A Great Ted Williams Story

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TRUE HEROICS CAME IN PILOT'S UNIFORM (Ted Williams)
New York Post | 7/06/02 | Kevin Kernan



July 6, 2002 -- EX-Yankee Jerry Coleman was a Marine pilot flying the
skies of Korea half a century ago when he heard the distress call come
over the radio.

"Mayday! Mayday!"

"When you hear that," Coleman told me yesterday from Denver, "that
becomes you. Everything else stops."

So Coleman listened intently as the drama played out on the airwaves,
praying that another brother Marine would not be lost.

Then came another voice, this from a pilot Coleman said he later learned
was named McCracken: "You've got flame and you've got smoke. I'll take
you in."

"You never left another pilot who was in trouble," Coleman said of
McCracken's deed. "So here we are all listening to all this, sweating it
out. Turns out, the pilot in trouble is Ted Williams. He went in hot,
crash-landed his jet, no wheels, no nothing. Why he didn't blow, to this
day, I don't know."

Williams left the Red Sox in the prime of his career to fight for his
country. So often these days the term "warrior" is thrown about
regarding professional athletes. Coleman and Williams were two players
who served in World War II and Korea. They were warriors. Williams, 83,
died yesterday in Florida, a true American hero.

"The last time I saw Ted," Coleman said of a recent visit, "he had to
have two weight-lifters help him up and he had a tube in his chest. It
was tough."

Coleman, a broadcaster for the San Diego Padres, said Williams, the last
man to hit .400, was the greatest he ever saw to combine power and
average, but the two shared a bond much deeper than baseball.

"Ted was over in K-3, I was in K-6," Coleman said of the different
airports the pilots were assigned to in Korea. "Ted flew an F-9 Panther
jet. We did our jobs. Ted didn't get the chance to fly in combat in
World War II; because he was such a good pilot, they made him flight
trainer. But he was a marvelous combat pilot in Korea."

So was Coleman. About 10 years ago, Williams told me Coleman was the
better pilot. "Best damn pilot I ever saw," Williams said in his gruff
but lovable style.

Coleman does not stand for such praise. "Nobody is the best damn'
flier," he said. "We just appreciated the fact we were there together.
To me, that's the highlight of my career. And Ted loved it, too. Being a
Marine pilot, that was special.

"There were a lot of great pilots," Coleman added with a laugh, "but
none of them could hit the curveball like Ted."