Bobby Doerr

Bobby Doerr
Bobby Doer baseball card (1950)
Second baseman
Born: April 7th, 1918 Los Angeles , California , United States
Died on: November 13, 2017 in Junction City , Oregon , United States
Suggested: Right	Threw: Right
Debut in Major League Baseball
April 20,  1937  with the  Boston Red Sox
Last MLB assignment
September 7,  1951  with the  Boston Red Sox
MLB statistics (until end of career)
Batting average	.288
Home runs	223
Runs Batted In	1,247
Teams
Boston Red Sox ( 1937 - 1944 , 1946 - 1951 )
Awards
9 × All-Star ( 1941 - 1944 , 1946 - 1948 , 1950 , 1951 ) In his honor, the # 1 at the Boston Red Sox is no longer awarded
member of
Baseball Hall of Fame
Recorded	1986
Special selection	Veterans Committee

Robert "Bobby" Pershing Doerr (born April 7, 1918 in Los Angeles , California - † November 13, 2017 in Junction City , Oregon ) was an American baseball player in Major League Baseball (MLB). His entire professional career he played for the Boston Red Sox (1937-1944 and 1946-1951).

Bobby Doerr (left) next to Johnny Pesky in Fenway Park on the occasion of the 100-year-old Fenway Park anniversary game (2012)

life and career

Early career

Bobby Doerr was born on April 7, 1918, the son of Harold Doerr, a supervisor at a telephone company , and his wife Frances (née Herrnberger) in Los Angeles, California. He received his middle name in honor of the officer John J. Pershing , who was awarded the rank of General of the Armies , the highest distinction in the US armed forces , created especially for him . In 1936 he finished his education at the John C. Fremont High School in South Los Angeles and by this time he had already played semi-professional with the Hollywood Stars in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1934 to 1935 . He then joined the newly founded San Diego Padres in the PCL for the 1936 game year . That year he was also discovered by Eddie Collins , then general manager of the Boston Red Sox on the same matchmaking as Ted Williams . It should be noted that the San Diego Padres, who were then the triple-A team of the minor league , served as the Red Sox's farm team this year . Doerr and Williams then enjoyed a close friendship for many years.

His debut in the American League , which is one of the two leagues in the US professional baseball league Major League Baseball (MLB) alongside the National League , he gave for said team on April 20, 1937 against the Philadelphia Athletics . In this game year, the then 19-year-old made a total of 55 league appearances and only became a regular player in the following game year, 1938, with the second baseman leading the sacrifice hit statistics with 22 hits that year . In the years that followed, he was convincing with his constant performance and from 1938 onwards he had almost never a batting average of less than 27% (except for 1947, when he brought it to 25.8%). From 1939 a series of twelve seasons began for him, in which he never reached less than ten home runs (HR) and never less than 73 batted in runs (RBI). Furthermore, he exceeded the 30% mark in the batting average for the first time in this season, which he only succeeded in two more years of play in his further career. In 1940, the Red Sox became the twelfth team in Major League history to have four players, each with over 100 RBIs in a single season. In addition to Doerr, these were veteran Jimmie Foxx , buddy Ted Williams and the also experienced shortstop Joe Cronin ; all of them came to 105 RBIs. Doerr's hit stats that year were remarkable anyway; In addition to 173 hits, he had 37 double hits, ten triple hits and 22 home runs.

All-Star Seasons

In 1941 Doerr became an All-Star for the first time and was used in the MLB All-Star Game as a selection player in the American League against the All-Star selection of the National League. The game on July 8, 1941 at Briggs Stadium ended in a 7-5 victory for the American League All-Stars. Subsequently, he was another eight times in MLB All-Star Game (1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950 and 1951); of his nine All-Star games, the AL All-Stars won six games. After his stakes had decreased somewhat in 1941, his league stakes increased again in the following seasons, where he reached his career high in the game year 1943 and was used in all championship games. This made him the only player on his team to do so this season, as well as one of five players in the American League who did so. Just a year later, he led the MLB league statistics in terms of slugging percentage . Here he came to a percentage of 52.8% and had the same as the runner-up, his teammate Bob Johnson , who let his career end with the Red Sox. His average batting average of 32.5% was enough for second place in the league behind Lou Boudreau of the Cleveland Indians , who had a batting average of 32.7%. Subsequently, Doerr was honored that year with The Sporting News Most Valuable Player Award , which was given annually from 1929 to 1945 by Sporting News to the best player in the American League and the National League. He was also on The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team that year . In the choice of MLB Most Valuable Player , he was ranked 7th in the AL this year. Another notable achievement he achieved on May 17, 1944, when he scored a single, a double and a triple hit, as well as a home run in an 8:12 loss to the St. Louis Browns . A so-called hitting for the cycle , which is generally considered to be very rare, he succeeded again almost exactly three years later.

Due to the Second World War , the game operation fell out anyway and Doerr completed his military service in the United States Army , where he was stationed at Camp Roberts in central California. After this hiatus, he returned to the Boston Red Sox in 1946 and immediately won the American League title with them, which the team last achieved in Doerr's year of birth. In the subsequent World Series he came to a batting average of 40.9%, which was not enough to beat the St. Louis Cardinals . In the end, the Red Sox lost 3: 4 in this best-of-seven series; Doerr was used in six of the seven games. In the election for the AL MVP this year, the second baseman came third with 158 votes and 47% of the votes, behind Hal Newhouser with 197 votes and 59%, and the AL-MVP, his teammate Ted Williams, with 224 votes and 67%. After 1944, he was elected to The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team again that year. In the subsequent 1947 season, Doerr's batting average fell to just 25.8% with a total of 146 appearances, which, with the exception of 1937, when he was not a regular player, was the lowest season performance in his entire career. Nevertheless, this year he had 25 so-called Grounded into Double Plays (GiDP), which was the highest value in his career so far, and also came to 95 RBIs. On May 13, 1947 he succeeded in a 19: 6 success over the Chicago White Sox for the second and last time in his career a hitting for the cycle.

In 1948 Doerr's batting average increased again to 28.5% and he recorded 27 home runs and 111 RBIs. This was also the highest number of home runs in a season in his career to date; two years later he should come back to 27 home runs in one game year. In addition, he set a new American League record this year and came to 414 Total Chances (TC) in a row over the course of 73 games without an error . Furthermore, the second baseman had a fielding percentage of 99.3% this year ; a record that would not be broken until some sixty years later. In 1949 Doerr was able to increase his performance again and brought it to 167 hits, 30 double hits, nine trible hits, and 18 home runs. In addition, he had 109 RBIs and 31 GiDPs, which meant a career high for him. In this statistic, as in 1947, when he came up with 25 GiDPs, he led the American League by a clear margin. After seven All-Star Games in a row, he was not brought into the MLB All-Star Game for the first time in 1949.

The following season in 1950 began for Doerr with a drop in performance; By June 2 of this year he had a batting average of only 23.2% (compared to this he had a 7.7% higher batting average at the end of 1949). Towards the end of the game year his batting average leveled off again and he it ended up with an average of 29.4%. In general, this year can be seen as very successful for Doerr personally. He had 172 hits (the second best value of his career), 29 double hits, eleven triple hits and 27 home runs. His eleven triple hits were at the same time the best value in the entire American League this season and also the best season end result of his playing career. Only Dom DiMaggio and Hoot Evers had as many triple hits in 1950. Also in the runs (103) and the RBIs (120) he could record the highest season values ​​of his career. Doerr's performance on June 8th of this year with a clear 29: 4 victory over the St. Louis Browns, when he scored three home runs, should also be emphasized. Due to his performance, he made it back to the All-Star team in 1950.

After suffering from a back injury for two years, he announced his end of career as a baseball player in 1951 and played his last game on the Diamond on September 7, 1951 at the age of 33 . This year he had 106 championship appearances and was All-Star in the prestigious All-Star Game for the ninth and last time.

Statistics summary after retirement

Bobby Doerr ended his active career as a player with 8,028 plate appearances (PA), 1,094 runs, 89 triples , 809 walks , 1,349 singles , 1,184 runs created (RC), 693 extra-base hits (EBH), 2,862 times on bases (TOB ), 115 sacrifice hits and the aforementioned nine elections for the All-Star Game. At his home stadium, Fenway Park , he had a batting average of 31.5% and 145 home runs compared to a batting average of 26.1% and 78 home roads in foreign stadiums. In three of his 14 years in the major league, he had a batting average of at least 30% and managed over 100 RBIs in six seasons. Throughout his entire career, he was only used in second base and never held any other position.

Doerr is still regarded as one of the best and most defensive second basemen of his time. So he led the American League in five years in the double play classification , which he caught up with another player. He also led the league for four years in the putout - and also for four years in the fielding percentage statistics and was the league leader in assists for three years . Furthermore, Doerr held the major league record for double plays on second base in a career until 1963 (1,507). In addition, the second baseman set up numerous club records for the Boston Red Sox; Among other things, he was a record player with 1,865 championship appearances and had other records in the areas of at bats (AB; 7,093), hits (2,042), doubles (381) and RBIs (1,247). All of his offensive records with the Red Sox were subsequently broken by Ted Williams, who described Doerr as The silent captain of the Red Sox . Doerr's 223 home runs were the third best value of a second baseman in the major league.

Time as a scout, base coach and hitting coach in the MLB

After his playing career, Doerr initially worked as a rancher in Oregon for a few years before turning back to baseball. He worked as a scout for the Boston Red Sox from 1957 to 1965 and also acted as a hitting instructor in the Red Sox's minor league teams for the last six years until 1965 . In 1967 he was hired under the new manager Dick Williams as the base coach of the Red Sox in the major league. That year, the Red Sox won their first title ( pennant ) in over 20 years and took part in the 1967 World Series. In the Best-of-Seven series, which took place between October 4th and 12th, the Red Sox lost, as they did 21 years ago, 3: 4 to the St. Louis Cardinals. When Dick Williams was fired by GM Dick O'Connell and the owner of the Red Sox, Tom Yawkey , on September 22, 1969, nine days before the end of the season , it was also the end of Doerr's longstanding relationship with the team. In recent years he has appeared as a first base coach and as a hitting coach. Coach colleagues with the Red Sox during this time were Al Lakeman , Sal Maglie , Eddie Popowski , Darrell Johnson and George Thomas . After a few years without engagement in the major league, Doerr was hired in 1977 as the hitting coach of the newly founded MLB franchise Toronto Blue Jays , where he was employed in the first few years under manager Roy Hartsfield , who was also a second baseman in the past came. In the beginning, the coaching team included Don Leppert , Bob Miller , Jackie Moore and Harry Warner . After Hartsfield was fired after the end of the game year 1979 and Bobby Mattick was introduced as the new manager at the beginning of the 1980 season , the coaching team was completely replaced except for Bobby Doerr. But Mattick's involvement with the Blue Jays did not last long and after two years of playing in the Major League, he too had to leave the team. In the two years of his work, the coaching team consisted of Doerr, John Felske , Denis Menke , Al Widmar and Jimy Williams .

Honors after retirement

When Bobby Doerr was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1986 , he was the first person with a past with the Toronto Blue Jays to receive such an honor. A baseball Hall of Fame admission rule that ran until 2015 stated that a person could be a candidate for admission to the Hall of Fame for a maximum of 15 years. In Doerr's case, these 15 years were almost fully exploited. As early as 1953, two years after the official end of his career, he was nominated by an election to the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), but only achieved 0.8%. However, 75% of the votes are required for admission to the Hall of Fame. He was also listed as a candidate for Hall of Fame in 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1971. It was not until the mid-1960s that the percentage of votes rose significantly. In 1970 he was able to record the highest value with 25% of the vote; but it still failed because of the missing 50%. In two years (1964 and 1967) Doerr also took part in a trailing runoff election, where he also received only a few votes. It wasn't until 1986 that he finally made it into the prestigious Baseball Hall of Fame with the help of the Veterans Committee.

Ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame

• 1953: BBWAA ( 00.8%)
• 1956: BBWAA ( 02.6%)
• 1958: BBWAA ( 09.4%)
• 1960: BBWAA ( 05.6%)
• 1962: BBWAA ( 06.2%)
• 1964: BBWAA (11.9%)
  • 1964: Run-off election (2.5%)
• 1966: BBWAA ( 09.9%)
• 1967: BBWAA (12.0%)
  • 1967: Run-off election (4.9%)
• 1968: BBWAA (17.0%)
• 1969: BBWAA (18.2%)
• 1970: BBWAA (25.0%)
• 1971: BBWAA (21.7%)
• 1986: Veterans Committee (admission)

Two years after his induction into the Hall of Fame, the Red Sox decided on May 21, 1988 in honor of Doerr to ban his jersey number 1 and never to award it again.

After his induction into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown , New York State , Doerr attended the induction ceremonies annually until 2008. After that, these visits stopped for reasons of age. On July 29, 2007, the Baseball Hall of Fame honored him again following the inclusion of Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn . Reflecting on his induction into the Hall of Fame and the suspension of his jersey number from the Red Sox, Doerr said the only thing that would have made his life perfect would have been to compete in a World Baseball Championship . On August 2, 2007, the Red Sox organized a Bobby Doerr Day in Fenway Park. Doerr was driven along the warning track in a vehicle before he made the ceremonial first pitch and gave a speech.

Family and private

From the late 1930s and for much of his playing career, Doerr lived in Oregon, where he lived in the Agness area . It was not until the 1950s that he moved to Junction City , around 200 miles to the north , where he lived until his death in 2017. From October 1938 he was married to Monica (nee Terpin). His wife, who had lived with multiple sclerosis since the 1940s, died in 2003, leaving behind her husband and a son.

On August 11, 2011, Doerr suffered a minor stroke, from which he largely recovered. On April 20, 2012, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, he attended the anniversary game taking place on that day at the side of his former teammate Johnny Pesky .

After Lee MacPhail's death on November 8, 2012, Doerr was the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. After Lou Lucier's death on October 18, 2014, he was also the oldest living player in the Boston Red Sox. From November 4, 2016, after the death of Eddie Carnett , until his own death on November 13, 2017, Doerr was the oldest living major league player. In addition, he was the last person alive to play in the major league in the 1930s, as well as the oldest of only three people left to make their MLB debut before the United States became involved in World War II . The other two are Chuck Stevens and Fred Caligiuri . Furthermore, Doerr was the last living major league player to play against Lou Gehrig .

Doerr died on November 13, 2017, at the age of 99 in his hometown of Junction City, after which Chuck Stevens became the oldest living player in Major League Baseball.

literature

• Halberstam, David (2003). The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship. New York: Hyperion. P. 3. ISBN 1-4013-0057-X .
• Cataneo, David (2002). I Remember Ted Williams: Anecdotes and Memories of Baseball's Splendid Splinter by the Players and People Who Knew Him. Cumberland House Publishing. P. 11. ISBN 1581822499 .
• Scoggins, Chaz (2006). Game of My Life: Boston Red Sox. Sports Publishing, LLC. P. 10. ISBN 1582619921 .

Web links

Commons : Bobby Doerr  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Player information and statistics from Baseball Reference  or  Fangraphs  or  Baseball Reference (Minor League) (English)
• Biography of Bobby Doerr (English)
• Bobby Doerr in the Hall of Fame (English)

Footnotes & individual references

1. ↑ Red Sox legend Bobby Doerr dies at 99 , accessed on November 26, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b} The Sporting News All-Stars (English), accessed on November 29, 2017
3. ↑ Bobby Doerr, Red Sox 'Hall of Fame second baseman, dies at 99 ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed November 26, 2017 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Bobby Doerr dies at 99, second baseman for and 'silent captain' of Boston Red Sox in 1940s , accessed November 27, 2017
5. ↑ Star-News of June 2, 1950, p. 12, heading: Many Stars Suffer From Bad Slumps
6. ↑ Boston Red Sox 29, St. Louis Browns 4 at retrosheet.org, accessed November 29, 2017
7. ↑ Bobby Doerr ended his career in 1951 with 1,247 RBIs, but Ted Williams surpassed this value in the course of the 1951 game year
8. ↑ ^{a b} Fenway Park hits 100 years as Red Sox's legend Bobby Doerr returns home , accessed on November 29, 2017
9. ↑ Old-timers return for Fenway's 100th birthday , accessed on November 29, 2017
10. ^ Lou Lucier dies at 96 , accessed November 29, 2017
11. ↑ Bobby Doerr, 99, Red Sox Hall of Fame Second Baseman, Is Dead , accessed November 29, 2017