The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship

Halberstam, David

ISBN 10: 140130057X / ISBN 13: 9781401300579

Edité par Hyperion, 2003

A propos de cet article

In early October 2001, Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky begin a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved teammate Ted Williams, knowing that he is dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group-"my guys," Williams used to call them-is unable to be with them because he is back in Oregon tending to his wife of sixty-three years, Monica, who has suffered her second stroke. Thus begins David Halberstam's The Teammates, a profoundly human story of four great ballplayers 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 but extraordinary men, the key players in a remarkable Boston Red Sox team, who stayed close to each other for more than sixty years. First among them was Ted Williams, not only a dominating player but a dominating personality as well. "It was like there was a star on top of his head, pulling everyone toward him like a beacon," recalls Johnny Pesky. Pesky met the others when he was still a clubhouse boy in Portland and they would tip him a quarter to shine their shoes. He would soon become one of the league's toughest hitters and something of a little brother to Williams. Dom DiMaggio, the center fielder, was an athlete carried as much by his remarkable intelligence as by his natural talent. Small and bespectacled, he grew up partially in the shadow of his older brother, but would end up a seven-time American League All-Star. It was to Dom that Ted would increasingly turn to for support in later years. And then there was future Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr, a professional ballplayer at sixteen, who right from the start displayed a natural grace and maturity that made him the perfect buddy for the temperamental ever-contentious Williams. The Teammates is the story of two trips: the final one that DiMaggio and Pesky are taking to see Williams, and another, a flight back in time, as they and Bobby Doerr recall the wonders of their years together and reminisce bout a magical era. What Halberstam has given us is a book about baseball, and something more, the richness of friendship.

N° de réf. du vendeur 000790

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship
• Éditeur: Hyperion
• Date de parution: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 140130057X
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781401300579
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Illustrateur: y guys," Williams used to call them- is unable to be with them because he is back in Oregon tending to his wife of sixty-three years, Monica, who has suffered her second stroke. Thus begins David Halberstam's The Teammates, a profoundly human story of fo
• Édition: 1st Edition.
• État de l'article: Fine
• État de la jaquette: Fine

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky were all members of the famed 1940's Boston Red Sox. Their legendary careers led the Red Sox to a pennant championship and ensured the men a place in sports history. David Halberstam, the bestselling author of the baseball classic Summer of '49, has followed the members of the 1949 championship Boston Red Sox team for years, especially Williams, Doerr, DiMaggio, and Pesky. In this extremely moving book, Halberstam reveals how these four teammates became friends, and how that friendship thrived for more than 60 years. The book opens with Pesky and DiMaggio 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. Filled with stories of their glory days with the Boston Red Sox, memories of legendary plays and players, and the reaction of the remaining three to Ted Williams' recent death, The Teammates offers us a rare glimpse into the lives of these celebrated men-and great insight into the nature of loyalty and friendship.

À propos de l?auteur

David Halberstam was one of America's most distinguished journalists and historians. After graduating from Harvard in 1955, he covered the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement, then was sent overseas by the New York Times to report on the war in Vietnam. The author of fifteen bestsellers, including The Best and the Brightest, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his Vietnam reporting at the age of thirty. He was killed in a car accident on April 23, 2007, while on his way to an interview for what was to be his next book.