Head of Ted in Chelsea

In the spirit of this weekend's Yankees-Red Sox series, Gothamist suggests you go to the First Street Gallery in Chelsea to visit sculptor Daniel Edwards's death masks of Ted Williams. The Baseball Hall of Fame Red Sox legend who batted .406 in the 1941 season became more famous in his after life when it turned out his head had been cut off when he was cryogenically frozen. Edwards had spent time with Williams (while he was alive) and felt the decapitation was a horror. So he decided to create three death masks of Williams, plus show them with various other paraphenalia (a Life magazine, a jersey) and call it the "The Ted Williams Memorial Display with Death Mask from The Ben Affleck 2004 World Series Collection." The NY Times interviewed Edwards earlier this week and the Boston Herald reports that there are bidders for one of the death masks. It's unclear is the death masks will travel to Boston.

Game 1 is tonight at 7:30PM, with Aaron Small pitching for the Yankees and David Wells for the Red Sox. And New York magazine is using the rivalry in their advertising (it's clearer here at the New York site).

Photograph from the Boston Herald

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By Jen Chung in Arts and Events on September 9, 2005 4:12 PM

Comments [rss]

Kevin Walsh

Poor Ted Williams. He has become a sideshow act in his post-old age.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Bryan Hill

This is a fantastic site, and I carry a the most tragic of shame for not finding it sooner. I can't believe there are magazines about NYC on the stands when I can simply click here.

Rah! Rah! Rah!

Cheers,

BH

Glenn

Did ol' Teddy Baseball really become more famous *after* being frozen? Hitting .400 is hard to top.

Mark

From newyorkmag.com:

"Arch rivals New York Yankees take on the Boston Red Sox this weekend in the hopes of securing the Eastern Regional Championship."

Eastern Regional Championship? Huh?

dhex

"I always thought death masks were Odd."

well, the days, weeks, months and centuries before photography.

jizzbomb

If i were a famous sports hero I'd be like "please do not let my children freeze my body and cut off my head so I might live again in the future. I know I might get senile when I get older and agree to this but now that I'm sane I say NO!". Is it karmic that his son died of leukemia shortly after he froze his dad's head? Ted williams. Great Ballplayer. lousy father.

Dave H.

Edwards: "I feel that baseball legend Ted William's decapitation is a horror. To ameliorate this atrocity I'm goint to make several macabre death masks of the man and put them on display with crappy paraphenalia like 'The Ben Affleck 2004 WS Collection', thus turning one of the greatest and most dignified ballplayers of our time into a posthumous sideshow attraction."

This is really a disgrace. I'd be shocked if anyone has the balls to show it in Boston.

S.D.

I always thought death masks were Odd.

Many people loose weight after being sick for a long time and when they die, don't look like they did in their life. Who wants to be remembered with a bust of them at their worst?