Ted Williams said he was in bed Wednesday morning and just sick about the death of his “great dear friend” Bud Leavitt. Yet across the miles from Florida, the voice of this baseball legend sounded as strong as the friendship he wanted to talk about.

Williams had been looking back over the years of his friendship with Bud since learning of his death from cancer on Tuesday, even dreaming about him, he said. He had to call. He seemed surprised, as he analyzed his memories, at how much he and a sportswriter, of all people, had in common, how easily they had enjoyed each other’s company and how much they had learned from each other.

When baseball is your profession, you don’t spend a lot of time outside of stadiums, Williams said, but he came to live for those spare moments he could flee into the wilderness to fish, often with his buddy, Bud.

“I remember one time,” he began without hesitation when asked to recount a memorable fishing trip with Bud. Williams was so anxious to go fishing that the pair departed at night for New Brunswick and the cold waters of the Miramichi River.

“We left at 11 p.m. … It was a lousy night, misty and dark,” Williams recalled.

Somewhere along the rural road in the inky North — Williams didn’t know exactly where — their vehicle encountered a flock of sheep “going at all angles.” The pair was lucky and didn’t hit a one, Williams said. It was a night to remember.

Bud was with Williams when he caught his first 20-pound salmon on the Miramichi, the baseball star recalled. It’s easy to picture the pair standing in the river in waders, casting and telling stories.

“I used to envy him,” Williams said of his sportswriting friend. “He had a chance to go to all the good places to go fishing.” Bud fished with Williams off the Keys in Florida, but it wasn’t his favorite fishing hole, Williams admitted. “He liked freshwater fishing best.”

Williams takes some credit for developing Bud’s skills as a fan and critic of the great game of baseball. “I went through the years of development of Bud as a baseball fan.” After Williams retired from the game in 1960, he and Bud talked increasingly about the sport and Bud started attending the Red Sox’ spring training camp in Florida. While Williams says there were always gaps in Bud’s baseball knowledge, he said Bud became a good baseball writer.

“Our most heated discussions were about baseball.” Bud had strong opinions about some players, sometimes based on the way they acted with fans, said Williams, who had a reputation for not always being gracious to fans and sportswriters. Williams was ready to pick up the argument again, it seemed, concerning some player who had failed to give an autograph and thus earned Bud’s dislike.

Williams had been thinking about Bud a lot in recent weeks, he said. He’d meant to call, but he has had his own health battles to fight. He compared the news, which reached him on Tuesday, to a lightning storm he was watching out his bedroom window on Wednesday morning — not unexpected but shocking just the same.

Added Williams: “The only consolation is I know he isn’t suffering anymore.”

Final arrangements for Bud Leavitt have been announced by his family.

Visiting hours will be 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 24, at Brookings-Smith Funeral Home on Center Street in Bangor.

The funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 26, at Holy Family Parish Church on South Main Street in Old Town.