i adam lazarus is an books featuring iconic and compelling figures in american history including chasing super bowl monday, best ofil to the redskins as gibbs the diesel the hogs and the glory

days of diseasehelor's degree in english from kenyon college and a master'sriting from carnegie mellon. please give a warm welcome to adam lazarus. thank you very much for having me. as you just heard, i'm a nonfiction from atlanta, georgia, with few sports history books out in the last years. but i want to tell you about my latest is a sports history book, but about a lot more than tha there, two main figures in my book, the john glenn, ted williams. i want to open up and give you a little bit of on both of them. so glenn. john glenn was born in cambridge ohio on july 18th, 1921. he was a marine corps fighter pilo wars, world war two and the korean war. he flew a 147 combined missions received 18 air medals and six distinguished flying crosses. he laterpilot at patuxent river naval air station in maryland he helped create, conceive and execute something called

project, which i'll tell you about a little bit later. he was one of the first american astronauts part of the mercury ecame the first american to orbit the earth in became the united states senator from the state of ohio, serving four terms and in 2012, he received the presidential medal of freedom from president bar obama. here's a photo of john glenn receiving his medal of freedom. but i want to give a little more background on john glenn's military career orown during the korean war. john glenn enlisted in the navy's v5 aviation cadet program march of 1942. helly in the army air force program, but they didn't call him back in a couple of weeks decided to stop at a navy recruiting station. and so history might have been a been aarmy air force had called him back. he earned his marine corps pilot's wings in march of 1943. he flew 57 combat marshall islands for vmm f and 1945 during world war two, his after the war, he earned career marine commission in march of 1946 and spenrs serving at a variety of bases across globe in china, guam and texas and virginia. during his time at quantico in virginia, the korean service.

he was absolutelysent to service during the korean war sent and be given combat orders eve of letters to superiors. they told him to stop writing letters, but we'll send you to so he received his orders for the korean war in the arrived in early february 1953, at pohang at k3 a base in pohang south korea. ere's a photo of john glenn the day he left for service in the korean war with his wife and two children. david and lynn was, really interesting about this photo as it was ohio, not far from john glenn's about a little more than 60 years later, port columbus airport was renamed john glenn inte airport. the other main figure in my book is ted willied williams ted williams was born in san diego california, on august 30th 1918. he played left for the boston red sox from 1939 to 1960. he was 19 time all star. he's to hit 400. he had 521 home runs most valuable player awards to triple crowns. he was elected to later became manager of the washington senators and texas rangers a few yehe often said that

his one goal in life was to be able to walk down the str greatest hitter that ever lived. a little bit more on that later. his presidential medal of freedom, a ph presidential medal of freedom from preside and first lady barbara bush. but a little more on ted williams background or captain ted williams. he was known during the ko williams, enlisted in the navy's v5 aviation cadet program in may of 1942 months after john glenn, he earned his. two years later, pensacola's naval air station in florida. he did not serve in combat during world two, actually played a little bit ofplayed outfield for a tune called the bronson bombers, a team in the navalary bases, baseball circuit after world volunteer reserves. he promptly returned to playing baseball for the red sox helped lead them to their first pennant in over 30 years, almost 30 years in 1946, won the mvp that year, but he was recalled to active service in the marine corps in january of 1952, at the age of 34, serving in combat again during the korean alized he was going to have to go abroad and serve. so theyted williams day at fenway park on april

30th, 1952, fittingly at a final at bat, he promptly left, fenway park began retraining at a united states, learning to fly jets he had only flown u corsair world war two. and this was the beginning, the jet age. so he had a lot of catching up to do. he trained on a couple of bases andntven combat orders. and he arrived. k3 pohang south korea, just six days before john glenn is a photo in his hut they lived in these small tropical huts were actually from there were left over from world war two and they were for thenow anything about the climate in north and south korea in february, it was freezing cold. so these tropical huts didn't much protection from the warmth to these tiny little huts and were stacked next to each other. this is ted williams, his tropical hut. the one next door to his was was john glenn. they were neighbors. i've been on a book tour the last months talking about this book, the wingman, and rather than just keep talkit book itself. i thought i'd share with you of the frequent questions i got at book festivals, on the radio and podcasts a the first question i get asked most often is.

where did come from? and it's very simple. it comes from this, which is insi book photograph appeared on a twitter account about three years ago on veterans day. it's a baseball twitter account that shows photos of lou gehrig and willie mays and mike schmidt and on veterans day a couple of years ago, they decided to dedicate that day's post to the military and. someone and the author of the the count posted this photo with a simple did you know that during the korean ted williams served as john am huge baseball history fan.williams statistics and 406 so my family visited coery year so i knew all about baseball history. i knew all about ted williams. this is actually a photo, that image of ted d byties ty so knew a lot about ted williams. and conversely i'm ohio. you don't grow uwithout knowing who john glenn is and my dad who is a big naca history space program fan used to sit me and my down to watch the right stuff as though we didn't really understand it. and so i knew all both these men, and i had no idea about this

missions together. they were part of a very small fighter squadron both 25 pilots go in the air at a time only 40 pilo squadron the time. and so i thought it was actually very remarkablthis connection. and i did my research and did some reading and yeah ether some very interesting, harrowing including one in which ted williams crash landed. and this is all in the book. but at the time i didn't know if there was a interesting story and. it was something that john glenn covered in his autobiography. and when ted williams died reporters wrote about it in his obituaribut i learned more about their friendship that had spanned s, weren't best friends. they didn't spend summer vacations together with their kids playing in the front yard and going doing barbecues together. t isat sort of ebbed and flowed over the decade and glenn back to space in october the age of 77 years oldter friendship seven, he went back to space. and one of the people he people he told about the mission was ted williams. he drove to his house inonally said, i want you to be there ted williams wasn't in very good health.e strokes, but he wasn't to miss john glenn's return to space. so it was sort a heartwarming

story about friendship to me up in his discoveryg out of his wheelchair from the launch pad at cape canaver he was going was bragging all about how he knew john glenn and is, actually, they had a welcome home party for john glenn when he in space. he was in cocoa beach, florida, and one of the first people to greet him, greet him there wass and this is a photo of them seeing each other after. john glenn's first time another. i get asked is what is the of the book mean? people who know their military aviation or any kindprobably what a wingman is but in the marine corps during this time in the korean war squadrons were made up of groups of sections and a section is comprised of a leader and his wingman and the leader leadswingman follows. and whatever the leader does the wing man's job is to respond. and john glenn long he ever met ted williams was writing a report for his superiorsthe world wa two. but before korea, he said in his and primary duty ahead of everything else is to stick with his section leader. so in the marine corps, during this time in the korean war, the leaders much more experience, had had combat training combat ex glenn and the

wingman was often a reservist experience or was a reservist and hadn't flown in while john glenn and ted williams got paired toget about how that happened, it's in the book. but john glenn was the leader and ted wil wingman. but there's another definition of wingman which i think m sort pop culture definition about maybe guys in buddy talk to a girl that he has no business talking. webster's described it as a male friend or partner who accompanies and you read the book, i think you'll see that jod williams, the sean glenn's wingman during the korean war in the air and combat duri later in life, particularly when ted williams really the early 2000s he was dying was in the hospital in san diego and john glenn was by his side several times calling him, visiting him in me to understand and this in the book that towards the williams wingmpeople who know a lot about either man and especially about probably to learn about ted williams john glenn's. they opposites every way ted williams was loud. he was kind of a handsome guy hair.

he was very conservrepublican big friend, good friends with richa get both george bush's elected president. nd divorced. three times. he didn't have very good relationship with his children. he never met a four letter word. he didn't use very often and everything i just said was pretty much the complete oppositejohn glenn was married to the same woman for 73 years who he knew since theypen he two children who he absolutely presbyterian. williams was something of an atheist republican. john glenn was a democrat. eral democrat, but he was a democrat and th every way, whether it was their politics, their worldview, theirhandled their personal life and their family. so friendship is very as the of the book suggests, unusual. so how did they become simplistic separation is that they served together in this war and. there is this band of brothementality, a photo of them discussing some maneuvers or some sit runway at their base in korea. born of their service together. and if you read the book, see

harrowing mission. it was their first mission together john glenn was going to result in his court martialed. so their friendship fire. so that's how their their missions together. this one mission i outline here wher on map indicate where their targets were that mission that wound up with john glenn, he was going to get court martialed. but what i learned

not justing the game, but he obsessed has his shoe laces and he broken his jerseys in his pants weeks ahead and broken bad months ahead time because he was so obsessed?ine tuning everything. and that's exactly how john glenn went about his career is nascar career, his time in the senate was actually something that hurt his career. he was obsessed with the details, writing bills and particularly arms treaties was very active in developing the assault to arms treaty. and it really irritated a lot of his fellow senators because the the mundane, the nuances of and. i think this is something that maybe it's not something they sensibility shared and that they they understood one that way. and the other thing that i came to understand how john glenn and ted williams grew in the years after the korean war. williams was really a national figure. at the age of 23, he joined the sox about age 20. he was probably their best hitter right away. he was other. than joe dimaggio. he was the best player in baseball. and very early in his career. and he was a national figure he was certainly a big figure from the day heox in the massachusetts in new

england area. but he was on the cove life magazine at age 23. this is this photo here is of ou tt it meant to be in the spotlight all the time. for john glenn, it was a little different. really didn't become a national figure until he joined the nascar program particularly, he returned from his bu that's sort of the way his life changed forever. and he was a nationa his service and aca. and i think they botherjohn glenn's daughter told me one time that they were in africa. the friendship seven mission in a small village. elevision, very little news. and even they recognized so neither one of these men could step out of their house without being being having the spotlight shown to them. now, how they handled that was a completely different not get along with his fans to not get along with the press. i think john glenn turned down a handshake in people. but i think it was something that they really saw well, in one another. this common thread i'm often asked what type of research i did for this book and a lot has be glenn and ted williams ted williams, wrote an autobiography n life story up until the time he

was about 40 years old. but many other biographies have been written about length, 800 page biography by ben bradlee helpful. me same thing with john glenn. he wrote an several books have been written about john glenn's career and his low, newspaper articles, articles and those were all good for understanding the structure of the story. but i was able to cover uncover a lo original archives and det collected two or 300 letters written by korean war at the base that john glenn and ted williams served. some of them by pilots who served with john glenn ted williams writing home, tellingheir families, oh, i saw ted on the base today. i flew this mission with ted understand the life over there. what ted williams celebrity also was able to get about 20 or 30 letters john glenn wrote children the war and then helped again and, what life was like over in the base and. mistress during the korean war, and i was firsthand details of what they were when i go forward this is actually a letter to john glenn wrote this

morning and was all bubbling over when k. what a character kind of summed up john glenn's impression of ted archives that i uncovered were command koreaigerilot, the squadron. they notes of every mission. whatflew, what pilots flew what targets they were carrying, who the missions, whether it was successful. they hit tar anything like that. so those were really useful for me to what happened on every mission ted williams and john glenn flew. but the missions, they flew and actually, i was really fortunate to hundreds of pages of navy and marine corps personnel files of glenn and ted wisome serious health problems during his time the korean war and declassified mirroring marine corps and navy files together what was going on with ted williams. so those were all really neat archives but the best resource i had for was was able to interview three pilots who flewwilliams in the korean war. they were still alive. they were in their late had very colorful details and colorful and shared a lot of their unvarnished opinions. one of the hem wawood.one of sho

carson hosted that he left to go host the tonight show when left, woody woodbury took sixties, comedy albums he and i had many conversations. this is a photo of him in the middle during his service in the ko right is a photo of him with john glenn at some kind of woody woodbury and a couple of the other people who were actually on missi glenn was a really great resource for me to recthese two men flying missions together sportswriter by nature and a big history fan, there is a lot of baseball history in the book on later part portions of career, sort of the post korean war years of his baseballi have been asked i mean on podcast, this baseball sports podcast is ted of all time. there are other claimants, babe ruthrtainly be considered the greatest home runguly the greatest hitter of all time, barry bonds wof rball history. someone like shohei ohtani you know plays for the baseball history of who was the greatest hitter of all williams. ted williams, in h r r matter anybody tells you no one has come anywhere near to surpassing or reaching 400 in the years and the 80 some

years since. gwynn, george brett, not rod carew long way from 400. ted williams. and this is his most remarkable achievement opinion. he had three 8816 years later in still oldest man to played all of baseball and hitting. he had a c average of 344 which is third highest of all time. andn in the 20th century at 521 homeruns when he re he won two triple crowns. he missed a third by mere percentage points in the batting crown raised in 1949. atting wshouldget alsportswriters to the more modern sensible fans. his career ops which on base percen percentage was 1.16 second only to babe ruth. and of coursesons during his service in the korean war and world war two. more than 714 which was babe ruth's not five years in the war. so was ted hitter of all time? i think glenn would say yes. and conversely, i make case in glenn is the greatest aviator of all time, or at least in american history. and i' still for a very angry email, someone or someone to come and tackle me in the parking lot after one of these

talks to tell me how wrong i am other claimants just as well someone li ldndrean war pilot, navy test pilot, and ofk the moon. but i want to make the case for john glenn is the greatest aviator all time in world war two. he flew 57 combats two distinguished flying cross seven air medals during his two years in the time with marines in the korean war, he had received four distinguished flying of t tesometh lying and was in june of 1953. the he really start flying missions until late june. 53. and in a ten day spanish shutdownive to become an ace. he have been just war the minute the war ended and in 1954, he returned, became a navy test pilot, ag called the in jet record. it was it was an unofficial record at time. they were trying to see how fast pilots could climb to 10,000 an air show in ohio one day and someonecord for this thousand reaching 10,000 feet in the air and someone done it and i think 2 minutes and 7 seconds he saw that. he said, i c break that. he went out in his jet the next day, in one minute and 59 seconds.

was just if, you know, try to take away anything from john glenn. that years. he conceived and designed and then executed something called bullet, which was the first transcontinental supersonicfrom southern california to brooklyn, new york, in he supersonic speed. no had ever done that record before. and it was a real marvel of modern idea and it required three midair refuelingover three cities across the globe, across the states. it was a very difficult and harrowing assignment for him but it was part of his nature and heit's one of the things that really got him on radar of nasa when they were choosing helped him get on their r mercury astronaut. and again, five years after that, he went aboard friendship seven three orbits around the earth. first american to do so really got us back in the space race against the soviets. and then, as i years later, project stars 95. the this not some space tourist cruise lik up into space for 15 minutes and just beingjohn glenn spent eight days in space as a working on this

mission as eight days at years old. he was something of a human guinea pig getting b monitoring sleep. but he he achieved that. my favorite john glenn statistic was he learned he really learned his pilot's license in thebombing of pearl harbor and his enlistment didn't stop flying until he was 90 years old. two 2011, when his insurance carrier finally said no more he he continued for four years, h piloted his own beechcraft baron from home in maryland when he wa to home in ohio when he was on when the senate was in recess or in the home they owned in colorado just of 89 year old john glenn flying cross-country annie and in the st him 70 years of flying that clinches it for so i th was john glenn the greatest aviator of all time. i think he would sayes i just want to give my great festival for having me and for all you for for listening. and i'd be more than happy to take somof y questions.

so my husband's a my husband. a naval aviator. oh, okay. so he's best and i am curious, in any of yourave any of the family members of your subjects asked you not the book or refuse to assist you in any way? that's a the aside from a few this is the first book that i've done where theand. i was very fortunate. i'm not sure i could don book without john glenn's two childrenere very and very helpful and they didn't give me unfettered, constant access, but they were supportive and they knew i was telling the story in many ways of what a hero their was. so that was four for the john glenn side of the book, i was very fortunate that they did williams had three children that were, you know sort of sole remainingfami members. only one of them is still alive. i was able talk with her. she wrote her own book about what it was like to be ted williams about the john glenn friendship or really his so, you know this was

a new angle whe' many biographies or books or articles, biopics or documentaries about, them. to do that without just r over and over again in this book, in a way, was shedding new light on both these men. on, their military career and this friendship, because it was s covering new territory. i think they were. you kn the story. so they were supportive of it that way. and when you go on a mission this what do youto the archive. and if you're for people that are alive. gentlemen, earlier was talking i s writing a book on people have been dead for a couple of hundred. so how do you go family, getting the archive, the pictures, put it all together and then you got to start writing it? yes. well, once youbook's going to come out and what things you to purs research you need to uncover getting the famil always, you know, someone like that or getting it's a big interview i', some other sports books. i did a book on joe montana and steve younplayers, just getting to

them, getting in front of them to say, this book about you. i want to do an interview is always challenging. requires groveling and calling in a lot of favors, and that's sort of how it happenedch with the glenn family, ted williams daughter. but fortunately, at least for john glenn and i told this to, his daughter, i said, i hope i don't mean to offend you. after when h i said, were your parents like pack rats? are they hoarders? and she starte said that was mom and dad because not when they died, but getting up in age and had already retired from the much of his archives to the ohio found a school there, the john glenn school of public affairs. and over time, they collected virtually every piece of paper hered in his entire life. there. fliers and documents and orders and photographs awards. he received are in storage at the ohio state university. and i was able to go and just the korean war stuff. there and boxes, the things he saved the menus he received from restau to while an r&r in korea

brochures from thek factories that he went to. so he savedt hard. and i developed a good relationship with the ohio state request things and they have you i need box 118 dash one, dash 2-a would you send this and that was it was very fortunate this is during so they were good about you know scanning and emailing me manyhings. so that was the best way to get. archives, first hand archives williams was a little bit more challenging because a lot archives, he didn't keep the of records in archives that ted thatbaseball hall of fame had a lot of his stuff. and as i mentioned information requests, mostly with the navy and the marine corps. and they sent me hundreds of pages of his personnel. there's also something called the korean war project, started son, have cataloged every branch of the military that source. so it was easy for me to access soifferent avenues and then yeah for the people the three pilots w track down i you know people

were interested in their stories. the articles had written about them inhe marine corps leatherneck magazine. so i tracked them down and people learned during the course of writing these five books is that if you tell people you're writing about them and it's not ng a new angle. they're usually pretty open to talking about it, eir past, and sharing their because does don't forget,de to ted williams i'm h information about that kind of tenderteammates. so maybe you could just talk a minute about that other side of ted williams sure. ted williamsen asked many times by people was as big a jerk as peopleid, and i on some days, yes he was as big said. but i what i learned him over the course of that he had a terrible temper. he didn' cruel and mean some days, but he had a big heart. he car stories his daughter told me this and i've heard other stories he would hear about an o ballplayer played that he knew he was never a big

who couldn't pay his medical bills or wasn't was having trouble paying his m or rent. he got the person's and he'd put a check in theres anonymous. he went out of his way to help people all the time. your boston history, he was instrumental, something called the jimmy fund, which is a cancer research center in boston for children. it's that how it's helped thousands of young childn from cancer over the decades. and he did everything he couldancially of own money or helping raise money or appearing events or j hospital, spending time with them, doheart, cared about people and he was rough around thedg times. someone told me a story that he went to with some friends and just got tired of of everything andof the meal, didn't check. and that's kind of sums up ted williams is but there's these stories about him where it's clear that he cared about and i think i developed a good amount of respect for him. and i think i don't know if it's ght about or in him, but there's aook is section. later in the book, fund boston

in 1988 an event him to celebrate his it was sortort of a half celebration of he had done for the jimmy fund and a half public was invited to and john glenn was one of the seven speakers there and think john glenn that saw something ted williams about how big his heart was and how gave back to his community there. there's also into history, but the -- league p color barrier wasn't broken until 1947. and when ted williams gave his induction speech at the baseball hall of fa cooperstown. in 1966, he used part of his saway to honor the -- league players who ar'excluded he meant satchel paige and josh day sort of helped pave the way for a lot the think five years later josh gibson wasn't and after that satchel paige. so for all the things that ted williams wrong he he write it off a lot ofhem. yeah. for the book did you talk to of ted williams is sox teammates or any of the players he managed with the washington senators and did you talk to any

of john glenn's colleagues senate? yes, i talked to most of john ted williams teammates are no longer alive. i did talk to a few there was one who there's an interesting story in thewilliams was playing a game in washington when when john glenn days of nasa and he went to ain washington. and ted, john glenn was there the locker room. and i found an article about someone who was there andcouple years after this happened. butnt to space. so everybody knew john glenn was and he said this guy was coming telling taiclet terrible about this space stuff and we had no idea what he'son and i was able to interview him and he shared lot because know ted williams rookie season was 1939. so thes played with him aren't really still alive. did interview a couple guys who he managed with the senators and the rangers, but i didn't do in the book about his time as a manager. a lot of been writte about that and it wasn't really central to the story. his friendship with john glenn anaging the senators in washington one year john glen him went to dinner and they spent some time

together and that's in tn, i didn't want to retell a of the baseball story. i think i go through in great depth sort of his post korean and how they're overlooked because most people who remember about ted williams either remember the 406 or his homerun in the all-star ended career in 1960. so itera particularly 1957 when h of 39 years old. and didn't want to do a baseball d written about his baseball career. but that was kind of the portion of his basebali focused on. i had a great old with glenn and in the ko war, and he told me so i don't know if it sounds accurate, heplanes to get washed iner a weekend. and if there were 25 guys in thesquadron, 24 of whom would take about 5 minu arrival shower shave and hit the town, there'd one guy reading in that navy manual and to.

the same guy would be there. that was john glenn.ght. i would say that that's little bit of an exaggeration in the book. if you pick up, chapter on aunt russian recreation, which had another name that i won'church but if you read the book, you'll know what i'm talking id go in order. ted williams and john glenn. there''s my understanding that john glenn i read thet his time in. and even one of hi r&r. that's a you bring up an interesting point which was something that sort of dovetails the earlier question. i think american history has of cartoonish images of both john glenn and ted williams like we do with a lot of ultra ultra john glenn, nota boy scout like he in the right stuff. dudley do. mr. maureen was with the other astronau called derisively hen't as clean because he didn't you know the image was he never drank. he never smoked. he n that wasn't true. and i even found out there's church, i've done one case

of him swearing, talking about so rifle women who tried to shoot down his plane in korean war and hend there's even the photo i showed earlier is of him holding a pipe. so he smoked. so he wasn't as quite as cut as as history remembers that he would never go out onuring the korean war. i think he was very loyat do anything wrong on his he was not as as straitlaced as everybody remembered. and he had his ties fun on our i'm sure there's a great about him the he woody woodbury and him decided they needed a new piano in the in the officers club because woody woodbury would entertain the guys the officers club at piano wasn't very good so they next na na will go over and buy and. it's a great story. what he would write tells it' going. they were waiting for the piano, the waitinand the plane didn't come back for several days. and john glenn had to just sit piano for three straight days. and he was so angry that he wans and his superiors are going to be mad at him. but i think he probaough, again, i

what was r and r was a menu and a china dish set brochand so factory brochures. and one of the letters home, he wrote to arnie was like, i thought about buying you this. so he was i think he probably did spend most of his time shopping for his family. there's a really neat story. again,ry not to take too much time. there were a lot of very poor kore needy and poor children in korea near their base, which who they saw every day. and one of them made friends with john but he told john glenn that he didn't have enough money to buy school and he couldn't attend school. he was a little bit older. he was i teens. he john glenn, went to t next time i go to r&r in japan, i'll get you this suit marine bought the suit for this for this poor korean boy. so so he was busy during our in our. but i don's book for straight days while the other guys were out on the town town. well, thank you very much.

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