Click photo for Number One's Stats

A clutch hitter and a clutch fielder, Bobby Doerr could bunt and hit anywhere in the batting order, leading in the rbi column when he was forced to retire....

Saturday 24 March 2018

still my role model at 99

Attending my first baseball game, the opening game of the season, time was about to enter into my memory when Bobby Doerr hit a triple high off the famous wall in left field.

The crowd booed the pitcher, Joe Page, who was brought in to pitch to Doerr. I wanted to know why and the adult who brought me said he hit Doerr with a pitch last season. Known as a outstanding relief pitcher, I later doubted this explanation, but at the time bought it sympathetically hook line and sinker. I was already on Bobby's side even before he bounced the reliever's pitch off the green monster and tagged up at third. I learned he was a veteran, likely approaching thirty at the time. I respected and was very sympathetic to veterans.


What a great focus for my admiration he was! When he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame I was so ecstatic I thought I was in the hall myself right along with him. Enos Slaughter said that he was a person who played the game hard, but left with no enemies. Bobby turned out to be a clutch hitter who was a class act, and a fantastic fielder. His moves were so smooth and beautiful to watch, even handling a routine double play. His double plays got many a Sox pitcher, like old Rubber Arm Kinder, out of trouble.

Bobby never contested umpire's calls. He was a class act all around. I followed his batting average every single day in the papers. I loved my hero Bobby Doerr. When he retired because of a bad back my interest in the game drastically changed. At the time Bobby had more runs batted in than Ted Williams and I was going to graduate from high school.