Rating: 
Summary: Five stars is not enough!
Review: This book, magnificent as it is to us today, can be read a thousand years from now by those who have no clue as to the public identities of Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, and Ted Williams. This story concerns human love, human respect, human decency--humanity at its best.In a perfect world, David Halberstam, based on this work alone, would rank above any set of peers in any field.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Story From A Treasured Past
Review: Based on past efforts from David Halberstam regarding baseball books (Summer of '49 and October '64) I knew I was in for a treat with his latest effort regarding the lives of past Hub Hose Heroes Doerr, DiMaggio, Pesky, and Williams. Halberstam provides the reader with both the past and present lives of this foursome and shows us that the years haven't been entirely kind to these teammates and baseball icons. I found the author's explanation regarding Enos Slaughter's so-called "mad dash" to home in the 1946 World Series to be especially interesting. DiMaggio had to leave the game due to a leg injury and was replaced by Leon Culberson. From the dugout DiMaggio had signaled Culberson to move towards left center prior to the pitch, as Culberson took a few grudging steps towards left center. With Slaughter on first and Harry Walker batting, Slaughter took off with the pitch as Harry "The Hat" lined the ball to left center. Due to the terrible field conditions Culberson played the ball tentatively and then gave a lob throw towards shortstop John Pesky as Slaughter continued his epic flight around the bases. Pesky has often been blamed for holding the ball as Slaughter rounded third, but DiMaggio disputed this. Slaughter, himself, said he never would have tried to score if DiMaggio was in center field. Pesky never tried to point any fingers at any other teammates upon the advice he received from veteran pitcher Bill Posedel in his minor league years.
The author does a wonderful job in bringing out the various personalities of the four men through anecdotes from their past and present lives. If you are of this era yourself you will find this book a must to own whether you're a Red Sox fan or not. I don't remember Dominic DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr from their playing days, although I certainly am aware of them. My memories of John Pesky are as a Tiger and Williams, of course, continued playing through 1960. If you are interested in baseball history this book will be a most enjoyable read for you.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book...
Review: Beautifully written, poignant and full of classic baseball moments and memories, this is a perfect book for everyone, baseball fans and non-fans alike. Halberstam is a great writer and does justice to his subjects. Highly recomended
Rating:
Summary: Friends first, teammates second
Review: Ted Williams, Dom Dimaggio, John Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. Four men born 19 months apart who spent most of their entire baseball careers together. Four friends who have been together and helped each other since their minor league days. "The Teammates" recounts the history of these four men and the trip that Dimaggio and Pesky took in late 2002 to go see Ted Williams in Florida, shortly before he died. Highly Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: A Small, Polished Gem Of A Book
Review: Few marathoners are equally adept at the 100-yard dash. But happily, David Halberstam has proven himself to be the literary world's exception to this rule. He may have built his reputation with such weighty works as "The Best and the Brightest" and "The Powers That Be," but he's proven himself equally adept at the kind of narrative, while smaller in scope, that can be equally illuminating of the human condition. At the heart of this book is the story of the six decades of freindship between four teammates on the Boston Red Sox--Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky. The narrative is framed around a journey by car DiMaggio and Pesky take from New England to Florida in the fall of 2001 for what they know will be their final visit with the dying Williams. (Doerr was unable to join them because of his wife's illness.) This trip provides the framework for Halberstam to introduce us to these four extraordinary men and the bonds that have linked them together.
I've read, and enjoyed, all of Mr. Halberstam's sports books. "Teammates," to me, though, is more closely akin to his most recent work, "Firehouse." In each case, he's telling the stories of men bound together for a common purpose and the relationships that are nurtured and cultivated in such settings. "Teammates" is a beautifly told story of the journeys of these four Red Sox heroes...from the dawn of their lives to the sunsets. Not to be missed!--William C. Hall
Rating:
Summary: Baseball and the BoSox
Review: My earliest memory of baseball dates back to 1941 when Ted Williams hit .406, the Great DiMag hit in 56 straight games, and Mickey Owen dropped a third strike. I was seven that year and although Babe Ruth was gone, I was soon to learn of the Curse of the Bambino, the paralyzing penance Boston fans would endure to this day for having traded the Babe to the hated Yankees after the 1919 season. For many years, the Red Sox proudly displayed in right field the numbers of four of their players who had made it to the Hall of Fame; Williams, (9) Joe Cronin, (4) Bobby Doerr (1) and Carl Yastrzemski (8) , in that order. Read as a date, 9-4-1-8 represented the eve of the start of the last World Series the Boston Red Sox won. Somebody in Boston management was made aware of the cruel irony of the placements of those numbers and the order has since been changed. Every time the Red Sox would get close to winning a pennant or a World Series or a play-off since that fateful year of 1918, they would courageously struggle but always come up short at the final out. The heroes of those efforts in the 1940's are still household names to fans who may root for another team but secretly harbor the hope that someday the Red Sox will win it all. Names like Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Dominic DiMaggio. Anecdotes from these men fill the pages of this wonderful book as they prepare to see their good friend Ted Williams approaching the end of his life. The manner in which author David Halberstam allows us to experience the feelings these old men have for Williams and each other is sweet and tender. The words they express, wanting to tell Ted what they feel about him and what he meant to them and to our country, will make the most hardened amongst you reach for something to dab your eyes. Believe me, you are in the car traveling the 1,300 miles it took DiMaggio and Pesky (Doerr could not make the trip) to go from the scene of all their glories and disappointments in Boston to Ted's bedside in Florida. If you liked the ride Laura Hillenbrand took us on aboard Seabiscuit, you'll love the journey Halberstam has fashioned of these old men, still great friends after sixty years, saying goodbye to a man they loved very, very much.
Rating:
Summary: Moving account of undying friendships
Review: As a baseball fan, this book attracted me. But this book is so much more than a baseball book. It's a story about friends, strong relationships that endure through thick and thin, good times and bad. Filled with old stories and rememberances of decades past, of ball games long forgotten by the genereal public, David Halberstam sets himself apart as the master writer that he is. This short book will be treasured in my library for years to come along with Halberstam's other books I own (Summer of '49 and October 1964). A very refreshing story.
Rating:
Summary: A book to treasure
Review: This is such a refreshing read after the usual crop of egocentric rants by players who aren't even in the same league as this foursome. A baseball book that is thought-provoking. What a concept! The fact that there are two such books this spring is even more amazing. The Little Red (Sox) Book is as irreverent as The Teammates is reverent. I encourage baseball lovers to read both.
Rating:
Summary: The story of four champions!
Review: Ok, so they didn't win a World Series. These four friends are champions in every way. The friednship they forged and maintained through thick and thin is touching, and in today's greedy, "every man for himself" sports world, unique.(Incidentally, if you want to see Pesky, Doerr, DiMaggio and Teddy Ballgame get their just reward, read The Little Red Sox Book, Bill Lee's revisionist history of the Boston Red Sox).
Stu
Rating:
Summary: Great book by a great writer!
Review: Ted Williams always said that David Halberstam was his favorite writer - the "BEST writer" - and as usual Ted was right. Halberstam is a literary craftsman with few equals, especially when he turns his pen to matters "baseballic," as Ted might put it. This is the story of four outstanding ballplayers, each more than worthy of having their own life history recounted. But more importantly this is a book about the enduring nature of friendship. These red Sox icons were not millionaire ballplayers who went their separate ways when the game was over. These are friends who cared about one another and stuck by one another through thick and thin. These are men of great character, making this an inspirational book. The fact that it is written by one of the great writers of our time eliminates any elements of schmaltz, while revealing a memorable epic about mutual respect and caring. If you want to know about the kind of devotion generated by Theodore Samuel Williams, read this book. This and Bill Lee's revisonist Red Sox history in which these men - Pesky, Doerr, DiMaggio and Ted - finally get their just rewards (THE LITTLE RED SOX BOOK) represent baseball at its best. Two great summer reads.
Tony
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