The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.
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Posted Jun 5, 2007 by Jeff Houck
Updated Jun 5, 2007 at 06:47 PM
I took in a Devil Rays gtame at the Tropicana Dome on Saturday. The team wasn’t doing so well (4-0 against the Kansas City Royals in only 1 1/2 innings) so the Stew Family went for a walk around the stadium.
We came across the Ted Williams Museum Hitters Hall of Fame under the right field stands.

I had visited the exhibit last season, back when it was only a one-room exhibit. It reopened in an expanded form in March with another several hundred feet of space in an upstairs room.
As you might expect, there were more than a few priceless pieces of memoribilia.

What I wasn’t aware of was that Ted Williams back in the day had a soda with his name on it:

As the Keyman Collectibles site explains:
Ted Williams was employed by the Moxie corporation as Assistant Advertising Manager for a period of 5 years starting November 1, 1957, at a salary of $1,000 per year, with an option to buy 50,000 shares in the company.
Shortly after Ted Williams Signed on, in December of 1957 the Moxie Corp. introduced “Ted’s Root Beer”. The product was put out in 8 and 12 oz bottles, and was still being marketed as late as 1967, before being phased out of production.
The tin signs for Ted’s are collectibles, provided that they were printed in 1952. So many reproductions have been printed that the copies are only worth about $12 to $15.
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Reader Comments
Posted by (Iris Fleat) on June 09, 2007
I know about baseball and Ted Williams-and I think it is great that they opened a small in his memory only it is much nicer in The Baseball Hall of Fame in Coppersfield. But I digress as usual-I never heard of Moxie Bev. Co. You see Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer and A.andW. were the favorites in Ohio plus Vernon’s ginger ale my mother’s favorite. I remember when Carter ran for president his brother had a beer -I kept a can for years. I also kept the Shaq candy bar for years etc.etc.etc.