|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
Class reunion Pesky, DiMaggio take road trip to visit ailing WilliamsPosted: Tuesday October 30, 2001 1:55 AMUpdated: Tuesday January 01, 2002 1:25 AM
BOSTON (AP) -- Former Boston Red Sox players Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky hit the road last week for a reunion with ailing teammate Ted Williams, recovering at his Florida home after open-heart surgery earlier this year. The former stars, all now in their 80s, batted at the top of the Red Sox order in the 1946 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. "When I first saw him, I damn near cried," Pesky, 82, who had not seen Williams in more than a year, told The Boston Globe. "He's so thin. He said he's down to about 170 pounds. But I thought he did pretty good. He has a tough time talking, but his memory about the old days and old players is still excellent." DiMaggio, 84, recruited veteran Boston TV personality Dick Flavin to help him drive the 1,600 miles from Boston to Florida after his wife, Emily, asked him not to try it alone. "We had nothing but laughs from the time we left Boston," DiMaggio said. They had breakfast with Williams, 83, at his Hernando home on Tuesday morning, returned that night for dinner and came back Wednesday for another breakfast. "I had such a good feeling. Dom, me and Teddy. It's like we were kids again, you know?" Pesky said. Williams, regarded as perhaps the best pure hitter in baseball history, was the last player to hit over .400, when he hit .406 in 1941. After surgery in New York in January, Williams had several setbacks, including kidney failure, infections and the need for a respirator. He was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital in San Diego a month after his surgery, then moved in June to a Florida facility. He went home in August.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
