The Teammates by David Halberstam

(Hyperion, 2003) 218 pages.

One of the great joys for baseball fans is the fact that the sport has captured the imagination of so many talented writers.  David Halberstam is a prime example.  A highly-respected journalist and historian, his seminal writing on topics such as the Vietnam War has been accompanied by several books about sport that draw out wider themes on society.  His book about the 1949 pennant race between the Yankees and the Red Sox, Summer of ‘49, regularly finds its way into lists of baseball greats. 

The Teammates is a relatively short book in comparison, but it perfectly illustrates the quality of writing that baseball fans can enjoy. 

The Teammates is, as the sub-title states, “a portrait of a friendship” between four men who played together for the Boston Red Sox between the late 1930s and the mid-1950s.  Dominic DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Ted Williams were different characters, but they formed a strong bond as ballplayers that carried on for years after their playing days were over.  Halberstam plots their four stories of making the Big Leagues, their initial meetings (DiMaggio and Pesky didn’t join the Red Sox until 1940 and 1942 respectively), their shared experiences on the ball field and their closeness later in life. 

They were:

“four men who played for one team, who became good friends, and who remained friends for the rest of their lives.  Their lives were forever linked through a thousand box scores, through long hours travelling on trains together, through shared moments of triumph, and even more in the case of the Red Sox, through shared moments of disappointment.  They were aware that they had been unusually lucky not just in the successful quality of their careers, but also in the richness of the friendships they had made”.

Their stories are a product of a different time, growing up as they did in “a much poorer America when career expectations were considerably lower” and serving in World War Two (and in Williams’ case the Korean War as well).  There is a keen appreciation of how fortunate they had been to earn a living by playing baseball, although that didn’t mean the disappointments were softened in any way.

Halberstam found that the Red Sox’s loss to the St Louis Cardinals in the 1946 World Series was still clearly etched in their minds, particularly as Pesky has been depicted as the “goat” of the series.   History has it that Pesky mystifyingly held on to a relay throw from the substitute centre fielder Leon Culberson, allowing Enos Slaughter to come around to score what became the winning run in the series decider.  While Pesky’s teammates dispute that version of events, and Halberstam notes that television – which might have cleared up the issue – didn’t start covering the Fall Classic until the following year, the shortstop chose to keep his counsel and let people believe what they wanted.

In truth, the abiding memory of the period for the four teammates was not this fateful play, but the belief that they were set to return to the World Series for several years to come.  Injuries to some of their key pitchers meant this never happened and the team slowly broke up while never completely fulfilling its potential.

The bond between DiMaggio, Doerr, Pesky and Williams did not follow suit.  If anything, they became closer friends as the years passed and the trials of life (especially the ravages of illness) tested their inner strength. 

The Teammates was inspired by the story of DiMaggio and Pesky going on a road trip in 2001 to see Ted Williams, knowing that it would be the last time they would see him.  The account of their final visit to a frail, wheelchair-bound Williams is very emotional and cannot fail to make you ponder the process of growing old and the vulnerability and mortality of man.  This is all the more poignant in the context of athletes such as these four teammates who will forever be defined and remembered by their feats as young men.

From the laughter provoked by the Doerr-Williams riverside batting clinic (just one small part of a sixty-year debate between the two about hitting) to the poignancy of DiMaggio’s final phone calls to Williams, The Teammates sensitively takes you through the varying emotions of life.  It is a book about much more than baseball, but at the same time it shows how baseball enriches people’s lives and is much more than a mere game to be played. 

Have you read “The Teammates”? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Can you recommend any other similar books? If so, let us know.