Back at home, all of it piles up, hurt stacked upon hurt, so what started as sadness about her mom became fear and desperation over the family coming to an end with her, and she's just dissolving in her high-ceilinged kitchen, coming apart. She's hoping for a boy.Follow ESPN Reader on Twitter: @ESPN_ReaderJoin the conversation about "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived On.". On a page, he drew a horizontal graph, with a line drawn down the middle, dividing the plan into actions he'd take before convincing his father and what he'd need to do after. Then John-Henry read a book about cryonics. This is a great project that really looked at his whole life and Im proud to be a part of it.. Always scared of being abandoned, he fit a dog harness on a long leash and tied Bangor to his bed. But what does it actually mean for people living with the disease? CLAUDIA WILLIAMS, NOW 43, rarely tells anyone about her relation to Ted Williams. Her brother lobbed one wild, but Claudia kicked her leg and delivered a strike. "In his logs, John-Henry and Claudia began to make appearances.First, just simple mentions, when they were little: "Claudia, John Henry took canoe ride to Gray Rapids." In the definitive biography of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr., John-Henry is shown as a terrible businessman and a cheat, someone who lied so often -- inviting his dad to a college graduation where he didn't actually graduate, claiming to make his college baseball team when he never tried out -- that he lied about Ted's wanting to be frozen too. I think that he had a difficulty making attachments. ", The literature John-Henry took home from Alcor, one of the country's two major cryonics companies, worked in his imagination; he purchased every book they offered, according to credit card receipts. Can the dogs of Chernobyl teach us new tricks when it comes to our own survival? Her workout routines -- miles in a pool and on a treadmill, hours daily in a gym -- break the alpha dogs who try to hang with Ted's daughter. The lessons that he had to teach us, we didn't have the time to learn. "'Goddamn, that's my son. About 20 years ago, she graduated from college. Ted drove her back to her mom's house in Miami once, and when they arrived, it transpired that Bobby-Jo had forgotten her keys, and Ted, raging, kicked her out of the car and left her standing alone there in the dark, exactly as his mother had done to him. CLAUDIA GRINNED WHEN I walked back into her house the day after she was accepted to Duke. John-Henry wanted to control his father -- his latest Bangor -- and his father rebelled. he yelled. She is laughing in the kitchen, a lazy Sunday morning. "Bobby-Jo lashed out, and Claudia hid, and John-Henry got as close as he could. Whenever they'd ask questions about his childhood, or his life, he'd scowl and grumble, "Read my book. May Williams never saw her son play a major league game, even though she lived through his entire career. She's the only thing I have left. I left wondering what kind of life awaited her. There are 300+ professionals named "Claudia Williams", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. In the night, he heard a kitten crying, and after searching for and finding her, he tucked the cat, fleas and all, into his bag. She says she visited the hospital so many times that all those trips ran together, but she remains steadfast: Ted signed a piece of paper. As published for the West End Magazine online. Ted Williams: The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived is an Albert M. Tapper Production in association with Nick Davis Productions, Major League Baseball, Big Papi Productions, and THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLCs American Masters for WNET. Claudia and her brother, John-Henry, supported cryonics; older half-sister Bobby-Jo wanted her father cremated and sued her siblings in the courts and fought them in the media. When she is up, laughing with a goofy smile and light in her eyes, you cannot get close enough to her, and when she is down, spiraling into a darkness only she can see, you cannot get far enough away. She feels closest to him fishing but has been only once or twice since he died. Major League Baseball (MLB) is the most historic professional sports league in the United States and consists of 30 member clubs in the U.S. and Canada, representing the highest level of professional baseball. John-Henry died on a Saturday, and as he requested, his body was suspended at Alcor too, in the same tank as his dad.Eleven years he's been gone. "The outside world slipped away, and the universe shrank to the three of them: a dad looking for absolution, a son who needed a dad to show him how to be a man, a daughter who'd always craved a family, which they at long last became. See Photos. She did an interview in the Fenway stands, sitting in the red seat marking the longest home run ever hit in the ballpark, off the bat of her dad. The world hates me. Claudia picks How to Train Your Dragon, bringing another round of catcalls and laughter. It's empty now, under renovation, sitting low and wide on a hill, beneath the grove of live oak trees. The lines speak to the two competing desires governing her life: She wants to be close to a father she didn't really know for much of his life, but she wants to escape his shadow too. He preferred to spend offseasons in the woods or on the water. When you laugh -- "She interrupts him. So, do I have a choice on January 26? Bobby-Jo came into the world first, in the middle of his career. When I walked into the house, there'd be a hot dog on the table.". Ted's white Sub-Zero fridge with the wood-paneled front is unplugged in the corner. A vulnerability he never had in his life. For a season, at 37 years old, she competed against teenagers. Is online misinformation making peace less likely? Claudia began to cry, and Ted's voice cracked when he tried to comfort her, as she'd taught him to do. 'Ted Williams, My Father' by Claudia Williams - The Boston Globe About once a year, Abel would get called to the house to mediate a bizarre dispute, usually about Ted showering to ward off infection, or taking his medicine regularly. Dad.". He was 12. Once he realized 'I can be good at this, and these kids want to learn from me,' we had run out of time., "He thinks it's kooky," John-Henry says. Williams hits one of his career 521 home runs, shown here in the late '50s. "I didn't want John-Henry to lose his father," she says. "F--- you. She keeps many things locked away. "What's incredible as an observer was to watch him in love with his kids," says Abel, now 52. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Maybe she'd just find ways to exhaust herself, and find obsessions to occupy her mind, day after day, year after year, never breaking free of her father and never feeling as if she had honored his memory either. by Pablo S. Torre, Impossible to hit, even harder to defend, Floyd Mayweather is fighting to leave the ring the way he entered it: Standing. Claudia Williams Ted did not want to be frozen at first. He knew he might not live through his procedure, and at the end of his life, he'd finally put aside his own wishes for theirs. Suddenly quiet and hiding now, she says, "I don't wanna think about it," as one more piece of her father slips away. They tried bee pollen and acupuncture and hired a therapist to work through his anger. Hooked, she decided to play at the local junior college. Britney Spears has rarely been out of the headlines this year. In the past few years, she studied nursing, and even that hasn't been enough, so now she's studying biology and statistics, prerequisites for graduate school. Log In. Toggle navigation. She agreed. He got his freedom, fishing every day. Everyone she has ever loved except for Eric is gone or almost gone, and she's sure she'll outlive Eric. The lessons that he had to teach us, we didn't have the time to learn. Eric rushes toward her. He opens it on the kitchen counter, the pages full of his notes, some passages marked with a check if he feels they're accurate, other quotes highlighted and some with sharp, angry pen strokes when he's aggrieved, the margins littered with "not true" and "bulls---" and "lie." In this episode James is joined by Tortoise reporter Claudia Williams, head of programming Mark St Andrew and investigations editor Alexi Mostrous. Ted, exhausted and struggling to keep his eyes open, sort of laughed, then his son helped him to the recliner where he slept. As part of her application and interview process at Duke -- still a long shot, but her dad taught her to try to be the greatest -- she said she wanted to specialize in gerontology. First, he needed a heart catheterization, and doctors worried he might not survive even that preliminary procedure. He asked her what she wanted as a gift, and she said she wanted time. Young women are being offered the chance to delay the menopause. But what about their impact on the environment? During his remarkable career with the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams earned many nicknames The Kid, The Splendid Splinter and Teddy Ballgame, but the only nickname that he wanted was the greatest hitter who ever lived. In that pursuit, he combined his preternatural gifts with a fierce work ethic to become widely regarded as one of the greatest ever to play the game of baseball and in the process elevated the science of hitting in ways still emulated today. He refused, over and over again, never feeling as if he belonged in a place with such educated people. Death exposes everyone, and it exposed Ted Williams, stripping away the armor he'd created as a boy on Utah Street, revealing what he'd tried so hard to hide: He came from damaged people, and he left damaged people behind. It was everything against his grain to succumb to this outside influence of children. He pushed and explained his idea, working cryonics into those dinner-table evenings. Claudia Williams - Digital journalist - Australian Broadcasting Everyone settles in, and the movie starts. They visited Alcatraz, and Ted used a Walkman for the first time, befuddled by the technology, and they all laughed. . Nobody quoted is without an agenda, whether fueled by anger, misunderstanding, jealousy or love. There are 400+ professionals named "Claudia Williams", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. It was two years before her best friend knew. The stories and biographies quote staff members and associates who say Ted continued to want his remains scattered in the Atlantic, and in the end, Bradlee seemed to conclude that Ted did not want to be frozen. Training for triathlons after she came home from Europe, every weekend Claudia would ride her bike here from Tampa. . This will be my monument / This will be a beacon when I'm gone / You're everywhere I go / I promise I won't let you down / It's not over, not over / Not over, not over, yet. John-Henry snapped photos, forever documenting every moment he spent around his dad. "Daddy would be so proud," she said. If I do I will pay my mom 1,000 dollars. Emeryville, CA. Why are the ages of three to five so crucial? Father and son had epic fights, bad enough that the caretakers called protective services. The series is a production of The WNET Group. Thought he wasn't very good at it. "Even if it means saving your life?""No.