Best all-time player for each MLB team
Boston Red Sox: Ted Williams
The Red Sox boast an absolutely loaded all-time roster with 12 former players inducted to the Hall of Fame. One player rises to the top, however. Ted Williams — the Splendid Splinter — is the greatest Boston baseballer in the team’s lengthy history.
Teddy Ballgame played all 19 years of his career in Boston, batting .344/.482/.634 with 2,654 hits and 521 home runs. He drove in 1,839 runs and led the league in 122 different statistical categories throughout his career. Williams is the all-time leader in on-base percentage and is the last hitter to bat over .400 for a full season. He batted .406 in 1941. Hitting was a pure science for Williams. He never struck out more than 70 times in a season and batted below .300 only once.
Williams lost three seasons to service in World War II. He was also injured for the better part of four seasons in the 1950s. Had he stayed healthy and not lost a chunk of his career to the war, Williams may have gone down as the hit king and made a run at 700 home runs. For some reason — perhaps because he was never chummy with the media — Williams is not quite held in as high regard as other Hall of Famers of his day.