Squeezin The Splendid Splinter

I wonder how many people realize it's been neary 3/4 of a century since Ted Williams broke into the Big Leagues. Yup. Believe it or not today marks the Anniversary in which one of the most heralded hitters in baseball played in his very first MLB game. Cool huh?

Oh, how did he do... you ask? He smacked the dog snot out of the ball! Ted cracked a 400 foot.... double.. in the cavernous Yankee Stadium. But, the Red Sox went on to lose to the New York Yankees, 2-0. Ted would go on to figure in a heckuva lot more of those Yankee/Red Sox tilts over the next 20+ years.

He'd also go on to belt another 500+ doubles in that time. Funny that a guy with this kind of POP was nick named after a Splinter. Yea, he was lanky.. but he could coil and uncoil with the best of them. Here's something I think is incredible about Ted - He led the AL in Slugging Percentage in '41 and '42 .. went off to war for 3 years, came right back and led the AL again for the next 4 years running. From MLB to the US Marines to MLB and never missed a beat. Crazy.

Ok, enough history... let's look at Yesterday's Hitter.

No, he's not a lanky dude that can belt the ball a hundred miles. Nope, not a war veteran either. He is a scrappy second baseman that never fails to surprise me. John McDonald isn't even the starting 2B for the Blue Jays, but that doesn't keep him from contributing when they need him.

They needed him on Tuesday when the Jays were in a dog fight against those pesky Yanks. McDonald came into the game as a runner for Aaron Hill only to be thrust into the spotlight in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Jays were rallying against the greatest closer of all-time and had runners on the corners and down by a run. What's a scrappy little dude do against Mo Rivera when the game is on the line? Squeeze 'em!

Check it out Here!