Ted Blood, a true fan of Ted Williams, had enough of the way sportswriters treated his
baseball hero and wrote his own version of Williams’ life and baseball career in the
rarest of books dedicated to the Red Sox left fielder, titled Ted Williams: The Splendid
Splinter. The 1960 book is complimentary to Williams on every page, pointing out his
charitable work with children and former ballplayers and positively dissecting every
baseball statistic hammered out by the last man to hit over .400 in a season.
Blood found no publishers wanting to print his Williams book and was so determined to
show the world that Williams was the greatest hitter of all time and a generous man
in society that he self-published the book with his own money through the vanity press
company Exposition Press.
As such, there were few copies printed with fewer surviving the past 63 years. Many of the books surviving are ex-library books
with the usual markings and dust jacket issues. This non-library book is a book store
copy and is in EX-NRMT condition with a superb dust jacket. There is a slight glue marking
from the original price tag inside the front cover, but overall the book is one of the finest
copies on the marketplace. It is a must for all Ted Williams and baseball book fans.