Ted Williams, the great hitter to wear a Boston Red Sox uniform and baseball’s last .400 hitter, will be getting a miniseries based on his life. A group of producers are hoping to get the project on television, with The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams as the source material.
The producers behind the project are Atmosphere Entertainment’s Mark Canton and Mandalay Sports Media’s Mike Tollin and Peter Guber, who have optioned the book, reports Deadline. David Hopwood will also join as producer. The book was written by Ben Bradlee Jr.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the team still hasn’t assigned a writer to the project. There are also no networks involved at this stage of the game.
Williams’ life really was immortal, as Bradlee titled his book. The Splendid Splinter’s stats are astounding, considering he left the game for three years to fight in World War II and served in Korea.
There are countless stories the producers could mine for a multiple-episode series. In 1941, he finished with a .406 batting average, famously securing the number during the last game of the season. No batter has finished a season with .400 or above average since. He finished his career in 1960, appropriately hitting a home run in his final at-bat and played his entire career in Boston.
Despite all that success, he never won a World Series and only won the MVP twice. The Sox only appeared in the 1946 Series during his tenure. He also had a tough relationship with the fans and the notorious Boston media.
Tollin is really excited about the project, telling Deadline that he hopes to focus on Williams’ off-the-field life. “We plan to focus on his amazing life, not his death,” the producer told the site.