Williams, Ted

(Theodore Samuel Williams, 1918.08.30-2002.07.05)  Baseball player, fighter pilot.

Frozen in Scottsdale

Ted Willaims' resting place--until he defrosts--is the Alcon Life Extension Foundation cryonic facility at 7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260.  Those wishing to join Williams in an icy afterlife can learn more from the source at  alcor.org. 3-02.

Ted Williams, aka "Teddy Ballgame," "The Splendid Splinter" and "The Kid," was number nine on Boston Red Sox in a two decade baseball career starting in 1939, with time out for two stints in the military.  Williams spent three years as a Navy pilot during World War II, and two years as a Marine pilot in Korean conflict.  On about half of the Korean missions, he was John Glenn's wingman.  He was said to be the best baseball hitter in the world (last major leaguer to hit over .400), the best fighter pilot, and the best fly-caster.

When Williams died his body disappeared from the Florida funeral home--mysteriously to some--and ended up in a cryonics facility in Scottsdale.  His son, John Henry Williams, who had seen little of his father while growing up, had become close to his father in his last years.  The younger Williams who was studying business at the University of Maine got the idea of selling a fifty-year commemorative T-shirt honoring his father's .406 batting average in 1941.  Eventually John-Henry was managing his father's affairs.  When his father suffered a stroke in 1994, he moved to Florida to care for him.  John-Henry's dot com company, Hitter Inc., filed for bankruptcy in 2000, after suffering over three million in losses.

John-Henry's half sister objected strenuously to turning her father into a Popsicle.  Her attorney made the claim that Ted Williams really wanted cremation, and that the younger Williams sought to preserve his father's DNA, possibly to sell. The matter was set to be resolved by Florida courts, but in December 2002 after the daughter had spent $87,000 of her retirement savings, she withdrew the suit.

The resigning chief officer of the cryonic facility later disclosed that Williams head had been removed from the body, since they could provide better preservation when it was stored separately.  It was also reported that the bill for the preservation was $136,000, but that John-Henry had only made a $25,000 down payment.

The Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings honored Williams cryogenic status on June 3, 2003 when they had "Ted Williams Popsicle Night."  The minor league team gave Popsicles to the first 500 fans in attendance.  The St. Petersburg Times, a newspaper published in Citrus County, Florida, where Williams had resided for many years, interviewed the club's general manager, John Guy, about the event.  Guy described the effectiveness of promotion, saying "...we've been mentioned on ESPN three times, were in last week's Sports Illustrated and have had coverage from coast to coast. And all I'm doing is giving away 500 regular Popsicles that cost me $100. That's got to be the greatest $100 promotion in memory, I figure."

In March, 2004, John-Henry died of leukemia.  Reports were that his body was also frozen in Scottsdale.  John-Henry's half sister and her husband renewed their efforts to thaw her father following his death.  In June 2004, it appeared that the whole matter had reached an icy conclusion.  They reached an agreement with Alcor that they would end their objection to Williams remaining in a frozen state.