The Splendid Splinter

<p>Strike out the skinny bum. Send him back to Korea! </p><p><br></p><p>These words yelled by baseball fans during a game in Shibe Park and referring to Ted Williams first fired Ted Blood with the idea of writing a book about the Splendid Splinter and his long-time difficulties with sportswriters. </p><p><br></p><p>The average fan or man in the street actually does not know how truly great the Splinter was or is Mr. Blood writes both as a devastating hitter and as a fine fielder. They do not know a single fact about his charities nor about his generous and unlimited help and advice to hundreds of young and old baseball players. </p><p><br></p><p>Actually the fans are not to blame for their cursing and booing of our skinny hero. The sportswriters at least some of them around the East and especially a few around Boston and New York are to blame. They have painted a black picture so well that many fans jeer and curse the Splinter because they really believe he is a prize jerk a poor sport a hothead a selfish conceited bore a lousy outfielder a true villain. </p><p><br></p><p>With a zealot's ardor and a veritable almanac of facts Mr. Blood here refutes these canards. A truly great sportsman the author calls Williams the most deadly hitter of all time and one of the greatest fishermen in the whole wide world . . . a real live heman a gentleman. </p><p><br></p><p>The author extols the Splinter's charitable work his kindness and consideration his greatness as a baseball player and his record as a war hero. He also explodes such stories as that Williams was deliberately off in the Everglades fishing when his wife gave birth to a baby daughter. </p><p><br></p><p>This is a book that will capture the imagination of anyone who has ever thrilled to the cry: Play ball! and one that will arouse controversy in dugouts and bleachers and in fact wherever baseball players and fans gather. It will also show the would-be ballplayer how baseball greats are made. </p>