Teddy Ballgame got some NFT ballgame going. Or not.

In 1999, the baseball All Star Game was played at Fenway Park. The highlight of the game was Ted Williams, not quite -  but almost  - metaphorically rounding third and heading for home base on his last legs, coming onto the field, driven in a golf cart. It was quite a scene, especially when all of the current players spontaneously swarmed around Teddy Ballgame to say a few words. Or just to get close to such an iconic and legendary baseball player.

The moment was somewhat clouded by the fact that Ted wasn't wearing a Red Sox cap. (His entire career was with the Sox.) Instead of navy blue with the big red B, Ted was wearing a cap bearing the logo of his son John Henry's business, an internet services provider that went belly up a couple of years later.

Ted went belly up a couple of years later, as well, but not before John Henry had his father spending his final years autographing baseballs for John Henry to sell.

(Then there was the weirdo thing where John Henry and his sister Claudia had their father's dead body sent to a cryogenics facility in Arizona to be put on ice while awaiting science and technology to reach the moment when the bodies in deep freeze could be thawed back to life. Ted's situation was made even weirdo-ier in that his dead body was decapitated, and head and body are being stored separately.)

Sadly, young Williams only outlived his father by a couple of years, and died of leukemia at the age of 35.

And now John Henry's sister has taken up the mantle of making a profit off of their late, great father's memory. Claudia Williams has gotten an artist to create a series of nine (Ted's player number) non-fungible tokens (NFT's - digital representations of a work of art, video, etc.). She's using the same artist, Andre Maciel, that football star Rob Gronkowski employed to create his NFT's, which last month sold for a cool $1.6M.

What's up for auction over on TedWilliams.com are those NFT's the different Ted-related art works. 

"My life's goal is to keep my dad as relevant and inspirational as ever," Claudia Williams said last week in a telephone interview from her Florida home. "I want to leave his legacy behind when his last surviving child is gone." (Source: ESPN)

I may not have much by way of a life's goal - if it finally shows up, it'll be too little, too late - but I can hear my father laughing his arse off if he thought that any of his kids had a life goal of keeping him "relevant and inspirational." That is, of course, largely because my father wasn't Ted Williams, and he only had to be relevant and inspirational to his children. And as long as we're alive, he will be - even if it's not exactly anyone's life goal. 

It's probably also worth mentioning that, as long as baseball is played, Ted Williams will always be "relevant and inspirational" even if Claudia Williams sits back and does nothing.

As I noted, there are nine NFT's - they look like baseball cards - and, for eight of them, there are nine copies. The other is a one-off which comes with additional goodies, including an autographed bat and a 3-night stay at a house in Vermont where Ted once lived. 

"It's all about inspiration and honoring my dad," she said. "I am very much my father's daughter: I do not do squat if I don't feel passionate about it."

Without sounding too cynical, I'm guessing that Claudia thought it might not be a bad idea to cash in on NFT mania. Maybe she found inspiration from Rob Gronkowski's NFT success. Perhaps the thought of making a lot money without having to actually do squat other than lining up the artist evoked a bit of passion in Ms. Williams. 

She may well find herself a tad bit disappointed. 

The auction started on April 19th and ended on the 24th. When I looked at the auction website on Friday, it struck me that, when it comes to NFT's, Ted Williams is apparently no Rob Gronkowski. Some of the NFT's had zero bids, or bids as low as $2.31. The big prize - the one that included the stay Chez Ted - had been bid up to $1,115: a far cry from the estimated value of $8K.

I grew up a Ted Williams' fan. In my first game at Fenway, in July 1960, I saw Ted - in his final year - hit a homerun. It was a complete and utter thrill. (For a short while, I even kept a Ted Williams scrapbook of articles I clipped out of the sports pages. I was, of course, too lazy to keep up with anything, and quickly grew tired of this "effort.")

Anyway, as a fan of Teddy Ballgame - and as a Worcester girl - if I were to place a bid in this auction, it would be on a limited edition NFT of Williams' debut in a Red Sox uniform, which occurred in April 1939 at an exhibition game played at Holy Cross College's Fitton Field. 

My father was both a baseball fan and an excellent (semi-pro level) baseball player. He took in a lot of games at Fitton Field (and also at Fenway Park; he and one of his uncles would regularly drive into Boston for night games when they were something of a rarity). So I wouldn't be surprised if he was at this game. (Alas, there's no way to find out.)

"Daddy was so about cutting edge," [Claudia Williams] said. "When he learned about something new, he embraced it. He might say, '... I don't know the first thing about this NFT, but I think it's great.' But he would learn about it, and he would love it."

Well, I know the first thing about NFT's, and that's about as far as it goes. So I know that, unless I bid using bitcoin, I can't participate in the auction. Alas! I certainly have $2.31 to spare on one of these new-fangled EFTs. Unlike "Daddy", I am not, however, cutting edge. 

And I'm guessing that most of those who are enamored of Ted Williams aren't either. I suspect most of those who are collectors with an interest in Ted Williams memorabilia are old school. They'd like a physical baseball card signed by Ted. A shirt he wore in a game. Etc.

With luck, Claudia Williams will at least earn back what she paid the artist. But I'm thinking that she ain't going to get rich quick on this one. Maybe an NFT of Ted's cryogenic head? Maybe the cryogenic head itself?

At some point, I'll check back and see how the auction shook out. But I'm guessing this auction ain't got much game.