Ted Williams squares off against Nancy Kerrigan in the first round of Boston’s Biggest Sports Legend tournament.
Is there any baseball hero more beloved than Teddy Ballgame? His on-the-field honors are still unparalleled. He led the American League in batting six times, won two Triple Crowns and two AL MVP awards. Over his 21-year career, he batted .341 — the highest average of any player who played his entire career in the live-ball era. Plus, he never played for anyone except the Red Sox. Now that’s loyalty – something he also felt for his country. He forwent baseball twice to serve in the U.S. military, as a pilot in World War II (1942-46) and the Korean War (1952-53). The infield shift was practically pioneered in his name, and in his final career at-bat, he went out with a bang in front of the Fenway faithful, hitting his 521st career home run. He owns MLB’s best career on-base percentage and the second-best slugging percentage. “If I was being paid $30,000 a year, the very least I could do was hit .400,” Williams once said. Tough to argue with a Hall of Famer.
The pride of Stoneham, Mass., Nancy Kerrigan rose from humble beginnings to become a global star. Kerrigan provided hope for U.S. figure skating gold in the 1994 Olympics in Norway, just two years after winning bronze in France. But an attack coordinated by competitor Tonya Harding nearly derailed her career. Kerrigan was able to recover from the resulting knee injury in time for the Olympics, and she earned silver. She retired from competition following the 1994 Olympics, but remained active in U.S. figure skating shows, and was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2004. She was also honored at The Tradition in 2009, an event that celebrates “the men and women whose accomplishments, contributions and qualities of character and spirit have helped make Boston the greatest sports city in America.”
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