As the 1941 Major League Baseball season entered its final weekend, baseball fans wondered if the great Ted Williams would achieve the always exciting yet still impressive .400 batting average. He was hitting .401 entering Boston’s final series against the Athletics, and there was talk that perhaps he should sit out that series to make sure his average didn’t dip.
But the Splendid Splinter was no louse. “If I’m going to be a .400 hitter, I want more than my toenails on the line,” he reputedly said. He played the entire series, cranked out seven hits in 12 at-bats, and finished the season at .