| Title | : | The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0786888679 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780786888672 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2003 |
| Awards | : | Casey Award (2003) |
The Teammates is the profoundly moving story of four great baseball players who have made the passage from sports icons--when they were young and seemingly indestructible--to men dealing with the vulnerabilities of growing older. At the core of the book is the friendship of these four very different men--Boston Red Sox teammates Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams--who remained close for more than sixty years.
The book starts out in early October 2001, when Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky begin a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved friend Ted Williams, whom they know is dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group--"my guys," Williams used to call them--is unable to join them.This is a book--filled with historical details and first-hand accounts--about baseball and about something more: the richness of friendship.
The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship Reviews
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The Teammates by David Halberstam is the January selection of the baseball book club for January 2017. Halberstam is most remembered for his Pulitzer winning The Best and Brightest but was also an avid sports fan. He listed Bob Knight as one of his closest friends and followed Michael
Jordan for a season. Through Knight, Halberstam got a chance to meet his boyhood idol Ted Williams. The Teammates chronicles a sixty year friendship between Williams and his three teammates Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Dominic DiMaggio on and off the playing field.
In 2002, Ted Williams was dying. Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky decided to pay one last visit to their teammate before he succumbed to his illness. On the road, Halberstam looks back at the friendship these men formed while still minor leaguers in their teens. All four came from California and joined the Red Sox at relatively the same time in the late 1930s. The other three players complimented Williams on teams that competed for the pennant during the 1940s and maintained lasting friendships ever since. Halberstam touches on their playing days while also providing their routes to the big leagues as well as childhood and adult family life.
All four players maintained distinct personalities- Williams the misunderstood, volatile superstar; Doerr the balanced persona who understood Williams better than anyone; DiMaggio the son of immigrants who struggled to emerge from his brother's shadow; and Pesky who had a greater work ethic than any of them and became a baseball lifer. This book was about the lives these men lead away from the field with baseball as a backdrop. Although touching at times, especially as Williams grappled with his final illness, I wanted the book to be more about the players actual time as teammates on the Red Sox than their personal lives off of it.
In this age of social media, current players maintain accounts and we can follow their every movement off the field. The current World Series winners has a young core who appears close and could remain friends for the next sixty to seventy years. Halberstam has taken us to a wholesome, bygone era where players such as the Red Sox played on the same team for their whole career; however, fans did not know much about their personal lives. I enjoyed reading about these lives, especially those of the role players who are not as well documented as Williams. The day Williams and Doerr spent fly fishing off the Florida Keys was especially touching.
It is quite remarkable that four big league players with distinct personalities remained friends for sixty plus years of their lives. What is more remarkable is that even in his final moments, Williams chose the company of his teammates over that of his family. Even though this is not his best work by far, Halberstam's journalistic skills are evident in this book. An easy read for a gloomy day in baseball's offseason, I rate The Teammates 3.5 cheery stars. -
This portrait of 4 Boston Red Sox players - Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio (Joe's brother), Johnny Pesky ( the right field foul pole at Fenway Park is named for him), and Bobby Doerr. Bobby Doerr comes through as the most steady player, and all around great human being. He was Ted Williams' close friend and perhaps one of the few human beings who could put up with Williams' volatility. Doerr is the only one of the four who is still alive, age 99.
Dom DiMaggio was the first major league baseball player to wear glasses! This was in the days before unbreakable lenses. They started him out in the outfield for this reason, but moved him to center field where he proved invaluable. The story of game 7 in the 1946 World Series represented for me the reason why fans continuously debate and relive plays and games. The injuries described were heartbreaking. The Sox were playing the Cardinals and DiMaggio hamstring suddenly gave out as he was running to second base. Pesky was blamed for the loss of this game, a story that the book debunks. This was one of those disasters in Red Sox history that kept them from winning the World Series until 2004. Everyone talks about Buckner's error in Game 6 in 1986 against the Mets, but the 1946 series was an even more "tragic".
The Ted Williams era lasted from 1939-1960. During those years, Williams missed 5 seasons serving in World War II and the Korean War. Unlike the actor John Wayne who got a deferment because he had children, many baseball players went to war including all four players in this book Williams, Doerr, Pesky and DiMaggio. Williams is still the only player to bat .400 for a full season. He had a horrible childhood, and this most likely explains his difficult personality at times.
Johnny Pesky was another unlikely athlete with his slight build. For years into his 80's, he still went to Fenway everyday helping with batting practice. In 1997, Pesky was kicked out of Fenway and told to turn in his uniform by new management. Ted Williams fought for his restoration and finally in 2002 under the new management of John Henry, he was invited back. Management changes and devaluing of players shouldn't have surprised me, but they did.
Details about the changes in treatments for injuries also interested me. I didn't realize how many years pitchers went for as long as 9 innings. Ouch. Players of the era these guys played earned modest salaries. So much has changed in baseball, but clearly the sport owes these four so much.
Overall, good portrayals, writing, and history. A must read for Red Sox fans (this clearly influenced my rating:). -
Portrait of a generation as much as of four exceptional individuals and athletes in it. I will miss David Halberstam's unique ability to weave the texture of both individual and era into the stories of history and sports that he told.
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This is the story of four Red Sox teammates and friends: Ted Williams, Dom Dimaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. All of them great players and great men. It is a story about aging, love, friendship, and baseball.
One story is about the famous "Pesky held the ball" World Series of 1946. I actually went to that game inside my mother's womb. I always look at baseball as a prenatal love for me. In that game, Dom Dimaggio was hurt running the bases. He had to be replaced by Leon Culberson in center field. Culberson was not a good player, only made the team because of the WWII drain on players. With Enos Slaughter on first, Harry "the Hat" Walker came to the plate. Culberson should have moved more over to left center. Dom Dimaggio shouted out to him to move over, but got only a short move. The field itself was in poor condition. Slaughter ran on the pitch. Walker hit the ball to left center. With two outs, Slaughter intended to score knowing that Dimaggio was on the bench. Culberson was slow retrieving the ball and made a soft throw to Pesky. No tv replay existed then. Pesky was made the goat and accused of holding the ball. The players claim it was unfair. Pesky himself never tried to change the impression, believing he should never speak ill of a teammate, in this case Culberson.
The saddest story is about Ted Williams. Seeing this great athlete age and be used by his own son, John Henry Williams. He used Ted to sell autographed baseballs when Ted was confined to a wheelchair and losing his edge. When Ted died, he was frozen in a cryogenic lab. What a disgrace. -
Picked this one up recently at the local transfer station ... Score!
So, I was born in Worcester about a month after the Sox lost the World Series to the Cardinals in 1946. My dad was a big fan and I started to show interest in the mediocre Red Sox in the mid 50's. By then three of the four gents pictured on the cover were gone. Ted W. stayed on and continued to hit very well for a few more years. IMHO Teddy Ballgame is THE biggest sports hero in New England and there are plenty of well-qualified candidates. Anyway, this was a fun and interesting book to read. I was aware of the good Sox teams of the 40's and early 50's, but they were a bit before my time as a fan started. By the time I got "there" they were a perennial 4th place team, but I still loved them. It was good to catch up on Dom D., Bobby D., Johnny P. and the Splendid Splinter.
A reader's notes: this is the second book in very recent reading to mention thing called a "Lady Baltimore cake." The other book was John Cheever's collected short stories. And ... there have been three very recent books with a scene of a rabbit being shot(Watership Down, Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, and The Crossing). Interesting ...
- About halfway through this I found between the pages a piece of paper, containing only the inked longhand message "I Love You."
- 3.5* rounds down to 3* -
I am a huge baseball fan. Basketball will always remain the sport I loved playing the most, playing it fifteen hours a day with my friends when we were young, but baseball has always been the sport I loved watching and listening to on the radio, and especially following the box scores. Growing up in the Bronx, I was originally a Red Sox fan, which stemmed from the fact that my father was from Boston and a Red Sox fan. The Mets were my favorite National League team, and as I got older I eventually went with my 'roots' and became a Yankee fan.
I have read numerous books on baseball, and I actually wrote one that I was very proud of, even if no one else was. The three baseball books that stand out to me are 1) Field of Dreams (Shoeless Joe), 2) The Natural (I thought the movie sucked) and 3) The Summer of 49 by David Halberstam.
And Now, another David Halberstam book, "The Teammates," tops my list as the best baseball book I have ever read. It left me crying at the end. It is a profoundly human story, about four teammates... The great Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr... Who played together on the great Red Sox teams of the 40's and remained close friends for over sixty years. Williams and Doerr are in the Hall of Fame, and it is a mystery why DiMaggio and Pesky are not. But, as duly noted, Joe DiMaggio was the better player, but his brother Dominic (who was a hell of a player) was one of the best human beings one could ever hope to meet.
The story starts out with Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky and a friend, David Flavin, driving down to Florida to see their dying friend Ted Williams. Bobby Doerr is unable to come because he is in Oregon tending to his wife of over sixty years who has suffered a second stroke. During the entire three day trip the radio is never turned on and Dominic and Johnny recall plays, at bats, a certain pitcher from sixty years ago as though it was yesterday. They relive the devastating defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 46 World Series on a bloop base hit in game seven that would have been caught had DiMaggio not got injured the inning before and his replacement was an incompetent center fielder who misplayed the ball. And they recall, the crushing defeat to the Yankees in '49' on the last game of the season that would have sent them to the World Series.
But what makes this book so great is what took place off the baseball field and a friendship that lasted over sixty years between the four men. Williams' generosity, and his love to preach and debate, and always looking out for his friends and the fishing trips. The way they were always at the bedside if one of them was sick or injured, and they were always in contact when one of their wives or children fell ill. Williams, who never missed a charity event that Dominic's wife Emily was sponsoring, and she sponsored quite a few. They were all in their eighties at the time this book was written and they remained in contact to the very end.
Dominic's phone calls to a dying Williams will leave you breathless. He sings opera to the greatest hitter of all time and in between songs they talk baseball, box scores, and naturally about their cherished friendships.
This is a gem of a book, and one does not have to like baseball to love this amazing portrayal of friendship and love. -
Rating:
5 of 5 stars (outstanding)
Review:
Inspired by a trip in 2002 by former Red Sox teammates Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky to visit their old teammate and friend Ted Williams, award winning author David Halberstam recounts these three teammates along with fellow Red Sox great Bobby Doerr as they maintained friendships well beyond their baseball playing days.
Halberstam displays his talents that won him a Pulitizer Prize as he takes each man’s stories and weaves them together in a collection that is at times inspiring, melancholy, uplifting and even humorous. The reader will learn a lot about each man that wasn’t necessarily written by the sportswriters of the time when they were teammates on the Boston Red Sox. Characteristics like Williams’ distance from his children, Doerr’s devotion to his wife Monica (he is unable to make the trip from Oregon because he is caring for her), Pesky’s willingness to be the “goat” of the famous 1946 World Series play in which Enos Slaughter raced home from first on a base hit that was scored as a single, and DiMaggio’s emergence as a player that stood on his own merit and not just that of his famous brother.
There is plenty of baseball in the book as well. The best of these passages is Pesky’s recollection of the play in which Slaughter scored the winning run of game 6. It is a very interesting take on the play, as it differs significantly than what is typically written. Without giving away Pesky’s story, let’s just say that there were other events that took place or were embellished over time to give the play the romantic feel-good flavor it has today.
While all four men have excellent stories and passages, I was moved by Halberstam’s writing about Doerr. Everything about the man, from the wooing and courtship of his wife to his playing career and his life after baseball is captured in a manner that shows the tenderness and lack of selfishness that makes up the character of Bobby Doerr. His story is one that will stick with the reader for a long time after closing the book.
Halberstam has written several baseball books that have received well-deserved praise and “The Teammates” is one of them. This is a must-read for any baseball fan, young or old, who enjoys stories that show the human side of the players.
Did I skim?
No.
Pace of the book:
The book is fairly short but reads very quickly as Halberstam gets each man to open up and reveal some very personal stories that they did not share with newspaper writers during their playing days.
Do I recommend?
Anyone who is inspired by accounts of friendship that has endured over many years, whether baseball fans or not, will be touched by this book. I highly recommend for readers of baseball books, biographies or inspirational stories. -
Recently got this book from a buddy of mine recommending this as my first foray into Halberstam. It follows the story of a few aged Red Sox players on their way to see their friend and teammate one last time as he lay dying in Florida. It's a touching story about how they stayed in touch for so long and it was sad all at the same time (and in fact really makes you focus on your own mortality, but the majority of the book is spent on each of the individuals and how they grew up and related to each other. I think the ultimate purpose was to endear the players to the reader and make you see what how the bond could have lasted as long as it was, but for some reason I felt like I wanted more of their interaction with each other (though not necessarily less of their own individual lives). I also had pictured Ted Williams as a more soft spoken, kind teacher type (though to be honest I never knew much about the man personally, and I base most of this off his book "The Art of Hitting .300"), not the boisterous, right winged, cantankerous man whom is described. It was fun however and very well written, much more so than any sports book I have read.
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3.5
Returned to Audible because it skipped in a few different places -
They Killed My Father, Now They're Coming After Me, 10 May 2007
"Marty Nolan, the former editorial page editor of the 'Boston Globe', once famously described the pain that came with being a Red Sox fan, "They killed my father, now they're coming after me". Johnny Pesky
Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky were all members of the famed 1940's Boston Red Sox. Their careers led the Red Sox to a pennant championship and ensured the men a place in sports history.
David Halberstam, had followed the members of the 1949 championship Boston Red Sox team for years, especially Williams, Doerr, DiMaggio, and Pesky. He met up with the fellas and learned about their friendship and their trip. He knew he wanted to write about it. David Halberstam gives us an inside look at how these four teammates became friends, and how that friendship thrived for more than 60 years.
The book opens with Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio and , Dick Flavin a friend, on a 1300-mile car trip travelling to see the ailing Ted Williams in Florida. It's the last time they will see him. The journey is filled with nostalgia and memories, but seeing Ted is a shock. The most physically dominating of the four friends, Ted now weighs only 130 pounds and is hunched over in a wheelchair. Dom, without even thinking about it, starts to sing opera and old songs like "Me and My Shadow" to his friend.They had a short memorable time with Ted,and it was worth it. Every morning until the day Ted Williams died, Dom would call him with an update of the Sox.
"This book is filled with stories of their wonderful days with the Boston Red Sox, memories of plays and players, and the reaction of the remaining three to Ted Williams' death. The Teammates offers us a glimpse into the lives of these Red Sox men. and great insight into the nature of loyalty and friendship. The book tries not to dwell on the imposing power, problems, and slugging achievements of Ted Williams or reveal new sensational material or revelations. Halberstam focuses on the teammates' shared attributes: their desire to compete and succeed in baseball, their willingness to learn how to use physical/mental talents, how to provide for post-depression families yet display genuine appreciation and gratitude for each other's contributions and careers." David Johnson
For any Red Sox fan, baseball fan and David Halberstam fan this book is a must. A book of love of fellow man and baseball. It is a rare book that fills the reader with hope for the future of baseball.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-09-07 -
As baseball legend Ted Williams neared death in 2001, his 1940s Boston Red Sox teammates Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky, both in their 80s, took a road trip from Massachusetts to Florida for one last visit with their old friend. Their other dear pal and teammate, Bobby Doerr, unable to make the trip due to his wife’s illness, was there in spirit for every mile. In The Teammates, journalist and historian David Halberstam weaves the story of this sixty-year friendship by beautifully portraying each man, the origins of the friendship, and the ways they stayed connected long after their playing days were over. While the road trip frames the story, the book’s 200 pages are filled with stories about those epic Red Sox seasons, but I was just as captivated by how the athletic careers, decades in the past, continued to shape and affect Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, and Johnny Pesky. (Dominic DiMaggio should have been inducted into The Baseball Hall of Fame long ago.)
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This "book" contains some interesting anecdotes and provides a warm, sentimental portrayal of the friendships among Ted Williams and three of his teammates from the 1940's. It starts off, however, as a story about a trip to Florida to visit a dying Williams by two of the three. There is very little about the trip or their visit and perhaps there was nothing more to say. Still, it was a bit disappointing.
It's also a little pathetic to have a Boston fan, Halberstam, trying to blame the condition of Sportsman's Park (home of the 1946 Cardinals) for the Red Sox' loss to the Cards in the 1946 World Series.
Anyway, it seems like Halberstam was looking for a place to sell some of the unused research he had done in writing his book about the 1949 season. -
Another short listen, but this book left me wanting so much more. Not that it was incomplete, it’s just that I could listen to stories like this forever.
I love the premise of this book. A story about a small group of teammates. Again I thought the book would be much more general. I loved the deep dive into Williams, Pesky, DiMaggio and Doerr.
Such a historical snapshot in these pages. 4 amazing players. Each in their own way. Each has influenced the game immensely as well. I didn’t realize how much influence they’d had on each other and how they were such good friends forever after. I feel like that’s more rare now. Maybe not.
Teammates is such a wonderful definition of how it should be. How friendships should be. How life should be. The unwritten rules touched on in this book are timeless lessons for all of us.
Like I said, I could listen to stories like this forever. -
Halberstam's depiction of Red Sox greats in the December of their years is one of the best volumes ever composed about sports in America. In just ten pages, Halberstam presents the most vivid and insightful portrait of the tortured talent that was Ted Williams. Yet in addition to an unforgettable portrait of Teddy Ballgame, Halberstam depicts the steadfast, if less colorful comrades of The Splendid Splinter in the Fenway dugout. Each of these teammates surmounted adversity and succumbed to the vicissitudes of time, and each one earns the admiration and affection of the reader during the course of this slender volume that a lot to say about the Boys of Summer and the nation that made them the way they were.
A book that is NOT to be missed. -
The TEAMMATES is David Halberstam’s book about the lifelong friendship between Boston Red Sox teammates Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky. It is a quick read and full of information that may not be widely known even among avid baseball fans.
First, Ted Williams’ mother was Mexican. How is this not better known? Williams’ family was a burden to him. His father was at best neglectful, and possibly abusive. His mother troubled him for money regularly. His brother grew up to be a felon.
Second, Ted Williams had anger issues and a very foul mouth. He was widely disliked among baseball players. He and Bobby Doer were close as players because Doerr had the patience of a saint and was one of the few who could defuse William’s constant contentiousness. Williams respected Doerr and would not swear in front of Doerr, something Williams did for no one else, evidently.
Third, for decades Johnny Pesky was blamed for the Sox losing the 1946 World Series to the Cardinals. Pesky is thought to have allowed Enos Slaughter to advance from first base to score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth of game 7 by holding the relay throw from centerfield for too long before throwing home. The TEAMMATES suggests that it was not Pesky’s fault.
In the bottom of the eighth, Leon Culberson, who had pinch run for a hobbled DiMaggio in the top of the inning, took over centerfield. Slaughter was on first base when Harry Walker hit a line drive to the wall in center. Culberson was not positioned properly and was slow to retrieve the ball. His relay to Pesky at shortstop was late. Pesky had his back to the runners and was unaware that Slaughter did not slow down rounding third and was headed home. Doerr and others tried to yell to Pesky, but the crowd was too loud. Pesky reacted quickly after he turned and saw Slaughter, but by then it was already too late to prevent the run from scoring. The friends’ account of the play, as reported by Halberstam, exonerates Pesky.
Fourth, Dom DiMaggio was universally respected for his great intelligence on and off the baseball field. He was an all-star centerfielder in the American League several times and was said never to have made a mistake while playing for the Red Sox. After his retirement from baseball, he started a company that manufactured materials used in automobile interiors and became wealthy, unlike his more famous brother, Joe. Their father, by the way, was an immigrant from Sicily. He supported his large family by working on a commercial fishing boat that operated out of San Francisco.
Fifth, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams did not like each other. But Dom and Ted were good friends and became especially close later in life. Dom called Ted every day in the final months before Williams died
There is more, of course. Read it and discover what for yourself. Any baseball fan will enjoy this book. -
I flew through this book, perfect timing as I mourn for baseball season this year. I loved the portrait of friendship between Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, John Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. Their story of togetherness was really special, especially as they cared for each other and each other's families through failing heath. I apparently was unaware of what a jerk Ted Williams was much of the time, and I'm most intrigued by learning more about Dominic DiMaggio. And really Pesky and Doerr too. The stories of baseball like this always interest me.
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Great book on baseball and friendship and how these players bond went well beyond the field.
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Remember that scene in the movie "Twins" when Danny Devito finds out that he was born out of the excess cells used to create uber-man Arnold Schwarzenegger? "I'm genetic crap," Devito's pint-sized character laments.
Teammates: A Portrait of Friendship is not by any means crap. But, from almost start to finish, I was struck by the distinct impression that the bulk of the story was not, in fact, Halberstam's original research based on his interest in Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky's car-trip to visit a dying Ted Williams. The story, the characters, and most obviously, the random selection of baseball history into which Halberstam goes into elaborate detail all seem very obviously like they were gems of information left over from Halberstam's Summer of 49. The excess research, the stories that didn't quite cut it in Summer of 49, seem to form the bulk of Teammates. Thats not necessarily a bad thing. But, during random and very detailed wanderings through the weeds of 1940s big league rosters, I often asked "Why is Mr. Halberstam taking me here?"
The answer, I believe, is that he had a TON of great anecdotes and baseball lore that he hadn't been able to squeeze into his previous works. So he used the excuse of the previously mentioned car trip to unload his leftovers upon us.
It wasn't an entirely misquided effort. But, it seemed clear that the book was more of an emptying of his data files than it was a well-argued thesis. -
This was an enjoyable and uplifting read. I'm not a big baseball fan, but I really enjoyed getting to know the characters in this book and seeing the journey of grand sports performance, enduring friendships, and the trials of aging.
I really enjoyed the detailed sports description of the big loss in 1946 of the Boston Red Sox against the Cardinals which kept the Red Sox from progressing to the World Series.
At first I wasn't sure I would like the book and my immediate impression was that it didn't live up to the praise included on the book's back jacket (which I still think even though it was a very good book). The writing really reeled me in in the description of Ted Williams as a person and the loyal friendships he made in spite of having a volatile personality. I felt it was a sort of life lesson of the inherent value of individuals that makes us all worth loving in spite of our weaknesses and "baggage".
The dialog between Ted and his friend Dom as Ted is suffering and dying is very dear... Dom's answer to the question, "Why? Why? Why?" is perfect. -
David Halberstam takes us on an intimate look into the relationship between Ted Williiams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doer, four Boston Red Sox teammates. It is a tale of male bonding, brotherhood, love and sportmanship. The honesty and emotion comes across because of Mr. Halberstam's skill and eye for the little points in life. This is more than a book about baseball life, it is about the value of friendship.
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Simply loved this book, a story not just about baseball but of enduring friendship....oh and it's about the Red Sox, that always helps
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Loved and hated this book. I give it a one because of how it was written. It seemed the author was trying to name drop and impress the reader more than tell the story. The information he gives is incredibly valuable and significant, but the presentation is horrible.
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A very well written story. It was basically four mini biographies in one and how these men all related to one another.
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Just an ok book about baseball fraternity. Now I need to find a book about Johnny Pesky, as he was with the old Portland Beavers.
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In the wake of the Red Sox' dramatic seven-game ALCS loss to the Yankees in 2003, I threw myself into baseball history in general, and Red Sox history in particular, acquiring and reading several books over the ensuing months --
When Boston Won The World Series by Bob Ryan,
Babe Ruth and the 1918 Red Sox by Allan Wood, and, for a bit of levity,
The Little Red (Sox) Book by Bill "Spaceman" Lee. Of the group I got my hands on during that time, the only one I didn't read, for whatever reason, was this one. Then, when my beloved Olde Towne Team finally broke through and won it all for the first time in 86 years the following season, I found my attention drawn elsewhere, to books like
Faithful by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King, and
Now I Can Die in Peace by Bill Simmons.
The Teammates is less a book about sports, and more, as its subtitle suggests, about friendship. Here Halberstam tells the tale of how four west coast boys -- one each from San Diego (Ted Williams), Los Angeles (Bobby Doerr), San Francisco (Dom DiMaggio), and Portland (Johnny Pesky) -- all born between 1917 and 1919, became Boston icons, and more importantly became lifelong friends. They all made their way to the Red Sox between 1937 and 1942, nearly won a World Series in 1946, just missed two more pennants in 1948 and 1949, and then, though moving on from the Red Sox in the following years (if not entirely), stayed together in spirit into the 21st century. (Three of them were still alive when this book was published. They have all, along with its author, since passed.) Halberstam captures the magic of these enduring relationships, and why they mattered more than anything else these men achieved during their time in Boston.
I'm sure Halberstam wrote better, more impressive books than this one. But there's a simple charm here, something reminiscent of that generation that grew up during the Great Depression, fought for their country in World War II (and, famously in Williams's case, Korea), and knew never to take for granted what followed. This book glows with the warm, gentle sereneness those folks exuded (again, maybe not Williams...), and that seems to have waned from the world in the last few years as they have left us.
That sereneness reminded me of no one more than my own paternal grandfather, born in 1922. We watched that heartbreaking ALCS together in 2003; he a lifelong Yankee fan, me an upstart Red Sox fan, bucking the family trend. Despite his deep-seated allegiances, he had a generous sympathy for me (he took me to Fenway first in 1989, the day the Sox retired Yaz's number), and we rooted together more than we did against each other that October. While I was acquiring Red Sox books later that year, I got him Yogi Berra's
Ten Rings, a gift I was never able to give him, as he passed away three days before Christmas. I've long thought that, as the Red Sox came back and upset the Yankees the next year, he somehow played a role from beyond the grave.
This fall, I found myself on my living room couch, reading this book about these men of that generation, with the World Series on in the background. During one game last week, I looked up from the book to the other, empty end of the couch, and wished another man of that generation could be sitting there. A reminder, David Halberstam would recognize, of the importance of the relationships we form in the process of living our lives. -
Anyone who knows me is likely surprised I read a book about baseball players. I'm fairly disinterested in sports, but something about this book caught my eye. I think it was the subtitle: A Portrait of Friendship. And, truthfully, almost all of my friends are interested in sports and I thought it was a good opportunity to catch a little history of the game of baseball. This book captures the two things I found interesting and does it well.
It really is a book about a longtime friendship between four 1940s Boston Red Sox players: Dominic DiMaggio (younger brother of the better-known DiMaggio), Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams. The backdrop of the book is a trip that Pesky, DiMaggio, and another friend take to see their dying friend Ted Williams. (Doerr was unable to go because he was caring for his wife who had suffered a stroke.) As they travel there are reminisces of the life in baseball they had all enjoyed. More than that, author Halverstam unearths stories of their upbringing that give insight into how these men became the men they were. There are times of recounting important games or memorable plays.
As one might guess, Ted Williams is the center character in all of their stories. "For many years, the glue that held them together as friends was Williams; someone that great, one of the very best ever at what they all did, had rare peer power. 'It was,' Pesky once said of him, 'like there was a star on top of his head, pulling everyone toward him like a beacon, and letting everyone around him know that he was different and that he was special in some marvelous way and that we were that much more special because we had played with him.'"
This road-trip of a lifetime was sparked by a lifelong friendship that held together through many difficult years. As I read and became familiar with these players that I'm sure every true baseball fan knows so much about, I was not looking forward to their arrival to have a final visit with Williams.
"It had all come down to this one, final visit. They had once felt immortal, so sure of their youth and their strength and their futures, so immune to the vagaries of age. They had made it through the Depression and World War Two. true, they had never overtaken the Yankees the way that they had hoped..."
I'm thankful the book doesn't dote too long on that last visit. The bulk of the book is about the friendship that led to their road trip. It is in this friendship that I found some attachment to this book. I admit that in some of the writing about particular games and plays I didn't quite get it. But I did get why these men never lost touch with one another.
David Halberstam is a Pulitzer Prize winning author, journalist, and historian. He has had multiple national bestsellers.
I recommend this little book to any who have even a passing interest in baseball or friendship. Maybe those two things go together more than I realize. -
In October of 2001, the word is out that the great Ted Williams is close to death. Considered by many to be the best hitter of all time, Williams was widely thought of as a temperamental and unstable personality. However, that does not mean that he did not make friends on the Boston Red Sox. Three of his closest friends were Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr. Hearing of their friend’s imminent demise, DiMaggio and Pesky travel over 1,000 miles by car to visit Williams. The serious illness of Doerr’s wife prevents him from going.
This is a story of the old days of baseball when players stayed together on a team for years and formed bonds that lasted for decades. It is also a look into the lives of these players, specifically the temperamental Williams. He was a perfectionist, yet he loved baseball and lived the science of hitting. Williams was also stormy, dominating conversations and situations, yet his friends could tolerate him, and he respected them.
Due to the trip and Halberstam’s account of the events, the reader is given a glimpse into what could have been a team even better than the Yankees. If their top pitchers had not developed serious arm trouble that could be treated by modern medicines, the best team of the late forties and early fifties would have been the Boston Red Sox.
People that know the history of baseball know that the Boston Red Sox were the last major league team to integrate when they hired Pumpsie Green in 1959. The most fascinating fact in this book is that if the Red Sox had not been such a racist organization, they could have signed Willie Mays. If they had, their outfield in the fifties would have contained Ted Williams and Willie Mays. Furthermore, Mays would have played half of his games in Fenway with the short distance to the left field wall. His offensive statistics could have been incredible with that feature and with Williams with him in the lineup.
This is a baseball book that highlights good aspects of four sports heroes. While they were humans with flaws, they were friends, and nothing changed that until they began to die off. While baseball is now a multi-media production, from this book it is clear that in many ways it was better when these men played it.
