Auction brings Hall of Famer Ted Williams to NFT market

BOSTON (AP) – Teddy Ballgame is about to become Teddy Blockchain.

Hall of Famer Ted Williams enters the digital memorabilia market with the release of nine different cards that follow the number 9’s career, from skinny rookie to Cooperstown induction. The collectibles offered by Williams’ daughter were hand-drawn by Brazilian illustrator Andre Maciel, known as Black Madre, who created the non-fungible signs for soccer star Rob Gronkowski, which sold out last month for $ 1.6 million. is.

“I wrote to him. I told him who I was. I said, ‘My dad is Ted Williams.’ I said, ‘Here’s what I want to do,’ ‘Claudia Williams said, adding that she did not know if Maciel was familiar with the baseball player.

“For all he knows, I’m just someone who sticks out and says, ‘Hey, can you make me some NFTs? ‘, She said. “Just the respect that he showed the art, I know he knows who Ted Williams is.”

Eight cards were numbered 1-9 in limited editions, with the ninth – titled “The Splendid Splinter” – a unique version accompanied by a signature bat, three signatures and an Airbnb stay in a house Williams lived in. . in Vermont. Each of the 73 cards contains the digital signature of the Red Sox slugger, who is the last major league to bat 0.400, hitting 0.406 in 1941.

The collection also recognizes Williams’ accomplishments as a fishing hall of fame and a fighter pilot who missed parts of five seasons to serve in World War II and the Korean War. Claudia Williams wrote the text on the back of each card.

The auction starts on Monday and lasts until Saturday.

“My life goal is to keep my dad as relevant and inspiring as ever,” Claudia Williams said in a telephone interview from her home in Florida last week. “I want to leave his legacy when his last surviving child is gone.”

Non-fungible signs can be artwork, video clips, or even tweets or news articles attached to a digital record – or blockchain – that enable the collector to prove ownership. The NBA got NFTs by creating a market called Top Shot, which has more than 800,000 users and at least $ 500 million in sales.

Williams said if the auction is successful, she will donate a portion of the proceeds to the Jimmy Fund, a cancer charity that has been a favorite since her father’s playing days.

“It’s all about inspiration and honoring my father,” she said. “I’m very much my father’s daughter: I do not squat if I do not feel passionate about it.”

Williams played for 19 years – all for the Red Sox – and lost time for the two wars before retiring at the age of 41 in 1960 with an average of 344, 521 runs and 1,839 RBIs. He was a 19-time All-Star, two-time AL MVP and two-time triple winner.

Williams was also a notorious curmudgeon who ridiculed reporters as ‘Knights of the Keyboard’ and refused to give his cap to the fans. But he was one of the few white players who argued that Negro Leagues players should be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Claudia Williams said her father may not have been an early adopter of NFTs, but he encouraged his children to keep up with the latest technology. His book “The Science of Hitting” advanced his time. (Williams, who died in 2002, was frozen in liquid nitrogen at a critical facility in Arizona in the hope that medical advances could one day bring him back to life.)

“Dad was so at the forefront,” she said. “When he learned something new, he adopted it. He might say, ‘… I do not know what the first thing is about this NFT, but I think it’s great.’ But he would learn it, and he would like it. ‘

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports