Rating: 
Summary: Friendship
Review: Teammates is a story of true friendship. The book centers around three greats from the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams, Dom Dimaggio, John Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. Their final meeting is used as a backdrop for several stories from their playing days. The story starts in the final months of the life of Ted Williams. Dimaggio and Pesky are inspired to reunite with their friend before his inevitable death. Bobby Doerr is unable to make the trip because of the health of his wife. The book is formatted in the same way things were probably discussed in the car that day. The stories build up as each one of the four joins the team with the final addition being Pesky. The book continues as it goes through the teams years as a American League powerhouse. Unfortunately, World War II and the Korean War would be the main factor in preventing these baseball icons for playing in more than one World Series. The Red Sox lost that one World Series to the Cardinals. The play that allegedly turned that series is discussed in detail. The misfortune for which Pesky was blamed is a travesty. Even his teammates try to take the blame from Pesky. Being the stand-up guy that he is, Pesky continues to unjustly accept the blame. The book ends with each playing leaving the team until Williams returns from the Korean War to find all of his friends are gone. This drains much of the fun of the game for Williams. As a consequence he also leaves baseball. Halberstam really does not write a book as buy as he retells stories from a car ride. This book is certain to become a favorite of those who enjoy baseball or the friendships developed in team sports. It should also be required reading for Red Sox fans.
Rating: 
Summary: An Account of True Friendship and Loyalty
Review: It is a very rare thing in sports today to see teammates who end up staying together for anymore than a couple of seasons at a time.
With free agency and the big business that sports have become most players have very little connection to the town they play in or the people they play with.
This book tells of a time when players stayed with their teams for the long haul and loyalty was something that had meaning for athletes.
Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr and Dom Dimaggio played the bulk of their careers together for the Boston Red Sox and forged a true and meaningful friendship... this book recounts their lives together playing for this great baseball franchise. It also details the last visit Pesky and Dimaggio made to their dying friend Ted Williams.
If you love stories about baseball this book is right up your alley. It gives you a view into the lives of legendary ball players and shows just how human they can be.
Rating:
Summary: "How many people have friendships that last so long"
Review: David Halberstam's Teammates is about Boston Red Sox Dominic DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams; who enjoyed close friendships during their playing days which continued through the rest of their lives. The book begins with Pesky, DiMaggio and Red Sox historian Dick Flavin driving to Florida to spend their last time with the ailing Williams. Doerr could not make the trek as he was in Oregon taking care of his wife who had weakened after suffering two strokes. From here, Halberstam takes the reader through a brief history of each of these players and their steadfast friendship through the decades. Much of the book is centered around Williams, the most famous of the four, of course, and the most dominating of the personalities. Halberstam does an excellent job painting the characters in such a way that the reader feels he/she really knows them. Such is especially the case with Williams; the intense perfectionist who demanded the most of himself and those around him. Included in this book are stories of Williams' long debate with Doerr over the proper swing (Williams always winning the argument) which is described in a hitting clinic during a fishing trip in 1987. Even a friendly day of fishing with Doerr turned into an uncomfortable situation when Williams believed his friend kept missing opportunities to catch tarpons. The author, in fact, kept the fact that he fished from Williams until after his first interview with the star to avoid a potentially disastrous fishing excursion before he obtained his story (pg. 80). Halberstam describes Williams' poor childhood and homelife to help the reader understand this domineering figure driven always to be the best. Baseball historians will enjoy the many reminiscences of the old-time players of the day. Halberstam details game seven of the 1946 World Series and Dominic DiMaggio sets the record straight about the infamous Pesky play (Curiously, Williams' views on that play are not revealed). The author also sought out former Red Sox pitchers Tex Houghson and Boo Ferriss to find out what happened to weaken the potentially great Boston pitching staff after their World Series run. Halberstam spent many hours with all four of these players in interviews for other works and had the cooperation of the three surviving teammates and their wives when writing this book. This relationship between author and subject gives the reader confidence in the book's accuracy and sincerity. The book is fast moving (200 pages of text) and well written. It includes the four teammates' career statistics, Boston's standings from 1937-53, and many wonderful photographs.
Rating: 
Summary: "My Guys"
Review: Ted Williams referred to his former Red Sox teammates, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Dom DiMaggio, as "My Guys." They remained friends for over sixty years. There's lots of baseball talk in TEAMMATES (Halberstam explains why the 1946 team that beat the Yankees by seventeen games never became the dynasty it seemed primed to be), but the main emphasis is on how these primarily blue-collar men provided emotional and professional support throughout the years.
The structure of the book revolves around a trip Pesky and DiMaggio made to Florida to see Ted just before he died (Doerr had to be with his wife, Monica, who had suffered two strokes). They spend two days with him during which time they talk baseball and DiMaggio sings to Ted "I Love Her but I Don't Know How to Tell Her" and "Me and My Shadow." DiMaggio asks Ted if he's getting the baseball scores, and when Ted tells him, "Nobody tells me anything," DiMaggio calls him every morning for the rest of Ted's life.
Although Halberstam provides a detailed account of Doerr's, Pesky's, and DiMaggio's family and professional life before and after baseball, he glosses over Williams's three failed marriages. He does try to explain Ted's seeming emotional instability by delving into his upbringing. Ted's father was an alcoholic and his mother was a religious zealot who cared more about the Salvation Army than her two sons. If not for baseball, Ted could have turned out like his brother, Danny, who was in and out of trouble with the law.
This is a sad book. Williams was a lonely man when he died and this was compounded by his son's efforts to profit on his father's fame, but there is some solace in his former teammates' loyalty.
Rating:
Summary: HALBERSTAM IS A RENAISSANCE MAN
Review: David Halberstam is both one of the best writers in the country and one of the best sportswriters, a rare combo. He lovingly describes the careers and retirements of Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio in a nostalgic manner that evokes his great love for the Boston Red Sox and the beautiful game of baseball.
Rating:
Summary: A Tribute to Heroes and Friends
Review: David Halberstam's tribute to four teammates from the Red Sox of his youth is a baseball story that goes beyond baseball to something much deeper. Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Ted Williams (two Hall-of-Famers and two should-be Hall-of-Famers) played together in the late 30's, the 40's, and the early 50's for one of the great baseball teams of the 20th century. While the four were teammates, they were much more, they were friends. While baseball provides the backdrop, the friendship and love that these men have for each other is the theme of the book. Pulitzer Prize winner Halberstam writes admiringly, often inserting his own personal remarks. He is not just an observer, he is a fan. Halberstam carries the men through their playing careers up to a final road trip that Pesky and DiMaggio make to Florida to visit with their dying friend Ted Williams. Everyone should be so lucky to be part of a group of friends like these--but, sadly, few do. This is an easy read, but not one for younger baseball fans. Halberstam quotes Ted Williams accurately (and Williams freely uses profanity). This does not damage the book, in fact, it reflects reality, but it does make it the written equivalent of a PG-13 movie. When Halberstam writes, it is well worth reading. This is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for Red Sox Fans
Review: David Halberstam is recognized as a brilliant author, although what I've found especially impressive is his versatility. He has written some excellent non-baseball books (i.e. "The Fifties), but for this reader, Halberstam is at his best writing about the Great American Pastime. And his latest is very good. "The Teammates" centers around the unlikely and very close friendship between Ted Williams, Dominic Dimaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr, four Boston Red Sox legends from the World War II era. Williams, of course, was the true giant among them, although the other three were vitally important to the impressive run the Sox had just before and after the war. Halberstam conducted numerous interviews with Dimaggio, Doerr and Pesky, as well as legendary Boston sportswriter Dick Flavin, about Williams and the influence the Splendid Splinter had on their lives. The result is a book-long flashback which segues in and out of snatches of conversation Flavin, Dimaggio and Pesky had during a 1000-mile drive to visit Williams when it was clear the legend was nearing death. This is not a lengthy book at all, nor did it need to be. And Halberstam, while making reference to the circus-like atmosphere surrounding Williams' death and the behavior of his clearly dysfunctional children, did the classy thing by not dwelling on it and besmirching the Williams legend further. It is made clear that Williams wasn't the easiest individual in the world to get along with--he was an absolute perfectionist, and things were done his way or not at all. He was also very opinionated, which Halberstam explains himself while recounting a fishing trip he took with Williams in the late 1980's. Red Sox fans will adore this book, especially older devotees. It's strongly recommended for them, and recommended as well for all baseball fans. And it goes without saying that if you enjoyed Halberstam's previous baseball books, you'll like this one.
Rating:
Summary: Sharing Baseball Memories
Review: Halberstam uses a car trip as an opportunity to explore the lives of Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio and Ted Williams and their relationships with one another and how baseball made their lives better. The story of Ted Williams is often told, but few have ever heard the story of Dom DiMaggio who was overshadowed by Williams and an even more famous older brother. Doerr and Pesky are equally unexplored in most baseball stories. Much like Lawrence Ritter's classic "The Glory of their Times", Teammates captures an era of old ballplayers which makes the modern game all the more rich. But unlike Ritter's book that was more about an era, this is a story about how these players remained friends for nearly 50 years after they left the game. Here you get the stories after retirement too, and they're just as interesting. It's much shorter and more personal than Halberstam's other baseball books. It doesn't get wrapped up in the games the way "Summer of '49" does. While I personally prefer the latter, I enjoyed this a good deal and I'm not even a Red Sox fan.
Rating:
Summary: A WORTHWHILE READ
Review: Now this is more like a book should be coming from Mr. Halberstram (let's give him a deserved break for his many terrific works & simply say he was out to lunch when putting together "Defining A Nation"). Teammates is a wonderful, touching story the subject of which, although simple & true, is a bit tricky to write about when trying to do so for the masses. Few writers could pull it all together so effectively as Mr. Halberstram does. A short read but a more than worthy read.
Rating:
Summary: Right up there with the best
Review: Teammates is not the best baseball book ever, matter of factly it is not the best Halberstam baseball book ever, but it is right up there. I was overly impressed with the way Mr. Halberstam was able to place the reader in car. I received the book for a christmas gift (only because my wife demanded I wait until Christmas and not buy it myself) and had it read by the Friday after Christmas. I highly suggest reading this, even if you are nothing more than a casual baseball fan. This is a statement on life and friendship, baseball just happen to facilitate the relationship.
| 
