PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – The Teammates are together again, minus one.

Former Boston Red Sox stars Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio were reunited at a luncheon before the Triple-A All-Star game on Wednesday, and the talk turned, as it always does, to “Teddy.”

“We feel like he should be here,” Pesky said. “If you think about it, it’s awfully sad. We shed a lot of tears over that.”

Ted Williams died two years ago, leaving behind a Hall of Fame legacy and three mourning former teammates who formed with him a foursome of friendship. Having met in the minors, the relationship blossomed with their baseball careers, and beyond.

“We got closer and closer as the years went on,” said Doerr, the second baseman who joined Williams in the Hall of Fame in 1986.

The friendship prompted Pesky, DiMaggio and Boston humorist Dick Flavin to drive from Boston to Williams’ home in Florida before he died on July 5, 2002; Doerr couldn’t make it because his wife was ill. The road trip and the relationship that motivated it was recreated in David Halberstam’s book, “The Teammates.”

Since the book came out, the three surviving Teammates have gotten together from time to time: A few weeks ago, when DiMaggio was honored in Boston’s North End; Wednesday in Providence and again Thursday night to raise money for Williams’ hitting museum in Florida.

With baseball’s top minor leaguers looking on – mostly kids, but some veteran journeymen as old as 38 – the three old-timers reminisced about how they met and grew as teammates and friends. Sitting in easy chairs on the dais in a convention center packed with 1,000 fans, they wove in stories from their lives and careers, chatting like the old pals they are.

“You could see talent right away,” said Pesky, who first met Williams as a clubhouse boy in the minors. “Dommie, you tell that story about Ted and Lefty O’Doul.”

And thus would begin another tale.

The message wasn’t lost on the younger generation. Dave Gassner, a pitcher in the Twins organization, was one of a few players in the All-Star game who stopped by the news conference afterward for autographs and pictures with the Red Sox greats.

“The way they played the game back then is the way I try to,” Gassner said. “I just really enjoy the way the game was.”

DiMaggio is 87, Doerr is 86 and Pesky is 84. None of them won the World Series as a player, or has seen the Red Sox win one since the oldest among them was a toddler.

“It seems like we get so very, very close and then all of the sudden some strange sort of happening comes around to defeat us. And I can’t understand it,” DiMaggio said. “Maybe this year, if we can get into the playoffs and the World Series. I believe we have a great opportunity.”

Pesky has been with Boston for more than 60 years as a player, coach and manager, and he is known around Boston as Mr. Red Sox. The team’s dynasty of disappointment has tested even his love for his teammates.

“I moan and groan with the best of them,” he said. “I believe in this ballclub. I did last year, too, but that’s gone. This is not a lucky ballclub. Somewhere along the line there is a black cat in the squadron.

“Oh, God, please: One time!” he said, turning to his teammates. “I love you like a brother, but I would trade you in for a World Series.

“No, I wouldn’t,” he corrected himself. “It’s something that will be with me for the rest of my life. Two great guys.”

It once was four.