DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709140096

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL

                                            LENGTH:   50 lines

A LITTLE MODESTY, IF YOU PLEASE, FROM ``THE GREATEST HITTER IN BASEBALL''

Mark McGwire joined Babe Ruth Monday as the only player in history with consecutive 50-home-run seasons. What impresses me more than the epic feat is the way McGwire accepted it.

In a kind of self-effacing boast, McGwire said, ``Any time you can have your name associated with Babe Ruth, it is a pretty awesome thing to think about.

``I'm blown away. I think I'm sort of in awe of myself. I've surpassed everything I ever expected to do in the game of baseball.''

What a pleasantry - ``I think I'm in awe of myself'' - the sort of pleased outburst you hear from a child when he first ties his shoes or goes to the potty by himself. Now that McGwire has shown such refreshing candor, let's keep an eye on him with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Another great one, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, said, ``All I want is for people to say, when I walk down the street, `There goes the greatest hitter in baseball.' ''

Look at the easy swing of that sentence. Consider the enormity of his humility. All Williams wants is to be recognized as the best batter in the most difficult of all sports.

In split seconds, a batter has to swing and try to connect with a hard ball coming at him at upwards of 95 miles an hour.

And Williams aimed to outperform Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, among others.

Look at batting statistics and tell me who merits the crown more than Williams, who won six American League batting championships (second only to Cobb).

He hit 521 home runs (among the few to pass 500) and he had a lifetime batting average of .344. Williams batted .406 in 1941 and was the last player to bat .400 for a season.

Twice during his most productive years, Williams left baseball to serve America as a combat pilot - (1943-1945) in World War II and 1952-1953) in the Korean War.

Had he not been deprived of those years in baseball, Williams would have wrecked the record books. At no time did he show the slightest regret at giving those years to serve his country.

I wish Abe Goldblatt, who wrote sports for more than a half-century for The Virginian-Pilot, were here to defend my assessment of Ted.

Abe, too, was a major league storyteller. None was funnier.

He explained to me that as a youth when he walked down High Street in Portsmouth, people said, ``There goes that bum down the street.''

He decided to make a name for himself and went to work for The Pilot. And sure enough, he said, when he walked down High Street, people said, ``There goes that bum, Abe Goldblatt.''

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu