Ted Williams: The Science of Hitting

What can the greatest hitter in baseball history teach you about building a portfolio? More than you'd think.

In this episode, we dig into The Science of Hitting — the 1970 classic by Ted Williams, the last player to bat over .400 in a major league season, a record that has stood for eighty-four years and counting. Warren Buffett has referenced this book for decades. We finally go beyond the headline and mine it for everything it has to offer investors.

We start with the track record, because process without results is just theory. Williams played twenty-two years, lost nearly five of them to two wars, flew thirty-nine combat missions in Korea, and still won a batting title at age forty. That longevity wasn't physical — it was systematic. And that's exactly what makes this book worth your time.

From there, we cover the lessons that translate most directly to value investing:

• Why the hitter — and the investor — is the biggest variable in the outcome
• The 77-cell strike zone, your circle of competence, and what a .230 pitch looks like in a portfolio context
• Why Williams took the first pitch in almost every at-bat for the last decade of his career — and what that means when there are no called strikes in investing
• How to adjust when your judgment is clouded and the conditions aren't right to swing

If you've heard Buffett mention Ted Williams and always meant to read the book — this episode is for you.