Had Don Lee in to see me the other day as a patient. Don pitched for about a dozen years in the Major League's for a bunch of teams including the Angels and Twins. His dad, Thornton, was a 20 game winner and an All Star who once accidentally hit Babe Ruth in the knee and almost ended his career and beat the Ruth/Gehrig Yankees four times in one year. Don told me that his father and Ted Williams were very good friends and during the off season they would go fly fishing together. When Don got into the league, he would call his father to ask him about certain lineups that he might be facing and how to pitch certain players. His first year in the league happens to be Ted Williams's last. In a four game set in Boston, Don starts one of the games. His father tells him that if he faces Williams to throw him nothing but breaking balls down and away and walk him if you have to. Sure enough, Don faces Williams, doesn't listen to a thing his father says and proceeds to throw Williams three straight fastballs and strikes him out on three pitches. Williams slams his bat down on home plate and walks back to the dugout. Three innings later Williams is up again and Don throws him a first pitch fastball which Williams hits deep into the right field stands for a home run. As Williams is rounding first base, he points at Don and says "I hit a home run off of your old man, and now I've hit one off of you, you motherfucker". :)
Don also said that when he was starting against the Yankees that, if crew chief Nestor Chylak was behind home plate, he would walk out to the mound before the start of the game, put a ball in Don's glove and say "Just get it close today". He said Nestor hated the Yankees with a passion and anything "close" was going to be called a strike.
Thanks.
Have heard lots of stories about how fast Mantle was but always thought it was about his early years like 51-55 or so. Lee came into the league in 1957 when I presumed Mickey had already slowed down a bit so wow Mickey could really run.
I believe that is correct, or at least a drain.
On September 17, 1939, Ted Williams hit a home run off Thornton Lee, one of 31 homers he hit in his rookie season. Williams homered off Thornton's son, Don Lee, of the Senators, on September 2, 1960, thus becoming the only player in major league history to hit a home run off a father and son