PERSONAL GLIMPSES IX

From Reader's Digest
Contributed by Will McDonough


   In 1959, when Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox was 40 years old, he suffered from a pinched nerve in his neck. "The thing was so bad," he later explained, "that I could hardly turn my head to look at the pitcher." For the first time in his remarkable career, he batted under .300, hitting just .254 with ten home runs.
   Williams was the highest-salaried player in sports that year, making $125,000. The next year the Red Sox offered him the same contract.
   "I told them I wouldn't sign it," Williams later reported, "until they gave me the full pay cut allowed - 28%. My feeling was that I was always treated fairly by the Red Sox. Now they were offering me a contract I didn't deserve."
   Williams cut his own salary by $35,000.