The years before Ted Williams came to Boston were the formative years that created The Kid and shaped the Splendid Splinter. He was lucky to have grown up in San Diego, he often said, where a kid can play baseball year-round. At the same time he recognized that had he been seen as Hispanic (his maternal grandparents were both Mexican), he would have suffered from the prejudices of the day. A high school hero and a solid player for two seasons with his hometown San Diego Padres, Ted Williams came from a remarkable family – his mother a Salvation Army evangelist and his father a photographer, and uncles who were cowboys, longshoremen, cement truck drivers, mariachi musicians, and ballplayers. Nine members of the Society for American Baseball Research contribute detailed accounts of Ted's sandlot games, his high school career, his two years with the Padres, and even his year in Minneapolis before becoming Boston's best ballplayer – and very possibly the greatest hitter who ever lived.

Inspired by and published in collaboration with the Ted Williams (San Diego) chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, and with the cooperation and support of the San Diego Hall of Champions and the Ted Williams Museum.