The Kid's Kid
Legends are tough to live with. It is even harder when they die, and their final wishes are not those of the media or the fans. An interview with the son of the great Ted Williams, the much-maligned John Henry, who, as we found, may be getting knocked for nothing.

Dan WACHOWSKI
for

03.07.03 - Legends are tough for their children to live with. It is even tougher when the legend is Ted Williams, a father who was the last player to hit over .400 in the Major Leagues. His achievements in baseball cast a long shadow. Ted Williams' son, John Henry, would have had enough on his plate just being the Kid's kid.

When the Kid passed away, the baseball world mourned.  When news broke that Ted Williams was to be placed in cryogenic suspension, awaiting a cure for old age, the baseball world reacted with shock, disbelief, and anger.

At the center of this storm stood John Henry Williams, insisting that these were his father's final wishes, and that they were to be honored. Opposite him, his half-sister, who insisted that her father wished to be buried.

That now shopworn sensationalism splayed and skewered in the national media is not the story.  John Henry Williams is a man, who, in his thirties, was given an inheritance by his aging, famous father not of money, or collectibles, but of passion for the game that he loved.  A legacy of passion for baseball that brought a father and son together late in life.

Born Again Baseball.

In his teens and through his twenties, John Henry played a little in high school and college, but it wasn't his passion. "My mom and dad divorced when I was four years old," recalls Williams.

"Baseball wasn't something that was prevalent. It was more cross-country skiing."

Then in his thirties, John Henry rediscovered Ted Williams, and baseball.  The father and son had been largely estranged through most of John Henry's youth. As his eighty-year-old father's health began to deteriorate, John Henry became

Continued...

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