The Peculiar Truth about the Cryogenic Ballplayer

• Florida, July 5, 2002: Baseball legend Ted Williams died at age 83. The Splendid Splinter, as he was known, set numerous MLB records for the Boston Red Sox in the 20th Century. He also served in WWII, thereby temporarily sacrificing his career for his country. His passing made headlines across the US.

• Then began a family legal battle for Ted Williams’ afterlife.

• Williams was said to have been an atheist, and he didn’t want a church service or burial. Instead, John Henry Williams, the slugger’s son and executor of his will, stated something unusual. His father wished to have his body cryogenically frozen.

• Bobby Joe Ferrell, his eldest daughter, objected. She claimed her father wanted to be cremated and his ashes sent to sea. John Henry and another sibling, Claudia, agreed that their father requested cryonics, and they had a dubious signed document as proof.

• When the cryogenics story hit the news, the late night jokes began. And they kept coming.

• John Henry had a history of capitalizing on his father’s fame - sometimes for his father’s benefit and sometimes for himself. Memorabilia was signed and sold, and Williams appeared at events during the final years of his life.

• John Henry also attempted to follow in his dad’s footsteps. Deeply affected by the attacks of September 11, 2001, John Henry sought to enter professional baseball. The problem: he had none of his old man’s skills, he couldn’t hit, and he was already in his early 30s. John Henry joined a low-level semi-pro team, struck out repeatedly, got injured, and never returned to the sport.

• Bobby Joe hired lawyers to fight against her siblings. She claimed the cryonics document was a fraud. But she ran out of money to keep fighting. Eventually, she received what was owed her in the will and called off her lawyers.

• A private jet flew Ted Williams’ corpse from Central Florida to Scottsdale, Arizona and the headquarters of Alcor Life Extension Foundation. His remains were then placed inside a tall metallic cylinder called a dewar where it was frozen in liquid nitrogen.

• Alcor states on its website that it is “Advancing the Science of Cryopreservation,” or as its more commonly known cryonics or cryogenics. The premise is straight out of science fiction: people’s bodies are frozen at low temperatures indefinitely until a future date in which they can be revived.

• In order to qualify for the procedure the subject must already be deceased. Also, all fluids are drained from the bodies. That means betting on some as-of-yet unknown technology that can reanimate human life from death, as well as reinstating all of the lost bodily fluids. Naturally, there’s no guarantee it will ever succeed.

• 2003: Sports Illustrated reported that Williams’ estate owed Alcor over $100,000 and had threatened to thaw out his body.

• One year later, John Henry died from leukemia. His body also went to Alcor to be frozen as per his request.

• 2009: Alcor’s former COO, Larry Johnson, published a book revealing how the company abused Ted Williams’ body.

• First, he claimed that a technician accidentally cracked the dead man’s skull with a wrench. Why? To remove a tuna can that had frozen onto the head. Why a tuna can? Because that’s what the company used as head pedestals, according to Johnson.

• Second, he claimed that Alcor had separated Ted Williams’ head from the rest of his body. The company offers two cryonic methods. One is full body preservation. The less expensive alternative includes saving just the head.

• According to Johnson, Alcor might have mistakenly severed Williams’ head when it was supposed to spare the entire body. The former COO recanted parts of his book after Alcor sued him for defamation. However, a biography of Williams titled The Kid provided details of how Alcor surgeons severed his head, and the company did not sue that author.

• Whatever the case, the Hall of Fame baseball legend and his son - or what remains of them - are said to be in stasis in a warehouse in Scottsdale, Arizona to this day.

• Hopefully, the facility will never suffer a power failure.