(Updated Nov. 19, 2024)
Concerned he would become forgotten in their vast minor-league system, Ted Williams rejected an offer to begin his professional career with the Cardinals.
If he would have signed with the Cardinals, Williams likely would have been in their organization at the same time as Stan Musial, making it possible the 1940s Cardinals could have had two of the game’s best left-handed hitters, Musial and Williams, in the same lineup.
Instead, Williams played two years with his hometown minor-league San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League before signing with the Red Sox. In his only World Series, Williams opposed Musial and the Cardinals in 1946.
Meet me in St. Louis
In the book “Voices From Cooperstown,” Williams told author Anthony J. Connor that as a youth his favorite player was Giants first baseman Bill Terry. Williams said, “I’d be playing, or just swinging a bat, and I’d say to myself, ‘Bill Terry’s up, last of the ninth, bases loaded, 3-and-2 count.’ You know how kids announce their own games.”
In 1935, Williams was in his junior year at Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego. Playing mostly outfield and first base, he hit .588 in 15 games and also pitched, posting a 4-2 record.
Herb Benninghoven, a scout for the Cardinals in San Diego, took notice of Williams, began attending his games and befriended him.
In his book “My Turn at Bat,” Williams recalled Benninghoven would sit “way out in the outfield, looking at me with field glasses.”
Often, after games, Benninghoven “might drive Ted home, and they’d talk baseball, or he’d invite the boy over to his house. His wife was always cooking and baking something good,” wrote Ben Bradlee Jr. in his book “The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams.”
On Aug. 6, 1935, the San Diego Evening Tribune reported Williams had been invited to try out for the Cardinals in St. Louis. It was the first public indication Williams was considered a professional baseball prospect.
“Ted Williams, slim Herbert Hoover High pitcher, with whom local diamond fans are well acquainted, has received an offer to try out with the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League,” the Evening Tribune wrote. “Herb Benninghoven … tendered the offer and informed Williams his expenses would be taken care of should he care to make the trip east for the trial.”
The newspaper added, “Doubt was expressed that Ted would accept, however, since he still has one more year of high school and should he go into organized baseball he would be declared ineligible for further high school competition.”
Williams still was 16 _ he would turn 17 a few weeks later on Aug. 30, 1935 _ and speculation was his parents didn’t want him to leave home yet.
He didn’t attend the Cardinals tryout and instead returned to high school for his senior year.
In hot pursuit
Meanwhile, the Yankees joined the Cardinals in pursuing Williams. The Yankees offered Williams a chance to play for their Oakland affiliate in the Pacific Coast League and, according to the Bradlee book, Williams and his family agreed in principle that he would sign with New York after he graduated from high school.
Still, the suitors kept arriving, most notably the Tigers and Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels. Benninghoven and the Cardinals hadn’t given up either.
In January 1936, in the middle of Williams’ senior year, San Diego was granted a franchise in the Pacific Coast League and the team was named the Padres. Soon after, Benninghoven, looking to sign Williams before he graduated, invited him to attend a Cardinals tryout camp in Fullerton, Calif. This time, Williams accepted.
Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey, originator of their farm system, was overseeing the tryout camp. The night before, Williams was hit by a pitch in the thigh during a game. At the tryout camp, his sore thigh hampered his mobility and Rickey was unimpressed by Williams, according to the Bradlee book.
“That sore leg made me look like I was anchored,” Williams said in his autobiography. “I was discouraged, I didn’t hit particularly well, and they hardly gave me a look.”
Still, because of a strong endorsement from Benninghoven, the Cardinals offered Williams a contract, but he spurned the offer.
In “My Turn at Bat,” Williams said of the Cardinals, “They would have probably sent me to Oshkosh or Peoria or someplace, because they had a huge farm system and you could get lost.”
Bound for Boston
Money also may have been a factor in Williams’ decision to reject the Cardinals.
When Benninghoven died in January 1970, an obituary by the Associated Press reported, “He once said he missed signing Ted Williams out of high school when the St. Louis Cardinals refused an extra $1,000 which Williams demanded.”
Williams also turned his back on the Yankees and instead, with his parents urging him to stay home, signed with the Pacific Coast League Padres.
After two seasons with the Padres, Williams, 19, signed with the Red Sox in December 1937. He played one year for their Minneapolis farm team, joined the Red Sox in 1939 and embarked on a Hall of Fame career in which he would hit .344 with 521 home runs and 1,839 RBI with Boston. In 1941, Williams hit .406, becoming the last big-league player to achieve a .400 batting average.
In 104 American League games at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis against the Browns, Williams hit .399 and had an on-base percentage of .531.
Two years after Williams first appeared with the Red Sox, Musial, who had converted from pitcher to outfielder, debuted with the 1941 Cardinals and launched his own Hall of Fame career in which he would hit .331 with 475 home runs and 1,951 RBI in 22 years with St. Louis.
In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said of Williams: “Ted was a once-in-a-generation hitter, the best in our time. He knew his art and he knew his (opposing) pitchers. He had a keen appreciation of the strike zone, a great eye, quick hands and power.”
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