Carroll Hardy, a reserve outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, was on the visitors’ bench in Baltimore late in the 1960 season when Ted Williams, the team’s megastar, fouled a pitch off his right foot during his first at-bat against the Orioles. Hobbled, he left the field.

Hardy was told by Mike Higgins, known as Pinky, the Red Sox manager, to pinch-hit for Williams. Hardy proceeded to loft a soft line drive to the pitcher, Skinny Brown, who threw to first base for a double play.

It was an ordinary play in a forgettable season for the Red Sox, except for one detail.

No one had ever — ever — pinch-hit for Teddy Ballgame.

Eight days later, when Williams hit a long home run in the last at-bat of the final game of his career — a moment memorialized by John Updike in The New Yorker in the article “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” — Hardy showed up in another cameo: After Higgins sent Williams to left field in the top of the ninth inning to soak up the fans’ cheers, he sent Hardy out to replace him.

Source: New York Times

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