February 14, 1969 – It is reported that Ted Williams has agreed to manage the Washington Senators. From what I could gather Williams agreed to a 5-year contract that would pay him a sizable salary plus shares of the team stock. The exact compensation package could not be verified but it is believed that he made more than one million dollars in total.
The Washington Senators were coming off of a another terrible year where the team only won 65 out of 161 games and finished in last place in the American League. During the spring training the new manager emphasized hitting. The team needed a lot of help in this area as they only hit a meager .224 for the ’68 season. This was a good fit from the start as Ted Williams took pride in helping his players on their batting skills.
After a long spring training the Senators were eager to start the new season. The team started the season off with the Yankees at RFK Stadium. In front of President Nixon and a sellout crowd the Senators will go on to lose the managerial debut of Ted Williams by a score of 4 to 8. The Senators bounced back to win the next two games to win the first series of the new season.
Next, the team traveled up the road to play the Baltimore Orioles in a four game series. The Senators started off by shutting out the Orioles 4 to 0. The Senators were feeling pretty good going into the second game with the birds. The Orioles did not waste anytime returning the favor by whipping the Senators the next three games by a combined score of 20 to 0. The Orioles put the Senators into an instant slump.
The Senators were able to snap out of the slump and went on to win 12 of the 23 games played in the month of April. The Senators hitting was improving as they went on to win 50% of their games through July. During the last two months of the season the Senators improved hitting started to pay real dividends as the team would win 32 of their last 54 games and ended the season with a record of 86 victories and 76 defeats. The Senators finished in 4th place in the newly formed American League East Division 23 games behind them dreaded Orioles.
Ted Williams went on to become the American League Manager of the Year. The award was well deserved as Williams helped the team drastically improve on their hitting by improving on the following categories.
Hits
1968 – 1,208 / 1969 – 1,365
Runs Scored
1968 – 527 / 1969 – 694
Batting Average
1968 – .224 / 1969 – .251
Doubles
1968 – 160 / 1969 – 171
Stolen Bases
1968 – 29 / 1969 – 52
On Base Percentage
1968 – .287 / 1969 – .330
Triples
1968 – 37 / 1969 – 40
Total Bases
1968 – 1,804 / 1969 – 2,060
Slugging
1968 – .336 / 1969 – .378
Home Runs
1968 – 124 / 1969 – 148
