Matinale: Ted Williams and bunting against the shift
From SABR member Kenneth Matinale at Radical Baseball on September 2, 2014:
Ted Williams had only five sacrifice bunts, three in his rookie season, which are not documented, and one in 1940, one in 1947 with his team down four in the bottom of the ninth.
Williams also bunted for singles in 11 of 12 attempts; the direction of one single is not indicated but the other ten were toward third base. Williams batting average (BA) bunting was .917. Not all of his plate appearances (PA) are documented, so this is incomplete. PA documentation:
1939: none
1940, 1941, 1942, 1946: some
1947: more
1948: most; after that almost all PA are documented.“2,911 plays are missing play-by-play details” – baseball-reference.com
Field location is known for about 550 batted balls, of which these were hit to the left side:
50 left
48 left center
3 shortstop
1 third/short
Read the full article here: http://radicalbaseball.blogspot.com/2014/09/did-ted-williams-try-to-beat-shift-he.html
Originally published: September 3, 2014. Last Updated: September 3, 2014.