Williams suffered minor stroke, but recovering nicely

MIAMI – Baseball legend Ted Williams suffered a minor stroke recently but is recovering nicely, close friends said Thursday.

“In a general conversation I had with him yesterday, he said he had a little stroke,” said a close friend who asked not to be publicly identified. “I asked him what the results were. He said `It didn’t amount to anything.”‘

“He said he was going to have some treatment where they would open the artery. He had a clogged artery,” the friend continued. “He wasn’t concerned about it at all. Apparently he had no effect from it.”

The friend, who said he’s known Williams since 1946, said he didn’t know exactly when he suffered the stroke but said it happened more than a week ago.

The former Boston Red Sox star had lost some weight but was “very healthy,” the friend said.

Another buddy, Florida Keys fishing guide George Hommell, said he “heard it through the grapevine” of Williams’ friends and associates that the Hall of Fame outfielder suffered a stroke, but he hadn’t spoken to Williams himself.

Hommell, a fly-fishing expert who includes President George Bush among his clients, said he didn’t know if Williams even had to be admitted to a hospital.

“It was evidently very, very minor,” he said.

Nursing administrators at several hospitals near Crystal River, where Williams lives, said he was not a patient there. Crystal River is on the Florida Gulf Coast about 70 miles north of the Tampa Bay area.

Williams was in Boston Dec. 20 for an appearance on behalf of the Jimmy Fund, his favorite charity that benefits children’s cancer research through the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Several copies of LeRoy Neiman’s painting “Williams at Bat” were sold to help raise funds.

Williams is the last person to bat over .400 in a major league season, having finished with a .406 average in 1941.