John Henry Williams: The Great Baseball Hitter

strike zone | September 16, 2015 | Baseball, Biography, News | No Comments

Video: John Henry Williams, the baseball legend

With a degree in marketing from the University of Maine, John Henry set out to market his father in the booming memorabilia market of the 1990s. He became increasingly controversial for what was seen as the exploitation of his father, which made Ted seem increasingly ridiculous. Many collectors of Ted Williams memorabilia sold by John Henry have questioned their authenticity.

Though John Henry had failed to make the University of Maine baseball team, Ted pulled strings with the Boston Red Sox to have them place his 33-year old son on their rookie team in the Gulf Coast League in 2002. Seemingly, this was part of John Henry’s alleged idea that baseball talent was inherited, as it had been in the cases of Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., and later, Prince Fielder, all of whom had fathers who had been star baseball players.

John Henry’s first season in pro baseball entailed two games, with no hits in six at bats, his season ending early when he broke his ribs crashing into the stands in an attempt to catch a foul ball. (The following year, John Henry was signed by the Schaumburg Flyers of the independent Northern League, but he was released in spring training. Later during the 2003 season, John Henry played for two teams in the independent Southeastern League, hitting a dismal .115 in 40 games.) John Henry was seen, correctly, as cashing in on the aura of his father’s legend, but no one was quite sure why.

John Henry Williams won his place in baseball infamy after his father Ted died on July 5, 2002. John Henry took over all responsibility for his late father, and announced that there would be no funeral for the man who was one of the most popular ex-players in baseball history. Instead, John Henry had his father’s body frozen, i.e., put into cyronic suspension, at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona. The development was bitterly opposed by Ted’s daughter by his first wife, Barbara Joyce (Bobbie Jo) Ferrell, who launched a lawsuit.

Bobbie Joe went public, claiming that her father, Ted Williams, had wanted to be cremated. She believed that John Henry was scheming to sell Ted’s DNA. (In a sport roiled by accusations that superstar Barry Bonds was taking human growth hormone, anything was possible.) The revelation by “Sports Illustrated” that Ted Williams’ body had been decapitated, and only the head was preserved, and that the head reportedly had cracked apart, caused a media sensation. Bobbie Joe eventually withdrew her lawsuit after a judge agreed that a $645,000 trust would be distributed equally among Ted’s three children.

John Henry Williams eventually was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, which likely had been inherited from his father. (Ted’s brother had died from the disease in 1960.) He began chemotherapy and underwent a bone marrow transplant donated from his sister Claudia, but the treatments failed to take hold. He died on March 6, 2004 at the UCLA Medical Center. He was 35 years old. Following his death, John Henry was put into cryonic suspension along with his father at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.