Ted Williams Hits the 500th Home Run of His Career

On June 17, 1960, Ted Williams hit a Wynn Hawkins fastball over the center field wall at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland for the 500th home run of his career. He was 41 years old, in his final season, and still able to do the one thing he had spent his life perfecting.

Williams became just the fourth player in major league history to reach 500 home runs, joining Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, and Mel Ott. The milestone came in the second inning of a game the Red Sox would win 3-1. The ball cleared the fence by a comfortable margin. Williams circled the bases in his usual businesslike manner, with no curtain call and no theatrics. Cleveland's crowd of 15,689 applauded anyway.

The number could have been higher. Williams lost nearly five full seasons to military service, flying combat missions in World War II and Korea. Sabermetricians have estimated that those missed seasons cost him roughly 150 home runs. Without the wars, he might have challenged Ruth's career record of 714.

By June of 1960, Williams was fighting his body. His neck hurt. His eyesight, once so legendary that the Marine Corps tested it at 20/10, had diminished. He was hitting .316 but would finish the year at .316 in just 310 at-bats, fewer than half a full season's worth. Every at-bat that summer felt like it might be his last.

He finished with 521 career home runs when he retired in September, capping his final game with a home run at Fenway Park that John Updike immortalized in "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu." But home run number 500, hit on a June evening in Cleveland, was the one that placed Williams in a club that at the time had only four members.