Friday, July 20, 2018

Ted Williams's last game, Fenway Park, 1960

On Monday evening (July 23rd), PBS's American Masters series will focus on baseball's Ted Williams.

Included in the documentary is color film of Williams's last game, in 1960, made at Fenway Park by a college student in Boston, Bill Murphy; this is the first time the film has been seen publicly.

As is well-known, Williams hit a home run (his 521st) in his final at-bat. Compressed/edited views of his four plate appearances, in the game (including, indeed, the home run at-bat), can be seen in Mr. Murphy's footage.

This week, in advance of the PBS program, a piece about Murphy, and the striking color film he took, appeared in The New York Times; the footage can be viewed within the article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/sports/ted-williams-film-last-game.html

I don't know if all PBS stations will be carrying the Ted Williams documentary on the same evening; please check your area's television listings.