Once a year, Northrup and his father would make a seven-hour drive (before the expressways) to Detroit when the Boston Red Sox came to town. Ted Williams was Northrup's idol, the "only idol I've ever had." Northrup, however, never saw a complete game as a boy. Rather than pay full price, his father would "wait until the sixth or seventh inning, because then you could give the guy outside a buck or two and you could go out there and watch Ted play."