Product Description
This digital document is an article from Baseball Digest, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1265 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The lost art of hitting .400: few players have flirted with the historic plateau since Ted Williams completed his .406 campaign 64 years ago.
Author: Jeff Passan
Publication: Baseball Digest (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 64Issue: 9Page: 54(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 781 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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Hall of Fame umpire Bill McGowan controlled the field of play as much with his personality as with the rulebook; his respected 30-year career, including 2,532 consecutive games, was among the longest in baseball history. McGowan was the home plate umpire in the first-ever American League pennant playoff game, Cleveland versus Boston in 1948. Famous for his sense of humor, great dramatics, and wild gestures, he was known to turn a strike into a ball if he thought a player deserved a break, or to eject half a team if they annoyed him. He promoted such players as Goose Goslin, Moe Berg, Stanley "Bucky"Harris, and Jimmy Dykes; wrote articles and newspaper columns; and founded a school for umpires in College Park, Maryland, which continues today as the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School.

This richly illustrated biography gives an intimate view of this talented umpire, from his birth in 1896 and long marriage to his death from diabetes in 1954. With research including interviews with former players as well as family members, the work provides a wealth of anecdotes and insights into his profession. The textbook McGowan wrote for his students is included as an appendix. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Honor and dignity in a difficult, seldom appreciated job
If you like America and America's pastime, you will enjoy this book because it lets you look through a different window. But if you have ever officiated any sports and baseball/softball in particular, you will love this book. It is not just a biography of an umpire, it is an insightful, interesting, and enlightening history of umpiring told through the story of a guy who lived it.
A special bonus is the complete manual from McGowan's Umpire School. If you are a sports official, compare it to today's manuals. Maybe ours could use a little of the flavor of Bill's.

Baseball justice at it's colorful and vulnerable best
Bob Luke's book on Bill McGowan is a good read--at times a bit chaotic but then that's the nature of baseball even when the game seems so orderly. What's so fascinating about this tale of one of the chief justices of our national pastime is the nature of the various relationships within the game and the discretion of the umpire to mete out "justice." Perhaps the advent of the instant replay would have crimped McGowan's colorful style in the height of his career. Luke's perhaps unintentional expose of the inner workings of baseball's judicial system sheds new light on the opposition our nation's chief justices have regarding the instant replay of their decisons. Hmmm. Baseball really is a metaphor for the American dream. This portrait from the perspective of so many who knew McGowan as a guy who lived by the motto, "what you see is what you get" is refreshing. Buy an extra copy and send it to your representative in Congress where what we see is rarely what we get.

When a Ball was a Ball and a Strike was a Strike
Interested in stories and person antidotes about the early days of umpiring in Baseball?You will find a good read in Bob Luke's book, The Dean of Umpires: Bill McGown.McGown earned the esteem and respect of players and fans alike.McGown's Umpire School set standards for how the game was played.Find out more!

A fascinating piece of baseball history
I really enjoyed reading Dean of Umpires--it's a lively and detailed story peppered with anecdotes from players, fans, and team owners. McGowan is a larger-than-life character with his own colorful way of doing things, and Bob Luke really captures that here. The research is strong and it shows throughout.

My wife, who isn't a huge baseball fan, also liked it--it brings decades of 20th-century sports history to life. Recommended.

ATrue Hit
DEAN OF UMPIRES:BILL McGOWAN is a wonderful book. Bob Luke has the balls and strikes of a bygone "Big Leagues" vividly flowing off the pages.We learn of a fascinating character umpiring during a more innocent era. You don't have to be a baseball fan to love this well written book of a true American legend. Mr. Luke has hit a grand slam! G. Egner, Sanger, Texas ... Read more

Product Description
Joe Falls was a sports writer for 53 years. He covered the Detroit Tigers for over 47 years. He has seen over 5,000 major league games and written 4 books on the tigers. Listen to the stories he has collected from those who have called Tiger Stadium their home. It is a rich history of the old ball park, something to savor for years. With over three hours of audio on three CDs, "Echoes of Tiger Stadium" is a great addition to your Tiger collection. Some of the great ball players that are interviewed are: Kirk Gibson, Willie Horton, Ted Williams, Jack Morris, George Kell, Mickey Stanley, Denny McLain, Harmon Killebrew, Ernie Harwell, Al Kaline, Alan Trammell, Bill Freehan, and many more. ... Read more

Product Description
This unique baseball book offers a remarkable collection of original essays, previously unpublished photographs and insightful biography that offers a fascinating portrait of one of the game's greatest stars. An all-star cast of authors and baseball aficionados have contributed original essays. 180 photos.Amazon.com Review
With nearly 200 photos and essays by the likes of DavidHalberstam, Stephen JayGould, and poet Donald Hall, thistribute to one of baseball's greatest hitters (some would arguethe greatest) is, like the Splendid Splinter himself, in aleague of its own. Williams's life story unfolds in words andpictures, beginning with his childhood in San Diego and ending withhis post-baseball love of fly-fishing. (Like hitting a 90-mphfastball, tricking a finicky trout into taking a fly sometimesrequires exceptional hand-eye coordination.) Along the way we aretreated to Williams's many accomplishments in the batter's box,including his six batting titles, two Triple Crowns, and a careeraverage of .344. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Man of Mystery Revealed
For many Ted Williams remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma.This wellwritten and nicely crafted book does much to untangle the mystery,intrigue, and controversy that seems to orbit Ted Williams to thisday.

Williams, like Ruth, was both wonderfully flawed and wonderfullytalented. This book reveals both with honesty and candor.

It has beensaid that in learning about others we find ourselves.I found this to bethe case here.For example, which is not specifically a book about and foradult children of alcoholics Ted Williams definitely was one (in his case,the son of a religious addict).If you find yourself on the recovery pathyou will find much to glean from here! I found myself in this book time andtime again.Perhaps you will too.Now if only I could HIT likeWilliams...

And on top of everything else it's a Baseballbook with photos and stats galore!What more could you ask for?

Iadored this book and believe that you will too! ... Read more

Product Description
A look at the career of the former baseball superstar describes how Williams finished a season with a batting average of .400 or better, was named the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1946 and 1949, and his stats. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Notable Sports Figures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3056 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Takes a close look at the people in sports who have captured attention because of success on the playing field, or controversy off the playing field. This work features biographies on more than 600 people from around the world and throughout history who have had an impact not only on their sport, but also on the society and culture of their times. It also includes not only the record-breakers that dominated and changed their sport, but also the controversial figures that made headlines even apart from athletic events. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from American Decades: Primary Sources, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2354 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.American Decades Primary Sources provides fresh insight into the decade's most important events, people, and issues. Entries representing a diversity of views that provide insight into the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from the decade. Also included are concise contextual information, notes about the author and further resources. American Decades Primary Sources includes chapters on the arts, medicine and health, media, education, world events, religion, government and politics, lifestyles and social trends, law and justice, religion, business and the economy, and sports. Included to provide unique perspectives and a wealth of understanding are first hand accounts that include oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoonsand recipes. ... Read more

Product Description
Ted Williams - Teddy Ballgame is the biography of Ted Williams, an American left fielder in Major League Baseball often nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame and The Thumper. Williams played 19 seasons, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot, with the Boston Red Sox. An avid sport fisherman, he hosted a television show about fishing and was even inducted into the Fishing Hall of Fame. At the time of his retirement, Williams ranked third all-time in home runs. Ted Williams - Teddy Ballgame is highly recommended for those interested in the story of a great Hall of Fame ballplayer. ... Read more

Product Description
First published in April 2005, this book contains numerous articles on the disposition of baseball great the legendary Ted Williams.

After Williams' passing on July 5, 2002, his remains were misappropriated from a Florida hospital by the eldest son and flown to Arizona for cryonics treatment and suspension, which included being beheaded, drained of bodily fluids, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored in stainless-steel containers.

The objectives of cryonics, its purposes, promises, and procedures, is that at some future date such remains will be repaired, revived, and restored to life.Clients currently pay $150,000 for full cryonics suspension.

As indicated in this book, Ted Williams never contracted for such treatment, and his 1996 Last Will and Testament specified otherwise.A Holographic Will (hand-written) was introduced by the son afterwards as attempted justification, but such documents are not valid in the State of Florida, its authenticity is questionable, and the note was written by the son.The cryonics contracts for Ted Williams were prepared postmortem on July 5 and July 26, 2002 and signed by the son, who subsequently passed away in 2004 and remains frozen at the same location in Arizona.

During 2002, members of the immediate family engaged in a limited custody case, which was unsuccessful in securing the release of the remains, due to acquisition and placement of the body upon termination, and lack of sufficient funds to pursue litigation further to its proper conclusion.

The cryonics process is highly questionable as the author indicates in several articles.A related website is mentioned, which explains how consumer fraud complaints can be filed in Arizona to investigate this process.The website also contains more background information, comments from the immediate family, and an Action Agenda whereby readers may participate in correcting this situation.

The author also raises concerns about the misuse of life insurance to finance such treatment, which is directly encouraged by the cryonics firm.

This book presents these concepts in entertaining formats through sixteen chapters and 168 pages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

waste of money
The book is an ignorant rant and attack on both cryonics and ted williams memory...the author should find a different career...capitalising on Teds good name while trashing his last wishes.....Have some respect for the dead...its up to Ted and his family how they wish for him to be buried or frozen...get a life!

Vapid and Vacuous

Aside from the two-page introduction, SAVING TED WILLIAMS
is mostly fluff. The introduction contains misleading historical
background on the cryonic preservation of Ted Williams which
states that Ted was subjected to cryonics after his death against
his wishes and that members of his immediate family were unable
to remove his remains. On the basis of these comments a reader
might wonder how a cryonics organization would be able to seize
the post-mortem remains of one of the most famous baseball stars
in history and hold onto those remains against the wishes of his
Last Will and Testament as well as against the wishes of his
immediate family.

The reader is not told that Ted changed his mind about wanting
to be cremated between the time he wrote his 1996 will and the
time of his death in 2002. Sworn affidavits from his two closest
children affirm to this fact, along with a hand-written note that
he signed. His third child, the one who insisted on cremation,
was estranged from Ted and is specifically disinherited in
Article 3 of the same 1996 Will that originally requested
cremation.

One paragraph of the introduction argues for the use of a
two-prongedapproach toward having the remains of Ted
removed from cryopreservation:(1) have the cryonics firm
validate its claims for restoring life under Arizona's consumer
protection laws and (2) disallow cryonics clients from using
life insurance to fund the procedure on grounds that a payout
cannot be justified when the organizations are claiming that
the client is not really dead or will be restored to life. This
strategy is flawed because (1) cryonics contracts specifically
deny that future revival can be guaranteed and (2) cryonics
is only practiced on people who are dead in the eyes of the
law, and life insurance companies are obliged to pay policy
proceeds on these grounds.

Having read the two-page introduction, the reader will not
find much additional substantive content in the rest of the
book. Sixteen chapters contain short stories intended to put
the arguments of the introduction in a dramatized context.
I did not find the stories to be very interesting, imaginative
or well-written. Most of the stories contain little pretense
of a plot.At the end of the book there is information
about the author.

Saving Ted
Jaffeson has been an active member of a team to save Ted Williams from a non-sensical insane approach to internment after death. As he states, "dead is dead". Ted was desecrated and vivisected by a group in Scottsdale. The book has parody stories that are critical of the bizarre treatment of cadavers. Any medical person and any biological researcher knows cryonics is horse-ticky. Even the official Society of Cryobiology refers to them as "body freezers".
The book hints at ways to free Ted from Alcor and may motivate people to cowboy up. The title is a bit misleading. It does not cover all efforts/ editorials/ court actions or advocates (family and otherwise) dedicated to "Saving Ted" and that by itself leaves it empty of much that occurred legally and in the press from 2002-2005. There has been much forward progress to release Ted from Alcor - it should be covered. If nothing else, Jaffeson offers the reader a stimulus to become involved in getting Ted Williams cremated as he officially desired. Jaffeson's book offers parodies on cryonics through creative stories. The scams on the elderly are not only in Arizona, but Michigan and Florida. Jaffeson also addresses the current use of "life insurance" policies to fund suspended animation. If Alcor does not deem the "quasi-patient" dead, how can the policy be claimed by anyone, including Alcor. Death certificates are meaningless to them inless accompanied by a insurance check. Jaffeson presents a decent argument on that foible but falls a bit short on the legal approaches that currently have merit in releasing Ted. Ted is not coming back to life and people need to continue to write about the disgrace and desecration of the decapitated Red Sox hero. Ted's eldest daughter is the only rational family person in this mess.

Publication Commentary

As indicated in this book, immediately after his passing on July 5, 2002, Ted Williams' remains were flown to Arizona where the body was treated, beheaded, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored in stainless-steel containers through a process known as cryonics, which claims to eventually be able to revive, repair, and restore deceased persons. This process is highly questionable, and should be substantiated in order to determine its validity. More importantly, as described in articles contained in this book, Williams' 1996 will included specific instructions regarding his final disposition, and he never contracted for cryonics treatment.

Ted Williams' 1996 will stipulated a ceremony and cremation with his ashes spread across the Florida Keys along with those of Slugger his Dalmatian. However, before his final wishes could be accomplished, his remains were taken by the eldest son directly to a cryonics firm in Arizona. Afterwards, other members of the immediate family were unable to secure the release of his remains, and they have been required to discontinue those efforts in December 2002.

Subsequently, two approaches were developed by this author to achieve resolution and redemption. The first was to have the cryonics firm authenticate its claims of restoring life after death under provisions of Arizona's stringent consumer protection laws, while the second is an evaluation of funding practices whereby potential clients utilize life insurance to finance treatment. The articles presented herein provide background information and further elaborate upon these approaches. Content covers concepts and methods presented in entertaining formats on what otherwise might be considered a fairly unpleasant topic and a highly unfortunate occurrence.

Ted Williams, a notable American icon and outstanding baseball hero, should not be subjected to this current condition. His remains and memory should be treated with dignity and honor reflecting his accomplishments and contributions.

More information from the author is available on the following website.

http://www.saveted.net


... Read more

Product Description
Ted Williams will always be remembered as the greatest hitter who ever lived, which is exactly as Ted wanted it. Ted Williams: Remembering the Splendid Splinter is a poignant tribute to the man who, in life, dazzled fans with his powerful hitting and his quest for perfection and, in death, will always live on in our hearts as The Kid, Teddy Ballgame, The Splendid Splinter. From the extensive archives of the Boston Herald come stunning photographs, news stories, interviews and statistics from the life of the Splendid Splinter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived
This book about Ted Williams is excellent.The articles written about Ted are from various sportwriters, not just one person.The views of many are all very favorable to Ted which confirms what an outstanding hitter he was.As it is pointed out in the book, many ballplayers have come and gone since Ted retired, and yet his .406 season long average in 1941 has stood the test of time.I would highly recommend this book to any baseball fan; but especially to Boston Red Sox fans, and fans who were fortunate to see Ted play. ... Read more

Product Description
The Party's Over -- But 48 Years of Magical Thinking Live On: Putting the Boston Celtics' 2009 Playoff Season in Perspective will delight any Boston sports fan. Written right after the Celtics' Game 7 loss to the Orlando Magic, the 1600-word essay draws on decades of Boston sports history to bring it all back down to the fundamental fact that we are the luckiest fans in the world. ... Read more

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Chapters: Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Kirby Puckett, John Olerud, Carl Yastrzemski, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Brock, Lyman Bostock, Alex Rodriguez, Bobby Murcer, Joe Torre, Honus Wagner, Todd Helton, Charlie Gehringer, Troy Tulowitzki, Tim Raines, Gil Hodges, Tris Speaker, Tomoaki Kanemoto, Vladimir Guerrero, Craig Biggio, Carlton Fisk, Keith Hernandez, José Reyes, Tim Foli, Bob Meusel, Joe Gordon, Andre Dawson, Brooks Robinson, Willie Stargell, Dave Kingman, Pete Browning, Travis Hafner, Tommie Agee, Neifi Pérez, Goose Goslin, Willie Mcgee, Rod Carew, Bobby Veach, Jeff Bagwell, Jim Fregosi, Melky Cabrera, Eric Byrnes, Jeff Kent, Heinie Groh, John Mayberry, Bob Fothergill, Harry Stovey, César Tovar, Luis Gonzalez, Chuck Klein, Jack Glasscock, Bob Johnson, Ralph Kiner, Adrián Beltré, Dixie Walker, Randy Hundley, Nap Lajoie, Damion Easley, Bobby Doerr, George Sisler, Larry Doby, Gary Matthews, Jr., Babe Herman, Eric Davis, Ken Boyer, Doc Cramer, Robin Yount, Fred Lynn, George Kell, Brad Wilkerson, Dwight Evans, Ray Schalk, Johnny Mize, Tony Fernández, Félix Pie, Mark Kotsay, Lave Cross, Mickey Vernon, Jason Kendall, Rich Gedman, Roger Connor, Chone Figgins, Billy Williams, Aubrey Huff, Johnny Callison, Joe Cronin, Orlando Hudson, Mark Grace, Bob Elliott, B. J. Upton, Jim O'rourke, Buddy Rosar, George Burns, Ray Lankford, Eric Chavez, Randy Winn, Scott Cooper, Chad Moeller, Joe Medwick, Andre Thornton, Tony Lazzeri, César Cedeño, Jim Hickman, Carlos Gómez, Bill Terry, Hack Wilson, Hoot Evers, Sam Thompson, Gregg Jefferies, Chief Wilson, Mark Ellis, Sam Chapman, Cristian Guzmán, Gee Walker, Carlos Guillén, Mike Blowers, Mike Greenwell, Dante Bichette, Richie Zisk, José Valentín, Sam Barkley, Jim Bottomley, Home Run Baker, Chick Hafey, Harry Craft, Arky Vaughan, Elmer Valo, John Valentin, Frank White, Harry Davis, Fred Carroll, Mike Lansing, Mike Cubbage, Bill White, Gus Bell, Ma...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=16193 ... Read more

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Magazine published monthly ... Read more

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Magazine published monthly ... Read more

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Ted Williams. Ted Williams Tunnel, California State Route 56, Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, List of Major League Baseball home run records, 500 home run club, DHL Hometown Heroes, List of Major League Baseball individual streaks, List of top 500 Major League Baseball home run hitters, List of Major League Baseball players with 2000 hits, List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles, List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs, List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBIs, Hitting for the cycle, Triple Crown (baseball), List of Major League Baseball RBI champions, List of Major League Baseball batting champions, List of Major League Baseball home run champions, List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions, List of Major League Baseball doubles champions, List of Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game, Major League Baseball titles leaders. ... Read more

Product Description
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.Amazon.com Review
As baseball legend Ted Williams lay dying in Florida, his old Boston Red Sox teammates Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio piled into a car and drove 1,300 miles to see their friend. Another member of the close-knit group, Bobby Doerr, remained in Oregon to tend to his wife who had suffered a stroke. Besides providing a poignant travelogue of the elderly Pesky and DiMaggio's trip, David Halberstam's The Teammates goes back in time to profile the men as young ballplayers. Although it is enlightening to learn about Doerr, Pesky, and DiMaggio, the leader of the group and star of the book is Williams. Halberstam portrays the notoriously moody and difficult Williams as a complex man: driven by a rough childhood and a fiercely competitive nature to become perhaps the greatest pure hitter of all time while also being a magnetic personality and loving friend. While there is nothing exceptionally unusual about old men who have stayed friends (plenty of people stay friends, after all), baseball gives this particular relationship a unique makeup. Unlike most friendships, that of Williams, Doerr, Pesky, and DiMaggio was viewed all summer long by hooting, hollering Red Sox fans. As such, their bond is forged both of individual accomplishment, win-loss records, numerous road trips, and, since they played for the Red Sox, annual doses of disappointment. Halberstam, author of Summer of '49 and October 1964 is the ideal writer to tell two equally intriguing stories, both rich in America's pastime. Although he occasionally drops himself into the narrative, one expects that of Halberstam and gladly accepts it in exchange for the highly readable exposition infused with poetic majesty that has become his trademark. --John Moe ... Read more

Customer Reviews (88)

The richness of friendships
Boston Red Sox players Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr were friends for more than 50 years.Author David Halberstam uses a trip DiMaggio, Pesky and friend Dick Flavin took from Boston in October 2001 to visit an ailing Ted Williams in Florida to tell the story of their rich, touching friendship.Doerr, who was in Oregon taking care of his ailing wife, was unable to make the trip.

Williams was the one who held the group together.DiMaggio, Pesky and Doerr were "my guys" to Williams. Halberstam gives us insight into all four players.And, most readers would find it comfortable being around DiMaggio, Pesky and Doerr.Williams was another story.People had to accept Williams on his own terms and accept what went with it.He was loud, vulgar, smart, cantankerous, highly opinionated and a man of severe mood swings.

Halberstam creates memorable portraits of each player by mixing in information about their baseball careers, how they met their wives, their families, life after baseball and their health issues.

These four men played baseball in a different era--when you were more likely to play for one team and develop friendships with the men on your team.

Pesky said his richness had come from his friendships.The best part of the lives of these four players had little to do with material riches.And, they had lived their lives without regret.

"The Red Sox killed my father. Now they're coming after me."
The 1946 World Series match-up between Boston and the St. Louis Cardinals went to seven games before Boston finally lost the championship, and Halberstam makes this seventh game come alive in all its frustrating excitement. The book is unique, however, not because of its rehash of old ball games, but because it brings back an era, more than a half-century ago, when close and supportive friendships developed between players who spent their whole careers on the same team. Telling the story of the sixty-year friendship of baseball greats Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky of the Boston Red Sox, Halberstam shows the kind of friendship which was possible in an era in which players were people, not commodities.

Warm and nostalgic, the book opens in October, 2001, as Dom DiMaggio, accompanied by Boston writer Dick Flavin and Johnny Pesky, makes a melancholy car trip from Boston to Florida to pay a last visit to Ted Williams, who is dying. As the men drive from Boston to Florida, they reminisce about their playing days more than fifty years in the past, recalling anecdotes about their friendship and talking about their lives, post-baseball.

Halberstam uses these memories as the framework of this book, describing the men from their teenage years. All were from the West Coast, all were about the same age, all arrived in Boston to begin their careers within the same two-year period, and all shared similar values. Ted Williams, "the undisputed champion of contentiousness," was the most dominant of the group. Bobby Doerr was Williams's closest friend and roommate, "a kind of ambassador from Ted to the rest of the world," Doerr himself being "very simply among the nicest and most balanced men." Bespectacled Dom DiMaggio, the brother of Vince and Joe, was the consummate worker, a smart player who had been "forced to study everything carefully when he was young in order to maximize his chances and athletic abilities." Johnny Pesky, combative and small, was also "kind, caring, almost innocent."

Stories and anecdotes, sometimes told by the players themselves, make the men individually come alive and show the depth and value of their friendship. The four characters remain engaging even when, in the case of Williams, they may be frustratingly disagreeable. There's a bittersweet reality when Halberstam brings the lives of Williams, Doerr, DiMaggio, and Pesky, all now in their eighties, up to the present--these icons are, of course, as human as the rest of us, subject to the same physical deterioration and illnesses. In Halberstam's sensitive rendering of their abiding relationship, however, we see them as men who have always recognized and preserved the most important of human values, and in that respect they continue to serve as heroes and exemplars to baseball fans throughout the country.Mary Whipple

Another Classic Journey into Baseball's Past
The writing style of David Halberstam is at its eloquent best with this wonderful journey into baseball's glorious past; this time, recounting the road trip some buddies made to visit an old pal.

Of course, what makes this story so compelling is it involves several members from a very good Boston Red Sox team from over half a century ago, as they journey south to visit the game's greatest hitter during his "last at bat"; Ted Williams.

It's a poignant tale, filled with rich doses of baseball history and sharp commentary from the wonderful author, David Halberstam.I only wish it had gone into more detail; extra innings would've been nice to satisfy this baseball fanatic's appetite.

This is another classic piece of work from Halberstam; and a nice ending to the storybook career and life of one the game's most enigmatic players; and the true friendship that bonded him with some guys he used to work with.

This is THE book if you love the Sox of yesterday
When i was a kid I got to see Ted Williams play. I never did see DiMaggio, Pesky or Doerr. Now I know how much I missed. And, like just about every kid in my neighborhood, he was a god. Reading this book I got to see so much more of Ted, his Teammates, and the Sox. It's a great story.

A Nice Read
This is really a nice story. I don't review books because I'm not a professional reviewer, but I do comment. This is really a nice story about four guys that knew what friendship was all about.Four great ball players who spent most of their professional lives rooting for each other. They then carried this friendship beyond the ball field and into their everyday lives, never coming close to fracturing their relationship because the knew and understood each other...they also respected each other, and each other's accomplishments. I would certainly recommend this book to any young man or woman, or for that matter to any athlete embarking on a career and on life's journey. It shows what real friendship is all about; and it shows how it can be sustained. ... Read more