April 16, 2004
Ted Williams Jimmy Fund Statue unveiled at Fenway Park
(From left to right) Larry Lucchino, Johnny Pesky, Tom Menino, Bobby Doerr, and John Henry welcome the arrival of the new Ted Williams statue at Fenway Park.
Red Sox legend Ted Williams always had a soft spot for the Jimmy Fund. Now his feelings are cast in bronze for all to see.
On the sunny afternoon of April 16, a group of Williams' former teammates, friends, and Red Sox and Boston city officials gathered at Fenway Park for the unveiling of the Ted Williams Jimmy Fund Statue. Crafted by sculptor Franc Talarico, the 1,200-pound, eight-and-a-half-foot-tall statue depicts Williams placing his cap upon the head of a young boy with cancer.
Located by the Gate B entrance to Fenway at the corner of Ipswich and Van Ness streets, it is a testament to the half-century of public appeals the late Hall of Famer made on behalf of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its Jimmy Fund — the official charity of the Red Sox.
Speaking after Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz Jr., MD, offered these moving words about the role Williams played in bringing attention and millions of fundraising dollars to the cancer fight during and after his storied career:
Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, speaks at the unveiling ceremony.
"It's a great honor to be here to celebrate and honor this hero. Ted Williams was never very comfortable talking about the phenomenal work he did for kids with childhood cancer. But it's not overstating it to say that what he did changed the world. He made Boston and Dana-Farber a place that changed the outlook for patients with cancer — at first for children and now, increasingly, for adults.
When Ted was in the prime of his career, a child with leukemia would have been lucky to live a month. Now, every day, when children come in to the Jimmy Fund Clinic with leukemia, the odds that they will survive and live a normal lifespan are over 80 percent. And after years of struggle, we are beginning to see those kinds of numbers on the horizon for many adult cancers. That is only possible because in his own quiet way, not drawing any attention to himself, Ted — and through him the Red Sox and the Boston community — allowed for the founding and growth of the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
These guys we're playing tonight [the Yankees] like to brag about Yankee Stadium as "The House That Ruth Built," but Ted Williams and the Red Sox and all of you have built a house right up the street where thousands of lives have been saved and millions of lives will be saved in the future. I can't think of any greater gift that someone could have brought to their team, to his town, and to his brothers and sisters. Ted Williams was a great man."
