Today’s story is about a man who became an icon, a war veteran and a sports hero. In his lifetime, he was the poster child for America’s pastime. But as it turned out, there was far more to this man than most people knew.

This is the Frozen .400. It’s the cocktail named for one of my favorite athletes of all time: Ted Williams. The drink is made with Tequila, Sweet and Sour mix, orange juice, grapefruit juice, grenadine, and simple syrup.

As a kid, my favorite sport was baseball. I was obsessed. I remember sitting in my father’s lap as a three-year-old, asking my dad about every single aspect of the game after every single pitch. My dad lasted about three innings before he couldn’t handle my incessant questioning any longer. Following in his iconic footsteps, the number I chose to wear for most of my playing days was Ted Williams’ very own number nine. The reason why is because, when my dad couldn’t answer my unending baseball questions, I turned to books.

I remembered reading about how Williams was the last player to hit .400 and dreamed about how I wanted to be the next. For reference, the league-wide batting average for the MLB usually hovers around the mid-200s. But, I was a kid. Little did I know just how difficult it is to become one of the 750 players on MLB rosters, let alone to follow in the footsteps of one of baseball’s greatest hitters in history.

Ted Williams was born in San Diego, California in 1918. He was always a talented baseball player, having incredible hand-eye coordination, and started off his professional career playing minor league baseball with the San Diego Padres. In 1937 Boston Red Sox general manager, Eddie Collins, who was in California to scout future hall-of-famer Bobby Doerr, caught sight of Williams. Recognizing his incredible talent, he negotiated with the Padres general manager to purchase Williams’ contract. By 1939, Ted had arrived in Sarasota, Florida for spring training with the Red Sox.

It did not take long for Ted to become a phenomenon. Armed with natural talent, a stellar memory, better-than-perfect 20/10 vision, and a dream of becoming the best hitter in the league, in his career, Williams earned a batting average of .344, one of the best in modern baseball, and an on-base percentage of .482, which is the best career stats for any player in that category, ever. But all this incredible success is even more mind-blowing when we consider that Williams missed out on the 1943, 44, and 45 seasons due to his military service in World War II, where he mainly served in the reserves as a naval aviator for the US Marine Corps.

In 1952, he was recalled into service in for the Korean War. But, despite being resentful over being recalled into active service, Ted refused to sit out the conflict in comfort. Now a Captain, Williams flew 39 combat air missions as wingman for future astronaut and US senator John Glenn and was ultimately awarded many commendations for his service, including two gold stars.

Williams returned home from the war and finished out his legendary baseball career in 1960. He was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 1966. His story is both inspiring and remarkable. But, for all we know about Ted Williams, there are two things many people don’t.

First, is that Ted Williams’ heritage was Mexican on his mother’s side. Due to racial prejudice prominent in the league at that time, Ted hid his family history to prevent it from interfering with his baseball career.

Second, is that his head is frozen.

I’m not kidding. After his death in 2002, there was a riff in his family over whether to preserve Williams’ head through cryogenics. While his children were divided on the issue, in the end the move for cryogenics won out. To this day, Williams’ head remains “on-ice” so to speak at a cryogenics facility in Arizona.

Okay, now that we’ve heard the story, let’s get into the drink. Remember this is the Frozen .400, so much like poor Ted’s head, this drink will also be frozen. We’ll start by throwing in 3 oz of tequila into our blender. This is a nod to Williams’ Mexican heritage, but it’s also because I love tequila.

Next, we add 1 oz of grapefruit juice. If you’re a baseball fan, can you tell me why? Spring training in Florida! As a player for the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams spent his entire MLB career spring training in the Florida Grapefruit League. It’s a real thing. The grapefruit juice is going to give us some tartness, but it can also add a decent amount of bitterness as well.

To combat that bitterness, we’ll add in 1 oz of Sweet and Sour mix. Follow that up with 1/3 oz of simple syrup and as an allusion to the red of Williams’ Red Sox jersey, we’ll add 1/3 oz of grenadine.

We’ve got a lot of tasty elements so far, but they still need something to balance out all of the tart, sweet, syrupy flavors we put together, and we’ll do that with 3 oz of orange juice. The orange juice will match the citrus notes of the grapefruit juice, while adding some tartness to balance out any overpowering bitterness or sweetness from the other ingredients.

Mind you, if you were to drink this as is, it would be enormously sweet, and besides where’s the frozen in the Frozen .400? Our final addition to our cocktail is ice, and a good amount of it. To get the near-cryogenic texture we’re looking for, we’ll throw in about 4 oz. The addition of the ice dilutes the flavors a lot so to ensure that our drink isn’t bland but delicious, we need to start by going big on the flavors for frozen drinks.

The Frozen 400 is reminiscent of a frozen tequila sunrise, but the inclusion of the grapefruit juice is really refreshing. I have to say I think this is a home run.