A best-selling book by David Halberstam on the warm and enduring relationship among former Red Sox players Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio has the survivors of the quartet basking in the limelight once more.

08:02 AM EDT on Thursday, July 15, 2004

BY KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

Journal photo / Mary Murphy Former Boston Red Sox players, from left, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky, have remained close over the years. Yesterday they spoke about their careers at the Triple-A All-Star Game luncheon at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

PROVIDENCE -- About a half-hour before they walked into the Rhode Island Convention Center as guests of honor at a luncheon with just over 1,000 baseball fans, three men in their middle 80s were besieged in the lobby of the Providence Westin hotel.

One 20-year old man wanted to snap a photo. Dozens more shoved baseballs, slips of paper or pictures in front of them for autographs. As the trio slowly shuffled the 100 yards from the hotel's front door to the center's door, more fans waved and called their names.

"We never dreamed any of this would happen. We figured we'd fade away in the gloom of the evening," said Johnny Pesky. "It makes us proud. We're very flattered by it. We got a kick today. We had a great time."

Pesky was sitting alongside Dominic DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr, his two former Red Sox teammates -- and more important, two close friends -- from Boston's hard-luck teams of the 1940s and '50s. The three have seen their careers reborn, and immortalized, after being the subjects of a best-selling book, The Teammates, by David Halberstam. The book tells of a 2001 car trip from Massachusetts to Florida by DiMaggio and Pesky to see a gravely ill Ted Williams one final time. Williams was the spiritual leader of the group, the larger-than-life baseball John Wayne they all called a lifelong friend.

Since the book's release, Williams did indeed die. But Doerr, DiMaggio and Pesky live on with a unique celebrity, linked by their friendship as much as their considerable baseball skills. As a reverential crowd listened yesterday, the trio sat in spotlights and participated in a roundtable interview with Red Sox TV announcer Sean McDonough that was filled with old stories and fond memories.

Doerr, 86, was the sure-handed, Hall of Fame second baseman who hit 223 home runs. Pesky, 84, played shortstop next to Doerr for seven seasons. DiMaggio, 87, roamed center field with the great Williams alongside in left for 11 years.

The four West Coast natives played in the Pacific Coast League before coming together in Boston. Pesky actually was a 16-year-old clubhouse boy in Portland when he met the other three for the first time. With the Red Sox, DiMaggio said his and Pesky's job came in setting the table for power hitters Williams, Doerr and Vern Stephens. Defensively, the three were nearly flawless.

"In all the years we played together, I can't ever remember a ball dropping between us," said DiMaggio. "Why players these days can't get it straight, I'll never know."

They all lauded Williams, of course. "We miss the Big Guy," Pesky said. "Just his presence was amazing. He had a high school diploma but if you asked him anything, he knew the answer."

Doerr was Williams' roommate and closest friend in the old days and also a frequent fishing partner who spoke of a bass and salmon trip along the Rouge River in 1987. "They held a hitting clinic at the end of the fishing and Ted, he could be tough. It got to the point where everything was a four-letter word. It was very comical. I still have movies of that at home."

Because his wife was ill, Doerr didn't make the famed car ride from Boston to Florida to see Williams but frequently spoke with him on the phone.

"I talked to Ted about two weeks before he died," said Doerr. "Most every time he was so sharp when we talked but I told my wife that last time that he seemed a little off. I told her that just maybe things are getting a little close to the end for Teddy."

Today, DiMaggio lives in Marion, Mass., and regularly sits in PawSox owner Ben Mondor's box on summer Sunday afternoons. Pesky lives in Swampscott and still dresses in the clubhouse at Fenway and hits fungos to players before games. Doerr lives in Agnes, Ore., but after his wife died two months ago, he made plans to come East a few times this summer.

"Trying to put Bobby into the mix was the last part of this and the more he thought about being with Dom and Johnny, he signed on," PawSox president Mike Tamburro said of this week's Triple-A All-Star events. "They've been with us since Monday and to watch them enjoy themselves together has been so much fun for us. They embraced at home plate Monday night and, to me, that was a shining moment."

Doerr said the success of The Teammates surprised him but he's happy fans could glimpse their special relationship.

"I think the book brought out a lot of the things people didn't know about us, the closeness of the four of us and the lasting friendship we had for 60, 65 years," said Doerr. "Ted was an unusual person, a dominating person. You had to know Ted to look over a few of his faults but he had great compassion for people."

Doerr added that he appreciates the fact that his friends in and out of baseball aren't around much anymore. Losing Williams was tough, so staying close with DiMaggio and Pesky is important to him.

"You get to be our age you hope to just get up and see the sun shine. The time is running out so it's nice when we get a chance to get together like this that we do it. You just don't know when the next time will be," he said.

The Teammates never did bring the elusive World Series title to Boston. But, then again, no Sox team in 85 years has either. The Sox lost the 1946 Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals and let the '49 pennant tragically slip away on the final weekend of the season. The three still live and die with the travails of the franchise.

"It seems we get so very close and something strange happens to us. I hope I'm around when they finally do it," said DiMaggio.

Doerr said he watches this year's team often and "thinks they have one of their best teams, maybe ever," this season.

Pesky admits he's "said a lot of Hail Marys" over the years but says "it's like a black cat is following them. Over the years, this is not a lucky ballclub."

The old shortstop then summed up the wishes of the entire New England region when he looked to the heavens and said, "Oh God, please. Just one time."