BOSTON (AP) – As fans clamored for tickets to the first Red Sox-Yankees series of the season, the team unveiled a bronze Ted Williams statue as a tip of the cap to the “Splendid Splinter’s” devotion to children stricken with cancer.

“Ted Williams did two great things, that was play the game of baseball and care for children, and it’s beautifully represented in this statue,” his daughter, Claudia Williams, crying and fighting back emotions, said upon seeing the statue Friday for the first time.

Ted Williams, who died in 2002, made hundreds of trips, most unreported, to local hospitals to visit sick children during his playing career. His support was critical to the founding and continued success of the Jimmy Fund, which raises money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino proposed the idea of a statue to the Red Sox shortly after Williams died. The plan quietly moved forward while the location of Williams’ body made headlines. His body, at the request of Williams’ son, was sent to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., where it was cryogenically frozen.

“Ted Williams, .406 hitter, a guy who left his career twice to serve our country,” Menino said. “How many of our athletes today would do the same thing? They’d find excuses. Teddy did it.”

In addition to fighting in World War II and the Korean War, Williams was the last big league player to hit over .400, and is regarded by many as the greatest hitter in baseball history.

But while his on-field prowess is well-known, Williams was private about his charity work. Former teammate Bobby Doerr recalled Friday that Williams visited a hospital to see sick children the night after the Red Sox won the 1946 pennant.

“He went to the hospital to see somebody, and he was criticized because he didn’t show up for our banquet,” said Doerr, who joined another former teammate, Johnny Pesky, at the unveiling.

It’s that side of Williams that artist Franc Talarico sought to depict with his 8-foot statue, which sits atop a four-foot granite base on the sidewalk just outside the park, behind the right-field stands. The bronze Williams is smiling, a bat over his left shoulder, and placing his Red Sox cap on the head of a young boy. Talarico estimates Williams to be in his 40s.

“It was something that was there that wasn’t really shown – the compassion. It was something that I felt needed to be shown,” Talarico said.

The boy in the sculpture is loosely designed as Einar “Jimmy” Gustafson, who helped launch the Jimmy Fund when, as a 12-year-old cancer patient, he appeared on a live radio program. Williams met Gustafson in 1999.

“It’s him in the sense that he is every kid,” Talarico said.

The team unveiled the statue hours before the Red Sox and Yankees opened a four-game series at Fenway.

For Chris Merry, the wounds of last October haven’t healed. The 23-year-old Chelmsford resident is still smarting from the Yankees comeback victory over the Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. To boot, the Yankees acquired Alex Rodriguez after the Red Sox were unable to close the deal for him in the offseason.

What does he want to see this weekend when A-Rod is in the batter’s box? “A fastball a little inside,” said Merry, first in line for standing room tickets.

Meanwhile, Yankees fan Barry Nasta, 52, already had tickets. He estimated he spent $1,000 for tickets to all four games at Fenway, three more next weekend in the Bronx, and airline tickets to and from Oakland, Calif., where he lives.

“To me, it’s worth it,” the native New Yorker said. “It’s like a playoff series already, so it’s fun.”

Nasta’s response to ribbing from Red Sox fans? His banner, which reads: “Got A-Rod?”