“Hub fans bid kid adieu”

Somehow, I managed to exclude Ted Williams’ last at-bat from my series of anniversary posts about the 1960 baseball season. On Wednesday, September 28, 1960, Williams hit a home run off of Jack Fisher into a wicked Fenway Park wind. The following season, Fisher gave up another famous home run — Roger Maris’ 60th, on September 26, 1961.
Only 10,454 fans attended Williams’ final game. Fortunately, John Updike was one of them. Scott wrote about his account here.
The Fenway crowd that day was twice the size of the one that saw Williams’ next to last home run at Griffith Stadium on Saturday, September 17. I was there that day to see Williams blast one over the right field wall off of Pete Ramos, driving in both runs in a 2-1 Red Sox victory.
I spent the next week and a half hoping that Williams would not homer again. But later I came to understand that his dramatic shot on his final big league swing was well worth the cost of me not being able to say I saw his last home run.
Here is how the MLB Network paid tribute to the event.