The Redemption of Ted Williams

We walk by ,I don't know...Thousands of homeless people everyday...A lot of them appear to be out of their minds...Some are smelly, some are hustlers trying to hustle a few bucks to score some drugs, some liquor or food..Mostly we ignore them and keep it moving. The thought never occurs to us that all of them have a story...That none of them started life out that way and that more important...Any one of us who is walking by them, or walking past them , ignoring them as if they don't exist (Myself included) could be right where they are if not for the grace and mercy of God and a turn of fate....

I first saw his name on the MSN website....I thought they were talking about the late Baseball player, Ted Williams..Maybe his goofy children had decided whether to cremate his remains or try to thaw him out and see if he comes back to life! A further review of the story revealed that this was a black homeless man with a "golden voice" who had gotten a second chance at life.

Ted Williams, a Brooklyn native who panhandled near the corner of I-71 and Hudson Street in Cleveland, had become an Internet sensation after Columbus Dispatch reporter Kevin Joy posted a clip of Williams demonstrating that God given golden voice by the side of the road.

In a YouTube clip,Ted Williams, wearing an Army fatigue jacket and sporting a shaggy mane of hair, is seen carrrying a cardboard sign that reads:

"I HAVE A GOD GIVEN GIFT OF VOICE. I'M AN EX-RADIO ANNOUNCER WHO HAS FALLEN ON HARD TIMES. PLEASE! ANY HELP WILL BE GREATEFULLY APPRECIATED. THANK YOU!"

Kevin Joy and a Dispatch videographer then pulled the car alongside Williams and said, "We're going to make you work for your dollar."

Ted Williams, without pause, smiled and said in a voice as smooth as Casey Kasem's,

"When you're listening to nothing but the best of oldies, you're listening to Magic 98.9. And we'll be back for more right after these words."

The clip has generated interest from Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, whose team has extended an offer to Mr. Williams to do voiceover work.

"He hasn't accepted the offer," Cavs spokesman Garin Narain said, "but there is a lot of voiceover work needed at Quicken Loans Arena."

And now he's making the rounds of the morning TV shows.He did the CBS "Early Show” Wednesday and is set to appear on NBC's "Today” show Thursday. NBC is flying him in to New York Wednesday and he'll repoprtedly stay up at the posh Essex House.

Asked on the Early Show how he felt about becoming a virtual overnight success, he said: "It's sensational for one thing; overwhelming for another ... It's just amazing."

Williams told the "Early Show" he was going to be reunited with his mother in New York.

"I'm getting a little emotional. I haven't seen my mom in a great deal of time," he said. "She doesn't believe (what's been happening to me). She's 92. She lives in Brooklyn. I was born and raised in Brooklyn.

"One of my biggest prayers that I sent out was that she would live long enough for me to see me rebound or whatever, and I guess God kept her around and kept my pipes around to maybe just have one more shot that I would be able to say, 'Mom, I did do it before, ... I might pass away before her or whatever. My dad didn't get a chance to see this. But God is good."

Yes he is (ALL THE TIME!)...and I am so happy for this guy....He was born on September 22,1957 in New York City. According to his mother, his father named him after the all-star baseball player of the same name who was his favorite player at the time. He is a father to nine children: seven girls and two boys. Mr. Williams served three years in the United States Army, was honorably discharged, and attended school for voice acting. His inspiration to become a radio announcer came from a field trip at age 14, when he found that a radio announcer who he had heard looked nothing like what he had imagined.Mr. Williams had experience as a radio disc jockey before. He worked some overnight shifts for WVKO (AM) in Columbus when the station played soul music.Ted Williams stated that around 1993, cocaine, crack and alcohol abuse complicated his career and led to his then-current state of homelessness. He says he has been clean and sober since mid-2008.

Good for him, I hope to hear good things about this guy. His story makes me take a second look at the homeless people I pass by on the streets, In the subways and what have you....but for the grace of God!