Rating: 
Summary: Moving Tribute to Friendship
Review: This is a moving book about friendship. As baseball legend Ted Williams' lay slowly dying at age 83 in the fall of 2001, his former teammates Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, and Bobby Doerr considered making the long drive to Florida for a final visit. The narrative focuses on that trip, and the enduring friendship between these four that continued for five decades after their playing days ended. Readers come to know these men, their backgrounds, flaws, strengths, families, health conditions, and post-baseball careers. Fans will enjoy their playing memoirs from the powerful Red Sox squads of the 1940's - teams that often fell just short at season's end. Adding spice to the narrative are Boston sportswriter Dick Flavin (who made the trip) and occasionally the author David Halberstam. This is another outstanding baseball book by Halberstam (SUMMER OF '49, OCTOBER 1964); let's hope he'll write more. THE TEAMMATES is a concise and moving tribute to friendship, baseball...and life.
Rating: 
Summary: Life-long Lessons!
Review: When we are young, most of us idolize certain sports heroes . . . usually because of their feats on the field rather than for their characters. Author David Halberstam had the great pleasure of getting to know some of his idols when he wrote the Summer of '49 about the Yankee-Red Sox pennant race in that year. He kept up with his new friends from the Red Sox including Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky after the book came out. When he learned that in 2002 about the last trip that Dom, and Johnny had taken to see Ted, Mr. Halberstam knew that he had a story. This book relates that tale.The book recounts the backgrounds of all four players, details their friendships from the days when they were in the minor leagues through the end of their lives and provides lots of perspective on the Red Sox during the 1940s and 1950s when these remarkable players were on the team. The end of the book also has the lifetime stats for each player. One of the intriguing parts of the book is how hard Ted Williams was on himself and his friends. It is a remarkable tale of friendship to see how others would tolerate his abuse by rolling with the punches. Behind the friendships, you get many glimpses of great character . . . character that actually makes their athletic accomplishments seem paler by comparison. I strongly urge all Red Sox fans and parents who want their children to develop better characters to read this book, and share the story with their friends and family. I know of no better book about athletes that looks at the qualities of true greatness.
Rating:
Summary: A story more powerful than baseball itself...
Review: It's easy to look at baseball today and grimace. Steroid scandals, multi-million dollar contracts, free agency, etc. has watered down the true National past time that we all hold so dear. Of course, reading this book, the Teammates, will take you back to a time and place that no longer exists. A time when baseball really mattered.
But more than that, this is a book about the power of friendship. The book chronicles the life-long friendship of four Boston greats - Williams, Pesky, DiMaggio and Doerr.
Shortly before the death of the Spelndid Splinter, Pesky and DiMaggio head south (Doerr was too ill to make the trip) and begin a journey - not just to Florida to be by their teammate's side one last time, but also a journey back in time - the golden era of baseball. The reader then becomes privy to a world of stories about the four friends. Halberstam is our vehicle through a joyous and memorable ride through history. They say the Boston Red Sox are more than a baseball team. They say the Sox help link us to our past, and in some way I think they do.
This book is one to hold on to and pass down.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderfulread
Review: Thank you to Brian for his review. I read the book all the way through on 10/29/04. One of the many things I said, shouted, and hollered on 10/27/04 was "Omigosh, all my Red Sox books are out of date." And it's true, but how wonderful to know that 3 of these 4 men got to see this World Series, at least on this plane. This is a wonderful book and certainly still relevant. I hope this book will finally put to rest the criticism of Johnny Pesky. I'm convinced.
Rating:
Summary: Another amazing telling by Halberstam
Review: As a fan of Halberstam's 'Summer of '49', I picked up this book and put it on the shelf. As the Red Sox clinched their division series this year (2004), I decided it time to dust off the cover. The book makes for a very quick read (barely 200 pages). That said, the story is beautifully drawn from a lifelong friendship between Johnny Pesky, Dom Dimaggio, Bobby Doerr and Ted Williams. Playing nearly their entire careers for the BoSox exclusively, they grew to love and admire each other, bicker about everything from politics to hitting, but in the end be there for each other when it counted.
The story tells of Pesky and Dimaggio as they make the drive from Boston to Florida to see a dying Ted Williams in October of 2001. To say this book is a "Feel-good" book would be an understatement. Halberstam sees baseball as a passion, not just a game and he finds a way of expressing that through writing. Not critical of character flaws, he almost glorifies Williams' violent temper. Readers of Halberstam though aren't looking for a critical analysis, rather a glorification of baseball's glory days.
To baseball purists like myself, the lack of the critical was not missed in the least.
This book couldn't be timed more perfectly as tonight as I write this, they are measuring an 85-year-old Johnny Pesky for his MUCH deserved World Series ring. Finishing this book the night the Red Sox clinched the AL pennant against the Yankees and seeing Pesky announced as a coach on the field in Fenway two nights later brought tears to the eyes. Surely no one is happier about the Red Sox 2004 World Series Championship than Pesky and his friends Dimaggio, Doerr and somewhere Upstairs, Ted Williams.
Rating:
Summary: A True story of friendship
Review: Ted Williams, John Pesky, Dom Dimaggio, and Bobby Doerr couldn't be more different and their life long friendship is amazing. They were born 19 months apart and spent most of their lives/entire baseball careers together. They remained friends together and helped each other since their minor league days. This book recounts their history and the trip that Dimaggio and Pesky took in late 2002 to go see Ted Williams in Florida, shortly before he died.
Rating: 
Summary: Halberstam is always good.
Review: This was an interesting, quick read that really brought back the magic of baseball in that era. A good story about baseball & friends.
Rating:
Summary: Lifelong Teammates
Review: The Teammates begins with Dom Dimaggio, Johnny Pesky and one of their long time friends getting into a car to begin a road trip to visit a dying Ted Williams in Florida. From there the story returns to the glory days of these aging men and follows their careers and private lives to explain how their lives were intertwined and how they grew together. These were extraordinary athletes who relied on each other and continued their friendships for several decades despite distance, disparate interests and contradictory personalities. Halberstam's story is an excellent one of love and commitment between old friends and it is especially good for fans of the Red Sox and baseball in general. It is written in the Tuesdays with Morrie mold, though it isn't as memorable, and anyone who liked that story would surely appreciate this one as well.
Rating:
Summary: A short easy read about four special baseball players
Review: "The Teammates; A Portrait of a Friendship," by Pulitzer Prize winning author David Halberstam is a short easy read about four special baseball players. Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky played baseball for the Boston Red Sox during the 1940's and formed binding relationships that lasted decades.
This book is a must read for all Ted Williams and die-hard Red Sox fans. Halberstam is careful to portray the great "Ted Williams" as a true baseball legend but also a man with flaws. Moreover, the author does a magnificent job of detailing the Red Sox rivalry with the New York Yankees and Boston's frustrating pursuit of a World Series Championship during this era.
Halberstam uncovers real gems of baseball information. For instance, in 1941, the year Ted Williams hit .406, Bobby Doerr noticed that Williams had made a slight adaptation in his swing because he had chipped a bone in his right ankle during spring training. "Every day Williams would have it wrapped, and he favored the ankle thoughout the season. Because of that, Bobby believed that Williams as a left-handed hitter was favoring his right or front foot and staying back a little more when he swung and so he hit an inordinate number of sinking line drives just past the second baseman into right field," the author reports.
Williams of course is the last Major League Baseball player to hit .400 or better in a single season. To this end, the author repeats some special baseball folklore...that on the last day of the infamous 1941 season Boston faced the Philadelphia Athletics in a doubleheader and, "Ted's average rounded out to .400 and manager Joe Cronin had offered him the day off. But Ted Williams did not round things out, and he had played, gotten six hits, and taken the average up to .406," the author reports. Halberstam comments that few modern day ball players would have had the pride and work ethic to risk it all and do the same thing. Williams had a good day...but if he had gone hitless in six at bats...he would have failed to hit above the difficult .400 benchmark, Halberstam makes a point of reminding the readers.
I think what truly makes this book special is the fact that Doerr, DiMaggio and Pesky were profoundly decent human beings. Unlike Williams who had three marriages and a rocky relationship with his kids, his "teammates" had solid marriages and wholesome lives. Nevertheless, the four men formed a unique friendship that is both hearthwarming and a tribute to their generation of baseball players. Highly recommended.
Bert Ruiz
Rating:
Summary: Moving Tribute to Friendship
Review: This is a moving book about friendship. As baseball legend Ted Williams' lay slowly dying at age 83 in the fall of 2001, his former teammates Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, and Bobby Doerr considered making the long drive to Florida for a final visit. The narrative focuses on that trip, and the enduring friendship between these four that continued for five decades after their playing days ended. Readers come to know these men, their backgrounds, flaws, strengths, families, health conditions, and post-baseball careers. Fans will enjoy their playing memoirs from the powerful Red Sox squads of the 1940's - teams that often fell just short at season's end. Adding spice to the narrative are Boston sportswriter Dick Flavin (who made the trip) and occasionally the author David Halberstam. This is another outstanding baseball book by Halberstam (SUMMER OF '49, OCTOBER 1964); let's hope he'll write more. THE TEAMMATES is a concise and moving tribute to friendship, baseball...and life.
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