ed 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. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Famed journalist and baseball aficionado Halberstam (Summer of '49) presents a short but sweet account of the lives and friendship of four ballplayers from the legendary Boston Red Sox teams of the 1940s: Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr. Told in a series of flashbacks as DiMaggio and Pesky drive from Massachusetts to Florida to see an ailing Williams for what was probably their last time, Halberstam's story is less a biography and more a reverie for "men of a certain generation, born right at the end of World War I" who "had seized on baseball as their one chance to get ahead in America." The book tells the various ways each player "shared an era," from their childhoods to their first meetings through their long tenures with the Red Sox. As in his other sports books, Halberstam has a great eye for the telling detail behind an athlete's facade, whether it is Williams's sense of himself as "a scared, unwanted, unloved kid from a miserable home" or Pesky's stoic acceptance of being blamed for the Red Sox's loss in the seventh game of the 1946 World Series, when in fact-as Halberstam clearly shows-it was not Pesky's fault at all. Fans of Halberstam's work will be satisfied by his chapter-long description of that crucial World Series game. But that is merely the more obviously exciting part of a book in which the main pleasures are more quiet glimpses of the four friends, including Doerr's calming influence over the more explosive Williams, DiMaggio's heroic fight against Paget's disease and the friends' final, touching meeting with Williams in Florida. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and devoted baseball fan Halberstam offers a poignant and elegiac valentine to baseball nostalgia, the magic of lifelong friendship, and the genius of the mercurial Ted Williams. As Williams lay dying in 2001, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky, his dear friends and old Boston Red Sox teammates from the 1940s, drove from Massachusetts to Florida to see him one last time. The fourth teammate, Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr, was unable to join the others as he was caring for his wife who had just suffered a stroke. The physical journey down the eastern seaboard is juxtaposed with the sentimental odyssey through the decades of each man, including the absent Doerr, and their abiding and loving relationships with one another. The resulting portrait of the decidedly complex and brilliantly gifted Williams along with a bountiful cornucopia of baseball memories, hitting secrets, World Series stories, locker room anecdotes, and strong bonds engendered throughout the years is absolutely enchanting. Tate Donovan's beautifully sonorous voice keeps a firm and steady hold on the narrative reins. A lovely story celebrating baseball, friendship, life and death, and Ted Williams, made into an absorbing audiobook. For all collections.-Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

David Halberstam was born on April 10, 1934 in New York City and later attended Harvard University. After graduating in 1955, Halberstam worked at a small daily newspaper until he attained a position at the Nashville Tennessean.

Halberstam has written over 20 books including The Children, a written account of his coverage of the Civil Rights Movement; The Best and Brightest, which was a bestseller; and The Game and October, 1964, both detailing his fascination of sports. Halberstam also won a Pulitzer Prize for his reports on the Vietnam War while working for the New York Times. He was killed in a car crash on April 23, 2007 at the age of 73.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.