Book Review: The Teammates

The Teammates is the latest book by author David Halberstam, who also brought us October 1964. This book is a true story spanning a sixty-year friendship of four men. The four men are Boston Red Sox legends, Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr and Dominic DiMaggio. Four men that are friends for sixty years in and of itself is pretty amazing in my opinion but when you take into consideration who these four men are it’s a whole different ballgame.

The book is really two stories in one. It is the story of the final trek taken by DiMaggio and Pesky accompanied by another friend, Dick Flavin, a Massachusetts television personality to visit an ailing Williams. Although Bobby Doerr was not able to join them for the journey due to caring for his ill wife, he was with them in spirit. It is also the story of how the men became friends and stayed friends through the good times and the bad.

All four of these men were from the West Coast and Williams, Doerr and DiMaggio competed together and against each other in the Pacific Coast League. When they initially met Pesky he was working part time as locker room attendant for the Portland Beavers, one of the teams in the PCL. One by one they got the call to the majors and they all wound up playing together in Boston.

The foursome went through the best and worst of baseball times together. They were all signed to the Red Sox within two years of each other and all of them played there for their entire careers, with the exception of Pesky who was traded at the end of his career.

Probably the most difficult time was the 1946 World Series, a series that they lost in the seventh game to St. Louis because Pesky purportedly held on to the ball a moment too long as Cardinal Enos Slaughter ran home from first base to score the winning run. But, as we learn from this book that is not quite what happened. In the previous inning DiMaggio was injured and removed from the game and was replaced by a less capable defensive player. Dominic knew how to position himself; the other player, not as experienced did not. Halberstam says. "Dominic will tell you that he still wonders if he could have gotten Slaughter at third. And Slaughter told him later, 'I never would have come home if you had been out there.” Pesky is still the scapegoat and his friends all defend him.

Although the book is about all four of the teammates it is really centered on Ted Williams as he appears to have been the one that held them all together. And they all seemed to realize that one of the main reasons that their friendship was so strong was because of Ted; he was the driving force with his generous and dominating personality.

Ted was a perfectionist but all of the friends felt that they were better for having been his friend. Ted was always telling Bobby what was wrong with his swing and one time they got into an argument about hitting while on a fishing trip in Oregon. They decided to hold a hitting clinic and each of them had five minutes to convince the other he was right. The author tells us, "Any other fisherman witnessing this must have been utterly puzzled by the scene - batting practice on the Rogue River during steelhead season? - and then realizing, even as their boat had swept by and had gone a little farther down the river, what it was all about and that large, rather voluble man was Ted Williams, yes, Ted Williams, holding a riverbank hitting clinic..."

We also see the softer side of Ted Williams – the Ted that lobbied the Hall of Fame’s veteran’s committee on Pesky and Dom’s behalf, the Ted that called Dom every day during the last months of Joe DiMaggio’s life, the Ted that made phone calls to many people in the Red Sox organization to express his displeasure after they let Pesky go in 1997.

The book contains many stories of their playing days and beyond – told in a series of flashbacks during that last trip to see Ted. It is not so much about baseball although Halberstam does a fine job of covering their playing days – it is more about a lifelong friendship of four men that will be joined together forever in Red Sox history. It was a quick and easy read and I recommend it for anyone that wants to get a better insight into these four distinguished baseball veterans.

Our Rating System is based on a four ball system as follows:
One Ball: Average. It has something to say but is nothing special.
Two Balls: Something men usually have - also means its a cut above average, and worth reading/owning.
Three balls: Stands out from its peers and is highly recommended.
Four Balls: More than just what two men have when hanging out together, it means it is an exceptional book that truly earns a walk - straight to the local book store to get a copy.

At Home Plate

Book Review:

The Teammates - A Portrait in Friendship