BOSTON -- The spotlight shining on the left-field grass where Ted Williams played was empty.

	Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski was one of a parade of ex-teammates and dignitaries who honored Ted Williams on Monday.

A bugler had finished ''Taps,'' a singer had sung ''God Bless America'' and the players who stood around the white carnations in the shape of a ''9'' in left field had departed.

On a night filled with memories and musings about one of baseball's greatest hitters, the final image symbolized the theme of the Fenway Park ceremony -- no one could take Williams' place.

''Just saying his name means excellence in baseball,'' said John Glenn, the former Ohio senator who flew missions on the same plane as Williams during the Korean War.

On Monday night, 17 days after Williams died at 83, fans looked to the sky as four jets did a fly-over at the start of the tribute and nine doves -- another reminder of Williams' uniform number -- were released near the end, soaring first toward the Green Monster in left field then over the Boston Red Sox dugout by the right-field line.

The program was billed as a ''celebration'' of Williams -- a man who didn't want a funeral. It began with dignitaries, including baseball commissioner Bud Selig, and others walking to their seats on the field behind home plate as somber music played.

There were light moments. Humorist Dick Flavin, an acquaintance of Williams, recited ''Teddy at the Bat,'' a takeoff on ''Casey at the Bat'' and drew laughs and cheers from a crowd of about 20,500 paying fans on a night when the Red Sox were idle.

Highlights of the career of the last man to hit .400 or better were shown on the scoreboard. As the evening was winding down, Sarah McLachlan's ''I Will Remember You'' was played.

The daylong tribute began at 9 a.m. with a four-hour program in which 12,000 fans roamed the Fenway Park field and saw Williams' Hall of Fame plaque and other mementos.

''We won't see his likes again,'' said Stuart Eckman, of Haverhill, one of the first fans to walk by a display at the left-field wall.

At the two-hour evening tribute, Williams was remembered as more than a baseball great.

He was a war hero who interrupted his career to serve five years in the Marines during World War II and the Korean War.

	“	Just saying his name means excellence in baseball. For me, Ted also stood for excellence in a setting far removed from baseball and for which he is less well-known. ... He never held back. ”
		— former Sen. John Glenn, pilot who flew on the same plane as Williams on many Korean War missions.

''What would his baseball records have been if he had not been called back to active duty? Who knows?'' Glenn said. ''But I never heard Ted complain about that. Not once. Not a word.''

Williams also supported the cancer research of the Jimmy Fund and visited children with the disease. Proceeds of the evening event were donated to the charity.

All that was discussed on the field by former teammates Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky, ex-Red Sox stars Carl Yastrzemski and Earl Wilson, current shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and others.

The only reference to the dispute among Williams' three children about the disposition of his body was made by DiMaggio. John Henry and Claudia Williams had his body frozen at a cryonics facility in Arizona. Bobbi-Jo Ferrell Williams said her father wanted to be cremated.

All three were invited but did not attend the tribute while a Florida court sorts out the dispute.

''I hope and pray this controversy will end as abruptly as it began and that the family will do the right thing by honoring Ted's last wishes as to his final resting place,'' DiMaggio said. ''And may he then finally rest in peace.''

Williams' career ended with one swing of the bat, a homer in Fenway Park on his last trip to the plate in 1960 against Baltimore's Jack Fisher.

As Williams' at-bats from that game on Sept. 28 were shown on the scoreboard and Fisher stood on the mound, Curt Gowdy -- a former Red Sox announcer and Williams' fishing buddy -- did play-by-play while standing at home plate.

''What a way to go out,'' Gowdy said.

Perhaps the most moving moments came near the end when former Red Sox players, dressed in uniforms, walked one-by-one from the dugout to the positions they played.

Jim Rice, who played left field, stopped near first base rather than walk into Williams' territory.

Then, with a wave from Garciaparra at shortstop, all the players walked to the No. 9 in left-field and placed flowers on it.

''When he spoke, I hung on every word,'' said Garciaparra, who formed a friendship with Williams. ''You listen to every single thing he says and you remember it.''

On Monday night, Williams provided one more batch of memories.