Red Sox/MLB RIP Bobby Doerr

[Fenway]

Bobby Doerr, the soft-spoken Hall of Fame second baseman lauded by his teammate and friend Ted Williams as “the silent captain of the Red Sox,” died Monday in Junction City, Oregon. He was 99.

The oldest living former Major League Baseball player, Mr. Doerr was the last surviving member of the four Sox players in “The Teammates” statue, outside of Fenway Park’s Gate B. The others are Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Dom DiMaggio.

“Bobby Doerr was part of an era of baseball giants and still stood out as one himself,” Red Sox owner John Henry said. “And even with his Hall of Fame achievements at second base, his character and personality outshined it all.”

Hall of Famer, former Red Sox second baseman Bobby Doerr dies at 99 - The Boston Globe

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[DKH]

My father and father in laws favorite player

Last player to play in 1930's

Played against Gherig

He was the first base coach when I was a kid i had no idea at time who this old guy was till my dad explained one game - I never forgot who he was or what he meant

 

[Fenway]

My Dad adored him as well.

He made it back for the 100th anniversary game of Fenway in 2012

 

[plank]

RIP

might have to re-read this today

 

[BMC]

One of Mom's favorite Red Sox players. She got to see him, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, Ted Williams & Joe DiMaggio play in the same game

May he rest in peace.

 

[BMC]

RIP

might have to re-read this today

The ESPN(?) documentary was excellent.

 

[Fenway]

Bobby Doerr was the best the Red Sox ever had at second base - The Boston Globe

He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1986, and his No. 1 has been retired by the Red Sox. But he remains one of the more underrated residents of Cooperstown.

In their learned tome, “Total Baseball,” authors John Thorn and Pete Palmer put him 69th all-time, tied with George Brett, in their “Total Baseball Ranking.” They also place him at No. 10 in the 1942-60 era, ahead of such luminaries as Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller, Minnie Minoso, Robin Roberts, and, yes, Joe Gordon.

His RBI-per-game average also ranks ahead of people such as Mike Schmidt, Willie Stargell, Harmon Killebrew, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and, yes, Joe Gordon.

Perhaps now you understand why he was a nine-time All-Star, why he’s in the Hall of Fame, and why there could not possibly be any doubt that he was the best second baseman in Red Sox history.

 

[Fenway]

'The Teammates'

They were all special men - smart, purposeful, hardworking - and they had seized on baseball as their one chance to get ahead in America. They had done exceptionally well in their chosen field. Williams and Doerr were in the Hall of Fame. Many of the players from that era were puzzled that DiMaggio and Pesky had not been eventually inducted by the old-timer's committee, which took a belated second look at who had made the Hall and who had not. That was particularly true in the case of Dominic DiMaggio, who had been an All Star seven times; Williams himself believed that it was a travesty that Dominic was not in the Hall. None of the four, most assuredly, had gotten rich off the game, not in the era they played in and not in the material sense, for the richness they had taken from the game was more subtle and complicated. A couple years ago Pesky and DiMaggio were together at the funeral of Elizabeth "Lib" Dooley, a beloved Red Sox rooter who was considered the team's foremost fan, having attended every home game from 1944 to 1999, and John had casually asked Dominic how much he had made in his best years. Forty thousand, Dominic answered, and then he asked John the same question. Twenty-two five, Pesky said.

They had after all grown up in a much poorer America when career expectations were considerably lower, when the people who went off to college were generally the people whose parents had gone off to college before them. Two of the four, DiMaggio and Pesky, were the children of immigrants. In DiMaggio's home, Italian was still spoken, and Pesky's real family name was Paveskovich, as his Croatian parents were still known, at least to themselves if not to the larger world. Williams had grown up in what was ostensibly a traditional Scotch-Irish home - what name could be more American than Williams? - but in fact his mother, unbeknownst to most of Ted's friends, was half Mexican.

 

[Estlin]

Sad news. As a very young lad, I first knew him as the hitting coach of the Toronto Blue Jays when the club entered MLB in 1977.