Looking to beef up your baseball card collection? Make sure to keep a couple of Ted Williams baseball cards in your own private collection if you really want to call yourself a baseball fan!

Theodore Samuel “Ted” Williams (born August 30, 1918, died July 5, 2002) played a total of twenty-one seasons with the Boston Red Sox as a left-fielder, with two interruptions in his baseball career due military service in both the Second World War and the Korean War. He goes by nicknames The Kid, Teddy Ballgame, the Splendid Splinter and The Thumper.

Twice given the distinction of Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the American league, twice won the Triple Crown, six times led the league in batting and last to ever hit a batting average of over .400 in just one season (where he hit .406 in 1941 – which was his best year ever.) His on base percentage of .551 is a record that was never broken for 61 years.

All this proof boils down to marking “The Kid” as one of the greatest hitters ever. This distinction, however, can be traced to a burning passion that started even before he caught on big in the world of major league baseball.

Early in his career, when Ted Williams was still but a rookie, he had already wanted to be known as “the greatest hitter who ever lived.” This was not some idle dream, however. Ted Williams’ obsession over the science and art of hitting was even compared to the painstaking scrutiny and analysis a stock broker looks at the stock market. Hitting was everything to “The Thumper”, and he took great pains to ensure he’d hit the ball right out the park every time.

His obsession in hitting had even prompted him to use a lighter bat, unusual at those times, in order to maximize his hitting power. He even went so far as to point out to his teammates not to leave their bats on the ground lest they absorb moisture and hit the ball with less power than it should. All of his intensive study in hitting was accrued in his book “The Science of Hitting,” which is still widely read and mastered by modern-day baseball players around the world.

Baseball and hitting, however, wasn’t the only place where “Teddy Ballgame” stood out as an excellent hitter. He shattered the records for coordination, reflexes, and visual-reaction time in his training as a Navy Pilot, and could tear through a target with deadly precision during live-fire exercises. Though Williams would never see action in World War Two, he did have his fair share of combat operations during the Korean War as an F9F Panther jet pilot. With 39 combat missions and the Air Medal all tucked firmly under his belt, no one could say the “Splendid Splinter” was just another jockey in the field.

All the more reason that Ted Williams Baseball Cards are in such high demand. Most reprinted baseball cards come for anywhere between a dollar to fifteen dollars, but it’s the vintage memorabilia from the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s that brings in the big bucks. If you plan to order and collect these vintage pieces, prepare to order them for a few thousand bucks piece.