"There was never any doubt that Ted Williams would be elected to the Hall of Fame just as soon as he became eligible. He is the last Major Leaguer to hit 400. His 521 Home Runs place him 4th on the all time list. There are many who insist that Ted Williams ranks with Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb as the greatest hitters who ever lived. While Ted's life-time figures are taught by only a few, there is no telling to what heights those figures would have reached had he not given nearly 5 full years of his baseball career to the US Marines.

   Ted it is an honor to present you with your plaque from the Hall of Fame."

   Today I am thinking of alot of things. I am thinking of my old playground director in San Diego, California, Rodney Luscomb. My old high school coach, Wos Caldwell. My managers, who had such patience with me and helped me so much. Those like Frank Shellenback my first manager in San Diego in 1936. Donie Bush who was my manager after the Red Sox bought me and farmed me out to Minneapolis. Joe Cronin who I can’t say enough wonderful things about and he knows & I know how important he was to me. I’m thinking of Tom Yawkey, I've always said it and I would like to repeat it again today. That to me Tom Yawkey is the greatest owner in baseball. And I was lucky to have played on the club he owned and I’m grateful for his being here today. But I’d not be leveling if I left it at that. Because ball players are not born great. They’re not born hitters or pitchers or managers. And luck isn’t the key factor. No one has come up for a substitute for hard work. I’ve never met a great baseball player who didn’t have to work harder at learning to play baseball than anything else he ever did. To me it was the greatest fun I ever had which probably explains why today I feel both humility and pride, because God let me play the game and learn to be good at it. Proud because I spent most of my life in the company of so many wonderful people. There are plaques dedicated to baseball men of all generations and I am privileged to join them.

   Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel, not just to be as good as someone else, but to be better than someone else. This is the nature of man and the name of the game and I have always been a very lucky guy to wear a baseball uniform, to have struck out or hit, or take a major Home Run. I hope that some day the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson in some way could be added as a symbol of the great Negro players that are not here only because they were not given the chance. And I know Casey Stengel feels the same way, and  I’m awfully glad to be with him on his big day. I also know I’ll lose a dear friend if I don’t stop talking because I know that I’m eating into his time, and that is unforgivable. So in closing, I am grateful and know how lucky I was to have been born in America, and to have had the chance to play the game I love, the greatest game of them all baseball.”