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Four Red Sox stars of the 40's and 50's forged a lifelong friendship that gave new meaning to the concept of team.
Winning teams are often credited with a "chemistry" or spirit that produces success above the sum of their parts, or the individual talents of the players. But four stars of the often disappointing Boston Red Sox of the 1940's and 1950's sustained their unique team spirit beyond the 20th century. The Red Sox, winners of five of the first fifteen World Series, had not won even an American League pennant for almost twenty years when Bobby Doerr became their second baseman in 1937. Two years later, Ted Williams began a Hall of Fame career that marked him as one of the two or three greatest hitters in the history of the game. Dominic DiMaggio, younger brother of an already established Yankees superstar, took over the Fenway Park centerfield in 1940, and Johnny Pesky won the shortstop position in 1942. Except for military service, the four played side by side until the early 50's. Although each became a repeat All Star and a leader in some hitting or fielding department, the ball club won only one pennant, in 1946, and even that achievement was marred by a bitter seven-game World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. But it was after their playing days were over that the four demonstrated what team meant to them. While Doerr returned to the West Coast and Williams gravititated to the fishing grounds of southern Florida, DiMaggio and Pesky stayed in the Boston area. (Pesky in fact stayed with the Red sox as a long-time coach.) And in that almost unimaginable pre-e-mail era, they managed to stay in close touch by phone, letter, and occasional visits. They shared each other's joys and setbacks, recreated treasured experiences, and even provided a sounding board for Terrible Ted, who could no longer rant at the Boston press. Mortality encroached on the once-godlike Williams first. By 2001, at 83, he was in failing health, and it was clear that his periodic trips to Boston for charity events were over. DiMaggio, who spoke with him most often, became convinced that it would be necessary to visit Williams--and soon--if they wanted to see him again. At that time, Doerr was unable to leave his ailing wife, so DiMaggio, Pesky, and a Boston sportswriter they had become acquainted with drove to Florida to see their friend once more. (They drove because it was shortly after 9/11 and air transportation was somewhat uncertain.) Their trip and their warm and nostalgic final visit with their most celebrated colleague were brilliantly chronicled by the late prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam in "The Teammates," published by Hyperion Books in 2002, shortly after Williams's death. Halberstam, best known for "The Best and the Brightest," a devastating analysis of our slide into VietNam, has also written a number of books on baseball. In fact, he came to admire the four Red Sox while researching "The Summer of '49," the story of one of the epic New York-Boston pennant battles. Halberstam's flashbacks give a good account of the ballpark exploits of the four as well as their after-playing careers and family lives. But it is the decades-long friendship of the teammates that is the centerpiece of this classic of humanity in a baseball setting.
The copyright of the article Loyalty in Baseball in Major League Baseball is owned by David Hornestay. Permission to republish Loyalty in Baseball in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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