By Marc Thaler
Managing Sports Editor

Digging in at the dish for his final plate appearance, Ted Williams was about to close the book on a storied baseball career.

Facing Baltimore hurler Jack Fisher in the home half of the eighth inning, the Splendid Splinter belted one last pitch over the fence.

Depositing a 1-and-1 offering into Boston’s bullpen, Williams helped the Sox win on Sept. 28, 1960.

Now that’s the stuff of legend.

Most people, not just athletes, can only hope to find themselves in a similar situation at some point in their lifetimes. Most people can only experience such a feeling when closing their eyes.

That’s not the case for the Neighborhood’s Katie King.

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Unlike the rest of us, the Salem native didn’t just dare to dream. She lived one.

On her sport’s biggest stage, the XX Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, King walked away the ultimate winner. When the final three periods of her Olympic hockey career ended, the 30-year-old was on the triumphant side of a 4-0 final score against Finland.

Even better, the United States won a medal on the strength of her hat trick. Talk about hitting a home run, hockey style.

Yet King never hesitated when I asked if she’d trade that memorable performance for gold, to have her country’s flag raised just a little higher than all the rest.

“I’d rather be on the best team in the world than be the best player in the world,” she told me.

And that’s precisely what makes this local talent – who continuously lit the lamp on the world stage – a special breed of athlete.

It’s easy to make that comment speaking hypothetically, without actually experiencing the thrill of scoring three goals in a medal-clinching win.

However, having played the main character in a storybook sports script, King was convincing when making that statement during our conversation.

Already a gold-medal winner at the ’98 Games in Nagano, Japan, prior to a silver-medal follow-up in Salt Lake City in ’02, it’d be hard to argue with King speaking honestly, and admitting the chance to bask in the glow of individual glory is the best way to cap a stellar career.

King’s resume gives her the right to seek the spotlight.

Her three-goal effort, the second Olympic hat trick of her career, gave the Granite Stater 146 goals and 119 assists in 210 international contests. Those numbers placed her atop Team USA’s list of all-time leading scorers in the Games.

“Katie is one of the world’s best power forwards,” said Tara Mounsey, a ’96 Concord High graduate and two-time hockey Olympian, when I asked about the legacy King created for herself. “... She isn’t flashy or quick, but she remains a threat.”

The most interesting portion of Mounsey’s message? If you ask me, it’s the last three words. Could King return for a fourth stint on Olympic ice, when attention shifts to Vancouver, British Columbia, in four years?

While I thought she wrote the ultimate final chapter in Italy, clearly a comeback to clinch gold is King’s idea of an excellent ending.

“I don’t know,” King pensively said to me. “I guess I could come back. I wouldn’t completely knock out the possibility. But I’m involved in coaching (an assistant at Boston College). So that relinquishes that kind of feeling.”

Regardless of what she decides moving forward, King deserves all the attention she’s received for her contributions to the women’s game.

In honor of an accomplished hockey player – who put the puck between the pipes three times in her last Olympic go-around – I feel these words are most appropriate. Katie, my hat’s off to you.