Ted Williams' Hit List: The Ultimate Ranking of Baseball's Greatest Hitters

No one is better qualified to choose baseball's greatest batters than Williams, the last major leaguer to hit over .400. With freelance writer Prime, he presents his list of the top 20, with also-rans and potential future candidates. He begins by repeating his often-quoted assertion that ""Hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sport"" and then presents his views on the five attributes needed to become a great hitter: intelligence, courage, eyesight, power and timing. To him the ultimate statistic is production, according to which Williams ranks second only to Babe Ruth in the history of the game. The list itself contains few surprises, and there seems little to argue with in his choices, although fans of Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew will be disappointed. Photos. (Mar.)