THE TEAMMATES

The backdrop for this history of four lifelong friends--once Red Sox teammates--is the trip two of them, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio, made down the East Coast two years ago to visit a third, Ted Williams, who was dying. (Bobby Doerr, the fourth, had to remain at home in Oregon with his ailing wife.) The author uses this trek to digress on the sagas of these great men who “seized on baseball as their one chance to get ahead in America.” Halberstam reflects upon the immigrant experience, the changing nature of the game, the perennial spirit of competition, and friendship’s essence as he describes, thrillingly, several of the team’s unforgettable moments. Tate Donovan’s articulate narration allows the listener to focus, foursquare, on the author’s words in this deeply affectionate treatment of very special lives and times. M.J.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 03]