MLB: Top Ten Greatest Final Seasons
Ted Williams
Ted Williams spent all 19 of his big league seasons with the Boston Red Sox, and despite missing three years due to service in World War II, is among the game’s all-time greats. He hung up his spikes at the age of 41 in 1960 despite showing that he still had few equals with a bat in his hands.
Williams slashed .316/.451/.645 in 113 games for the BoSox that year, hitting 29 home runs and driving in 72 runs. That was good for an OPS of 1.096, an OPS+ of 190, and a 3.0 bWAR. That it came on the heels of the only season in which he failed to hit .300, have an OPS over 1.000, and a negative bWAR makes it that much more impressive.
Teddy Ballgame once said it was his goal in life to “walk down the street [and have] folks say ‘there goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.’” After a career that saw Williams lead the American League in batting average six times, home runs four times, and RBIs four times, being the last man to hit .400, and twice winning the Triple Crown, he is definitely near the top of the list in that regard. And he went out in perhaps the only way he could, hitting his 521st home run in his final career at-bat.
Next: Early retirement.