emotional bidding becomes a very big factor. So if you get two or four or six parties that funds are not the concern, it can get very interesting very quick,” he said.

    He expects the entire sale to make somewhere between $1-2 million.

    Ted Williams was a Boston Red Sox legend through and through, having played his entire career with the organization. He made the All-Star team a whopping 19 times and ended his career with 521 home runs and a .344 batting average. He’s known nowadays for his incredible .400 batting average season from 1941 and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

    [Lead Image courtesy Hunt Auctions’ Facebook page]