Through never-before-seen archival footage and in-depth interviews with those who knew and studied Williams, including his daughter Claudia Williams, author/journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr., veteran baseball writer Roger Angell and award-winning broadcasters Bob Costas and the late Dick Enberg, the documentary demonstrates the power of the heroic myth-making culture in which Williams flourished. The outside world slipped away, and the universe shrank to the three of them: a dad looking for absolution, a son who needed a dad to show him how to be a man, a daughter who'd always craved a family, which they at long last became. Henry Leutwyler for ESPN Magazine, Her husband, Eric Abel, comes home from running errands. Claudia, then 30 and an elite athlete, paced the halls like a wild animal. Trembling as she held the poster in her hand, she finally read the words she wanted so badly to hear as a child: "To my beautiful daughter. Maybe she'd just find ways to exhaust herself, and find obsessions to occupy her mind, day after day, year after year, never breaking free of her father and never feeling as if she had honored his memory either. She got lost in thought, staring down at the tiny home plate, feeling a strange connection. Ted's health declined, more every day. Priti Krishtel, an Oakland lawyer who works to expose the inequities in access to affordable, life-saving medications on a global scale, was named a MacArthur fellow on Wednesday. He actively concealed that he was Mexican-American. It was everything against his grain to succumb to this outside influence of children. She did an interview in the Fenway stands, sitting in the red seat marking the longest home run ever hit in the ballpark, off the bat of her dad. "I don't know who has to say, 'You did well,'" says Abel, who was the Williams family attorney when he met Claudia.When she decided to be a lifeguard, she completed the most advanced open-water rescue training. Find your friends on Facebook. HENRY LEUTWYLERBEFORE CLAUDIA DROVE me back to the airport, Abel quietly asked me to keep in touch because she didn't meet many new people and really struggled with goodbyes. After deciding to make jewelry, she took classes to become a master craftsman. Near the safe in his old house is a note Ted saved, dated Dec. 10, 1983, when Claudia was 12. Continue reading Video: Portfolio 2015 , As published for the West End Magazine online. As she parks her car and goes into the house, she's deciding whether to share an idea that has been gaining momentum and fervor. The timing never worked for her because she struggles to look past her obsessions: nursing school and a book she wrote about her father, which started as a stocking stuffer about lessons she learned and turned into a cathartic exploration of the person she's still trying to be. He tore them into pieces and threw the pieces away. It was two years before her best friend knew. She screamed at them in the blood lab. I think he hated that vulnerability of feeling guilt. Williams constantly looked to the wilderness for peace. It was the first and only time she has prayed. Find Claudia Williams's email address, contact information, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media and more. Why is her show coming to an end? He's everywhere. Rather than tell her father, she slit her arm from the wrist to the elbow. She did an interview in the Fenway stands, sitting in the red seat marking the longest home run ever hit in the ballpark, off the bat of her dad. CLAUDIA GRINNED WHEN I walked back into her house the day after she was accepted to Duke. I wanna say no so goddamn bad. Finally he got his first fish. Her workout routines -- miles in a pool and on a treadmill, hours daily in a gym -- break the alpha dogs who try to hang with Ted's daughter. Looking back, Claudia wishes she'd let him get her into Middlebury, because it was the only thing he knew how to do. When people criticized him, he lashed out at them I think he was lonely. John-Henry Williams, a 6-foot-5 ringer for his handsome father, had long lived in the zeitgeist as a bumbling son who took and took without ever standing on his own. Narendra Modis dominance of Indian politics is built on a knowing appeal to traditional Indian values: Hindu values. Reminders of grief surround her, and now her mother is fading too. He protected Claudia too. Ted's white Sub-Zero fridge with the wood-paneled front is unplugged in the corner. Eric asks, kindly. If you have inside knowledge of a topic in the news, contact the ABC. About once a year, Abel would get called to the house to mediate a bizarre dispute, usually about Ted showering to ward off infection, or taking his medicine regularly. On June 14, he wrote about his son: "His casting is better than I expected so he must have been practicing some. After an aching rest and a few blisters on his casting hand, he is getting a little uninterested. The dining table used to be there, by the window. Eric rushed home and found her sitting at the computer, quiet and solemn, validated for perhaps the first time in her life. The lessons that he had to teach us, we didn't have the time to learn. A tire swing already hangs from a thick branch of an oak tree, plenty of room to run and play in the shade. The Red Sox hosted her in Boston, and a big crowd showed up, and people cried when she shared her memories, her joys and her pain. Mr. Get in touch at claudia.williams@theadvocate.com.au or on 0448 310 641 Advertisement Ad "He never thought he was gonna be a good father," Claudia says. She asked God to take her instead. Continue reading Porte crashes out of Tour de France , The morning traffic hums and birds chirp as a minute of silence is taken in respect of the Stolen Generation. Samantha knows a thing or two about proving people wrong. May Williams never saw her son play a major league game, even though she lived through his entire career. She says she visited the hospital so many times that all those trips ran together, but she remains steadfast: Ted signed a piece of paper. Soon she will face herself alone, as her father faced the world stripped of the soothing focus of baseball and fishing. ""I'm the one who reached down to keep pulling you up," Abel says, driving. "You have to have a child," he told her. So, how many people have had the current boosters and who is eligible for what? What does her story tell us about pop culture in 2021? She entered a psych ward, which he paid for, and got an abortion, which he paid for, and when her scars taunted him -- physical proof that he'd become his mother -- he paid for plastic surgery too. "You won't always be there to protect him," a character in the movie tells the father, and Claudia smiles, turns to Eric and says, "John-Henry would've loved this movie.". She entered a psych ward, which he paid for, and got an abortion, which he paid for, and when her scars taunted him -- physical proof that he'd become his mother -- he paid for plastic surgery too. It smelled like him. she cries.He presses hard on the brakes, and she gets out. Her voice changes and her eyes and face soften when she says "Toothless.". One sleuth, two notebooks and a 20-year puzzle. The stories and biographies quote staff members and associates who say Ted continued to want his remains scattered in the Atlantic, and in the end, Bradlee seemed to conclude that Ted did not want to be frozen. Tel. But what does it actually mean for people living with the disease? Finally an email from Duke arrived asking her to log on to its website for the school's decision. "I love you more than you'll ever know.". The first time they visited Ted in Florida together, he made sure she knew not to annoy him, advising her to use the bathroom before leaving the airport. Could Vaxx That Thang Up a pro-vaccination remake of Juveniles 1999 hip hop classic be the sound of summer 2021? Her father offered her money, but she refused it. But I love him.' She's searching for a way to break the Williams cycle -- either by letting it die with her or by being the first good parent in generations -- and she's searching for something much more elusive too.She never saw her father's body, and nothing forced her to really accept his disappearance from her life. "Everyone who knew Ted Williams knows that his daughter's going to Duke would mean more to him than his home runs and war medals combined. . John-Henry died on a Saturday, and as he requested, his body was suspended at Alcor too, in the same tank as his dad. ", Love had control over him. Ettinger also made many other wild and foolish predictions about what science would bring to the world in his lifetime, so the book, like the Bible, is believable to those who want to believe. He had a cousin who was murdered by her husband, and a criminal brother who died young and angry. The series is a production of The WNET Group. Everybody's against me. Claudia Williams is a journalist for The Advocate covering general news and events. Patricia Clarke and Claudia Williams investigate, How did Rishi Sunak go from one of the most popular members of the government to one of the least in a matter of days? A few years ago, she and Eric's teenage daughters from his first marriage went to see a movie called The Water Horse, about a boy who raises a Loch Ness Monster -- which is close enough to a dragon for Claudia -- then releases the beast to save its life. he asked. There is only one picture of John-Henry in her house. The children created their own world, and only they understand what it felt like to live in it. "I know Claudia will be fine.". she asks, hopeful. Centuries may pass but to him there will be only a moment of sleep without dreams.". His mother, May, was obsessed with her work at the Salvation Army, abandoning her own kids, and the descriptions of his lonely life exist in many accounts, most notably biographies by Ben Bradlee Jr. and Leigh Montville. ", Just a part of the collection of artifacts fills a storage room to its 10-foot ceiling. Claudia picks How to Train Your Dragon, bringing another round of catcalls and laughter. What a great hitter. What happened? The lines speak to the two competing desires governing her life: She wants to be close to a father she didn't really know for much of his life, but she wants to escape his shadow too.She left home at 16, moving to Europe to finish high school, working as a nanny, training for triathlons, living in France, then Switzerland, then Germany, any place where nobody'd ever heard of Ted Williams. "Are you still smoking?" Every now and again, she sighs. Road toll rises to 31 following fatality at Greens Beach 7 months ago | By Claudia Williams | The Advocate (Tasmania) He beamed, and the next day, everything about him seemed different, and not just because he wore Red Sox gear head to toe. On the living room cabinet, there's a ceramic statue of Toothless, the star of the animated movie How to Train Your Dragon. He pushed and explained his idea, working cryonics into those dinner-table evenings. When the boat docked back at Pier 39, they walked down the boards looking for dinner. he yelled. They spent hours at that table, talking, playing the games he never got to play as a kid -- As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives -- and debating religion and the nature of life and death. He needed more time. "I think I'm just looking for him to still be proud of me," she says. FacebookTwitterWhatsappEmailClaudia Williams is a journalist for The Advocate covering general news and events. "Daddy would be so proud," she said. Setting the standard for documentary film profiles, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim: 28 Emmy Awardsincluding 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Specialtwo News & Documentary Emmys, 14 Peabodys, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards, an Oscar, and many other honors. she asks, hopeful. "SHE AND ERIC fell in love during the horrible siege after they froze her father, who died of cardiac arrest almost two years after signing the note. "The literature John-Henry took home from Alcor, one of the country's two major cryonics companies, worked in his imagination; he purchased every book they offered, according to credit card receipts. He felt vulnerable. HENRY LEUTWYLER. They turned their tragedies into a story of love and hope. Love had control over him. Does technology make interactions between parents and children better, or worse? "Four years passed between John-Henry's purchasing the books and requesting membership documents from Alcor. Claudia remembers growing up with a mother increasingly bitter over her failed love affair, on a Vermont farm without a television, isolated by their environment and the fame of their absent father. Her spirit lightens when she does his voice, everything lit from the inside. During storms, driving up the hill toward their house in Vermont, he'd jump out of the car in the pouring rain, trying to get the frogs to move before they died beneath the wheels of the car. View the profiles of professionals named "Claudia Williams" on LinkedIn. "I hate time," she says.She lives in a sprawling Florida community popular among retirees whose first resident and primary pitchman was her father. It is named Crusoe, and as the movie ended, Eric's girls looked over and saw Claudia weeping, shoulders rocking up and down, distraught over the boy taking the dragon out to sea. CLAUDIA WILLIAMS, NOW 43, rarely tells anyone about her relation to Ted Williams. Pressure is growing on Israel and Hamas to announce a ceasefire. What happened in the 17 days between Kwasi Kwarteng becoming chancellor, sacking the Treasurys top civil servant and his fiscal event which crashed the British economy? So, do I have a choice on January 26? They paid $30 a pill for vitamins and pumped oxygen-rich air into his room. Most people his age wouldn't risk a series of operations. Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram to be reinstated, Netflix denies Squid Game injury claims. It was two years before her best friend knew. Were going to kick off the new year by predicting what we think might happen in 2023. Now the country is wondering if the price has been too high. Her voice turned childlike whenever she spoke to him, a thin "Daddy." Ted drove her back to her mom's house in Miami once, and when they arrived, it transpired that Bobby-Jo had forgotten her keys, and Ted, raging, kicked her out of the car and left her standing alone there in the dark, exactly as his mother had done to him.Instead of Bobby-Jo becoming the first Williams to graduate from college, which Ted wanted as desperately as he wanted to hit a baseball, she got pregnant. "She's tired. "I mean, he had [me] at 53 years old," Claudia says, her voice wavering. Driving back from visiting Ted's compound in Canada, Dolores and John-Henry stopped in Maine to spend the night in sleeping bags at a rest stop. Evolving? "Even if it means saving your life?""No. What about the team of adults surrounding her? Her friends at Springfield College didn't realize her father was Ted Williams until she asked some guys who played baseball to teach her to throw; the Red Sox had requested she toss out a first pitch as a surprise to her father, and she didn't want, as she told them, "to throw like a girl." Rarely has a gesture been as misunderstood as taking the knee. The first visit lasted a week in the fall of 2014, and we made paella and she told funny stories about her dad -- he'd call the public phone in European hostels and boom at unsuspecting travelers, "Is CLAUDIA WILLIAMS there? Everything about me says no. Four years passed between John-Henry's purchasing the books and requesting membership documents from Alcor. "I was for s--- as a father," he confided once to a cousin.On the day his only son, John-Henry, was born, Ted was salmon fishing in Canada. She checks her mom's blood pressure: 86/60 and dropping. Ettinger wrote that the freezer always trumped the grave, and with nothing to lose, why not take a chance? "Who's gonna take care of me?" "The guilt Ted carried slipped away when he did something to help his kids. A grilse. "Still do. When she sees him, she stretches out her arms. Every culture has deeply symbolic rituals for burying and mourning the dead. About Albert M. Tapper Productions "I was for s--- as a father," he confided once to a cousin. "I'm down to one pack a day," she said. A Louisville Slugger leaned in the same cabinet as Toothless the Dragon, the first bit of baseball memorabilia in the living room. Open in Who Shared Wrong byline? She also has considered using her egg and Abel's sperm to create a child, going back and forth between the ideas. Children who buried their parents were described as murderers. He hid in the hyperfocus required by baseball and fishing; most nights after ballgames, he returned to the hotel where he lived -- he never purchased a home in Boston -- and tied fishing flies alone. Just horrible guilt. Six days later Rishi Sunak appointed her as home secretary again. A MILE AWAY, a secret remains locked in one of Ted Williams' safes. TED WILLIAMS HATED his childhood home, leaving before graduation the same as Claudia, never going back. A toxic train derailment in Ohio has become a political football. In public, he seemed to revel in the solitary pursuit of baseball greatness, then fishing greatness, but really, his lonely existence was a self-imposed exile, not because he didn't want to know his children but because he was scared of hurting them, and of being hurt. In her book, Claudia writes what her father told the doctor. The songs bleed together into a singular anthem of loneliness and loss. Catch up with The Loop, How the manhunt for the Monterey Park mass shooter unfolded. Sometimes Ted would curse and walk away. We talked for hour upon hour. Before John-Henry died, he froze some of his sperm, and as executor, she controls it. He was difficult, so she tried talking to him about baseball. "What's incredible as an observer was to watch him in love with his kids," says Abel, now 52. Both would sign it, and the crisis would be averted.Even as he fought him, Ted knew John-Henry was struggling to find his place in the world. She told Middlebury no. . "The legacy deserves to go on," she says finally, crying harder than before. And we actually showed him that not only was he good at it, we wanted him and we said, 'You can do this, Dad.' CBK GROUP/AP IMAGESNINE MONTHS AFTER that trip, he had a stroke. The anger that dominated both their lives started there, on those lonely evenings outside 4121 Utah St., waiting for their mom to come home. she coos. Support for Ted Williams: The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived is provided by Harvey and Andrea Rosenthal and the Michael and Helen Schaffer Foundation. "He thought I needed salt," she says, then switches to her flawless Ted Williams impersonation, a chin-jutting bass drum: "Yup, isn't that GOOD? AP IMAGESA MILE AWAY, a secret remains locked in one of Ted Williams' safes.On a shelf above a Desert Eagle .44, his fishing logs tell a different story from the one he gave his fans and his children. She got the kids. The only thing left is a frayed set of Ted's beloved Encyclopedia Britannica, which he bought after retiring, spending hours scouring them for the knowledge he felt ashamed not to have. Terrified of Ted raging at them, John-Henry quietly fed her ice chips and got her ginger ale when she vomited from sun poisoning. "I didn't want John-Henry to lose his father," she says. It is really, really difficult to be the queen on the chessboard. He'd be waiting for me right here. For a season, at 37 years old, she competed against teenagers. In big letters, he wrote "Make Claudia co-petitioner" and circled it. I left wondering what kind of life awaited her. Connie Walker's investigation into Alberta's death started with an email from retired RCMP officer Garry Kerr who was initially . He pushed and explained his idea, working cryonics into those dinner-table evenings. "The outside world slipped away, and the universe shrank to the three of them: a dad looking for absolution, a son who needed a dad to show him how to be a man, a daughter who'd always craved a family, which they at long last became. 3 grilse, caught his first salmon. With the continued success of MLB Advanced Media and MLB Network, MLB continues to find innovative ways for its fans to enjoy Americas National Pastime and a truly global game. "Around the long kitchen table, John-Henry began to make his case.Ted did not want to be frozen at first. Then John-Henry read a book about cryonics. Nick Davis is director and producer. Nobody is clean. It's the same look her father got when she'd care for him in the last years of his life. she asked, "or do you think they accepted me because of me?". The story is about a boy trying to live in the shadow of his powerful and domineering father -- about a child searching for his place in the world. Now in its 37th season on PBS, American Masters illuminates the lives and creative journeys of our nations most enduring artistic giantsthose who have left an indelible impression on our cultural landscapethrough compelling, unvarnished stories. This depiction of her brother by an author she cooperated with haunts Claudia, who believes her dad knew better, and she feels like the only one left to defend John-Henry.After Ted died, friends told reporters that Williams disagreed with his son's obsession. At some point during the session, instead of signing his name, he wrote a note to Claudia, one he knew she'd discover someday. Emeryville, CA. Near the safe in his old house is a note Ted saved, dated Dec. 10, 1983, when Claudia was 12. "You gotta watch for him! I can tell. Back at home, all of it piles up, hurt stacked upon hurt, so what started as sadness about her mom became fear and desperation over the family coming to an end with her, and she's just dissolving in her high-ceilinged kitchen, coming apart. "Mom's having a bad day," she tells him. She stepped out of the shadows and did readings. He should be cremated, his ashes "sprinkled at sea off the coast of Florida where the water is very deep.". She got a letter from Jimmie Foxx's daughter. "He would see me coming up the road. He signed the rest, and the whole box went into storage. "JOHN-HENRY WILLIAMS loved frogs.He loved anything small and weak. He presses hard on the brakes, and she gets out. As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work. That's a good hot dog, isn't it? Her co-workers at the Crystal River, Florida, medical center where she's a nurse are only now finding out on their own. She found the note three years ago, 10 years after he died, going through memorabilia. Henry Leutwyler for ESPN Magazine, CLAUDIA LOVES DRAGONS. How a small investment firm is taking on one of the worlds richest men, Three journalists pitch their top story of the week to Tortoises editor-in-chief James Harding. Journalist at Courier-Mail. COLIN BRALEY/REUTERS/LANDOV, The clean cryonics narrative of Bradlee's book doesn't match the messiness of that long family dispute. She threw plates and knives. . Nearby, pocketknives rust at their hinges. "It was a bright, sunny day, and I was there. "Mom's having a bad day," she tells him. His lifelong feud with the press began when a writer asked rhetorically in a column what kind of boy didn't go home in the winter to visit his mother. "First of all, Claudia," he says slowly, "let me apologize; I don't know what we've done with that shirt.". Claudia Williams's Phone Number and Email. "Dad, you have to take this medicine," John-Henry would be saying. she says, sounding vulnerable and shaky, like she's grasping for something beyond not only her reach but even her ability to name it. ", He called Claudia a "c---" too, and a "fat bitch," and told John-Henry he was the "abortion I wanted." She interrupts him. Nick Trotta is executive producer for Major League Baseball. The tech platforms are hurrying to fix themselves during the pandemic. He was a fantastic parent," Claudia Williams said. First, he needed a heart catheterization, and doctors worried he might not survive even that preliminary procedure. Sometimes Ted would curse and walk away. Investigators came to the house and interviewed both men, asking whether Ted was being made to sign autographs against his will, before determining there was no abuse. Everyone settles in, and the movie starts. The Other 80, +9 more . The most important thing he read was the origin text of cryonics, a book by science fiction writer and professor Robert Ettinger titled The Prospect of Immortality. ", I don't think [Ted] at the end of his life felt like he accomplished anything.. Once she gets her nurse practitioner's office open and running, she is still planning to use John-Henry's sperm or her egg to create a baby. They spent hours around the dining table, and every so often John-Henry would bring it up. Becoming a man in his father's eyes? He was still learning, he was still -- he was still -- what is it? She's searching for how to say goodbye, or maybe a way to move on, which often feels like the same thing.Today Claudia and husband Eric are looking at options to carry on her father's legacy. Can the dogs of Chernobyl teach us new tricks when it comes to our own survival? At home, he brought her back to health and felt hurt when she wanted to roam outside. John-Henry wanted to control his father -- his latest Bangor -- and his father rebelled. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website. They spent hours at that table, talking, playing the games he never got to play as a kid -- As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives -- and debating religion and the nature of life and death. She told him she was Ted Williams' daughter. In the past few years, she studied nursing, and even that hasn't been enough, so now she's studying biology and statistics, prerequisites for graduate school. To further explore the lives and works of more than 250 masters past and present, the American Masters website offers full episodes, film outtakes, filmmaker interviews, the podcast American Masters: Creative Spark, educational resources, digital original series and more. Join us. The dining table used to be there, by the window. John-Henry snapped photos, forever documenting every moment he spent around his dad. Her country club membership number is 9. Claudia, a nurse, listens to the plodding thumps of a tired heart. Claudia Williams investigates a kind if complicated digital community, Dont know where to go next? openDemocracy is an independent international media platform covering current affairs, ideas and culture. Former New York Times food journalist and #1 bestselling author Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything, Eat Vegan Before 6:00) has a love for food and a passion for food issues. In the definitive biography of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr., John-Henry is shown as a terrible businessman and a cheat, someone who lied so often -- inviting his dad to a college graduation where he didn't actually graduate, claiming to make his college baseball team when he never tried out -- that he lied about Ted's wanting to be frozen too. HENRY LEUTWYLERCLAUDIA WILLIAMS, NOW 43, rarely tells anyone about her relation to Ted Williams. The federal government is waiting on advice about whether Australians should have a fifth COVID-19 vaccine. Watching her watch a dragon movie makes it all make sense.Sitting on her couch, she cries when the dragon saves the little boy. Ted Williams' mother gave him nothing but a name, and as soon as he grew old enough, he gave it back, changing Teddy on his birth certificate to the more respectable Theodore. "See if you can help John-Henry get a job," Williams asked. He knew he might not live through his procedure, and at the end of his life, he'd finally put aside his own wishes for theirs. If you have any questions or need help, let us know at memberhelp@tortoisemedia.com, Tortoise gives me time to dig deeper into stories and prioritise voices that are often ignored.. After seemingly endless summers on the golf course with my dad, I received my college degree and landed my first job as an Assistant Golf Professional after graduation. Standing around the kitchen, she and Eric told the story of what happened when she opened her letter. It might have changed their lives. By the time Eric Abel came into the Williams inner circle as the family attorney, Ted had already excommunicated Bobby-Jo. If people do know, she tests them constantly, to make sure they don't like her for her dad's name. Ted Williams was a fascinating, complicated man and this film really covers all the issues he was dealing with on top of baseball, said David Ortiz, the recently retired Boston Red Sox 10-time All-Star and executive producer for Big Papi Productions. ", "What the hell do you want me to do about it!" "Abel would write up a contract on a napkin or a piece of scratch paper, which is what Ted liked, and negotiate a settlement: Ted agreed to take the pills every day, and John-Henry agreed to let him shower only four times a week.