Dave Ferriss

Link to Bobby and Dave Boo Ferrriss, pitcher. 

https://msfame.com/ferriss-and-bobby-doerr-teammates-for-life/

Ferriss and Bobby Doerr: Teammates for life

Posted on: February 11,2014

Baseball Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr reads from Boo Ferriss’s biography, as his son, Don Doerr, and David Pesky, son of the late Johnny Pesky, look on.

Baseball Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr and Mississippi and Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Boo Ferriss, teammates for life, form a two-man mutual admiration society.
They have much to admire.
Doerr, 95, and Ferriss, 92, are the two living members of the 1946 Boston Red Sox American League champions, who finished 104-50, finishing 12 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers and a whopping 17 games in front of the New York Yankees.
Said Ferriss of Doerr: “He’s one of the absolute best people I ever met, so genuine, such a great friend.”
Doerr batted .409 in the 1946 World Series, which the Red Sox lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. In Ferriss’s third game shutout of the Cardinals, Doerr set a World Series record for assists.
Here’s what Ferriss said of Doerr in his 2008 biography: “…we had Bobby Doerr, the picture book second baseman. Bobby made all the plays and was just so graceful. As great a player as he was, he’s an even better person, so genuine, so level-headed, so solid. I used to watch infield practice and just marvel at him. Ted (Williams) always called him the Red Sox’ ‘silent captain,’ and I agree. He was a quiet guy who led by example. And he could hit for power. The guy had 284 Major League home runs playing second base. Even in today’s game you don’t see many second basemen do that.”

The great Boo Ferriss.

And here’s what Doerr said of Boo Ferriss for the back cover of the 2008 biography, “Boo Ferriss is one of the most classy people I have ever been around in baseball. If he hadn’t hurt his shoulder, there’s no doubt he would have been a Baseball Hall of Famer, but he has always remained a Hall of Fame person. Young people can learn so much about how to live their lives from reading a book about Boo Ferriss.”
Doerr was playing second base behind Ferriss in Cleveland on July 11, 1947, when Ferriss threw the pitch that would change his life and the immediate future of the Boston Red Sox. In the book, Doerr says he had no idea Ferriss had hurt his shoulder so badly with an overhand curve ball in the bottom of the seventh inning. Somehow, Ferriss stayed in the game and completed a 1-0 shutout. Doerr hit a home run for the Red Sox only run.
The next day, Ferriss couldn’t lift his arm above shoulder level. His pitching arm was never the same. Doerr believes the Red Sox would have won several more pennants had it not been for Ferriss’s shoulder injury that curtailed one of the most promising pitching careers in baseball history.
“…there’s no telling how many pennants we would have won,” Doerr said. “I think we would have won in ’48, ’49 and ’50.”
Ferriss and Doerr have remained close through the years, even though Doerr lives in Junction City, Oregon, approximately 2,500 miles away from Ferriss’s Cleveland home.
The two have been together for several Red Sox reunions and Boo and Miriam Ferriss have visited Doerr in Oregon. They drove to Cooperstown, NY.,  for Doerr’s 1986 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Doerr and Boo Ferriss last saw one another at Bobby Doerr Day at Fenway Park in 2007, but they talk on the phone often.
Says Ferriss, “It’s always a treat to talk to Bobby.”
And, as so many in Mississippi know, it’s always a treat to talk to Boo Ferriss.
•••

 

Ted Williams SLG, Slugging Percentage

 Ted Williams, .634 is second only to Babe Ruth's .690 in all time slugging percentage. Gehrig .632 is third. Jimmie Foxx, .609, is fourth. These are four fabulous ball players. (Gehrig was 38?when he died and Ted missed five prime years in the military.) Bobby Doerr SLG in 1944 was.528 and .461 career. Like the Yankee Tommy Heinrich, Doerr was consistent and hit in the clutch, as did Heinrich.

Bobby Doerr's Hall of Fame Plaque

 

Days when players stayed with their team

 As a kid it never occurred to me that Ted or Bobby would ever play for the Yankees or for any  other team wharever. Babe Ruth was not in my memory. I asked the pastor if I could go as I knew he had complementary tickets, as it turned out, to the opening game of the season. Joe DiMaggio was supposed to play and the announcement whether he would or not was going to be withheld intil game time. Of course he wouldn"t because of his heel.  

So as the game started the adult, a Sunday Svhool teacher, with me pointed down close to the field where we sat on the first base side, "there's where we would be sitting with the pastor's tickets".  No one told me how much my mother was to give me to bring that about. I"ll never forget his name or the stupid coloring books they gave us. The second year I complained, they sent me, mifted, to be with the "men". Another nail in my lititle atheist coffin.  

So Joe Page, a good Yankee reliefer, came in to pitch to Bobby Doerr and the crowd booed. I asked why and was told Page beaned Doerr last year. Seemed logical to me at the time, since time was not yet all that familiar to me yet. 

Well, Bobby bounced the next pitch off the green monster. I experienced a great thrill over that and he became my favorite player. I followed him in the papers and the sports cartoons of Bob Coyne. When he went into the ZHOLY of Fame in 1986, you would have thought I went myself.

I became known as a rabid Doerr fan and was offered a bet, this in the tenth grade, that he would not get five hits in tomorrow'so game. I grabbed it, but Bobby only got four hits the next day. I was so elated I gave him his quarter in great elation.  

Bunting in the clutch.....

When opportunities arose, Bobby could not only set down a perfect bunt, but steal a few bases as well when called upon. He hit for the cycle twice, which event seems a bit of an oddity to me as cycles don't earn anything special. I thought he could do almost anything as far as that went.

I used to throw a ball against our garage doors endlessly, wearing impressions in the drivewsy. As a youngster Bobby talked about doing the same thing. That became my connection,

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.

Spahn and Sain and pray for rain

There are several instances which struck me as to the accuracy of technically exact language as against the spiritually abstract view of any event. This is highlighted in the Spahn and Sain saying often attributed to Billy Southworth of the Boston Braves when he named his starting pitchers for the next day's doubleheader.

It, if I recall inside my version, was not said by Billy at all but rather by a sports writer in his column. And, it was not worded exactly like that at all. Bottom line however, is that the final wording no matter how it arrived was better than the actual technically correct version.

This happens over and over, one could recount examples all day. So which is the best? The abstract one often seen in the distant past that creates the spiritually correct wording that far exceeds the actual recorded words? The ancient historical writers could capture the most memorable incidents several years after an event, more so than a concretely correct recording. The latter version was often cluttered with minutiae that clouded rather than providing any clear explanation of an event.

Numbers, when quoted by the ancients were not exact either. Forty meant a lot of days, not exactly forty. The spirit is always the more accurate and cutting science off from the spiritual limited the gaining of new knowledge from the previously unknown. In these later day however, there is some evidence that science and religion is coming closer. It was a blow when they separated that may be healed in future days, if there are any.

pentulant pants crybabys

Never was comfortable with a ball player kicking sand on an umpire's shoes. You cannot play the game and be an umpire too. I never heard of Bobby contesting a call, whining and throwing a tantrum over a bad call. It was said of him that he played hard and left the game with no enemies. He was class in every department.

running is a basic function of any sport

If you ever notice Charles Barkley running back up the court away from your vantage point, you have to notice how artfully he runs. He is moving like everyone else but with more grace. Bobby Doerr's moves were so well coordinated it was an exhilarating experience just watching him move over to scoop up a routine ground ball. Like Barkley he sort of flowed with events to connect them all together.

five trips to the bat?

I enjoy reading about the games after they are over. To this day cannot see the rationale of attending a game. I followed the Red Sox daily, checking Bobby's averages. One of my good memories is betting a quarter Bobby would get five hits in that day's game. Next day could not contain myself. Out came the quarter! Bobby got four hits in four trips to the bat! Never tire of that story.

the sound of a Ted Williams home run

It was 1960 at the time, I even had to look it up. After all Bobby had long retired, and Ted was playing forever. It never occured to me at the time that he was 42 years old and he was batting .318 with 310 AB in 113 games. Time has a way of fooling you. I didn't even see him swing, the ball park was not packed. This is another advantage to Fenway Park experienced when it is not packed, which was somewhat common years ago. Suddenly there was a CRACK! It rung through my head, I can hear it right now, and sitting in the right field pavillion saw the ball go by me, easily seen against the green background as it travelled horizontally into the outfield and up into the lower right field stands. Well it was just another home run, he hit plenty of those. It never occured to me it would be his last year and I would ever think of it again. When Bobby Doerr went to Oregon my intense daily interest in baseball was over. Ted hit under .300 only once his entire career. His slugging percentage lifetime puts him behind Ruth and in front of Gehrig. One, two, three. 

Boston Americans 1901

Early baseball shows us, when you think about it, how impossible it is to compare different eras. Players dominate their era and then that era is gone. Cy Young, second row third from the left,  is in this photo and he dominated his era but his pitching trophy lives on. The Boston Americans changed their name to Red Sox,

Bob Coyne, baseball cartoonist

I was a newspaper clipping junkie before computers wishing now I could thumb through the baseball cartoons of Bob Coyne, who drew pen and ink drawings, many of which are in the Hall of Fame. Now a lost art form prominent before television, he usually drew a big block of small cartoons in the Boston Post. Also I believe in the Herald American, they traced the events in the previous day's game in a large box of smaller drawings in the sports section. I can see now in my mind's eye a drawing of Bobby Doerr flipping the ball over his shoulder depicting the start of another great double play. Coyne, 78, died in 1975 and I see his cartoons are still sought after in the auction houses.

the most perfect sport

The most perfect sport should not depend on a player's size, all sizes should be able to participate. In baseball the big and the small have equal advantages. The big is strong and the small is quick. This is why many shortstops are not huge people. The perfect sport should highlight the individual as well as the team. Baseball pits the batter against the pitcher and then he must deal with the entire team if he gets a hit. So here the team is involved as well as the individual. The game should depend more on skill rather than physical attributes just as baseball does. A perfect wedding between the individual and the team, baseball is the most perfect sport.

Vern Stephens Memorial

Many a time your double play work got a Red Sox pitcher out of trouble. You were a good hitter also. I haven't forgotten how good you were.

- Spencer G Corkum
Added: Mar. 16, 2004

See Find a Grave link for Vern Stephens, lifetime batting average 286. He was power hitting shortstop nominated to the Hall in 2009. Vern and Bobby, had three outstanding years together, what an infield!

clutch baseball

I always admired the play of Tommy Heinrich because I thought he was a clutch hitter. Some hits are just more important than others and they are linked to the team winning. Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. These people cannot relate to clutch players because the statistics do not easily reflect clutch play. Bobby, as I watched him in action, always seemed to be getting the Sox out of deep trouble with an unexpected double play no one saw coming. His moves were wonderful to watch. He got rid of the ball so quick for the second out and he looked good doing it no matter what awkward position it took to snare the ball. It all looked natural somehow, as if he was in perfect balance despite everything. He was the same hitting. My memories remember a desperate need to score Pesky from third in Yankee Stadium, the house that the Red Sox Ruth built for the New York fans. Bobby's back was bothering him and perhaps he did not think he could lift a sacrifice fly to bring the run across. So anyway, surprise! He laid down a perfect bunt and Pesky scored. That right there that was clutch hitting. Who was looking for a perfect bunt? When he retired shortly after that his rbi total was higher or very close to Ted's at that time.

lousy 280 hitter all your life

Ted gave Bobby hitting advice it is told and eventually Bobby responded, that he would just have to keep doing it his way. Whereupon an exasperated Ted said something like ok then be a lousy 280 hitter all your life. (Bobby would finish with 288.) But it seems Bobby gave some advice of his own and apparently to good effect.

"As Boston's unofficial batting instructor during 1967, Doerr worked with Carl Yastrzemski to convert the seven-year veteran from an opposite-field "doubles" hitter who had never before hit more than 20 homers in a season to a pull-hitting slugger who belted 44 home runs and won the Triple Crown and AL Most Valuable Player award that season." Wikipedia

hitting for the cycle

When I was young this might show you just how far in the tank for Bobby Doerr I really was. When Bobby hit for the cycle, his second time, I assumed he had hit four home runs because his face drawing came on the tv screen in white cartoon style after his fourth at bat which was a home run. I did not know about cycles so I thought it was four home runs instead of four hits each to a different base. Televisions then were black and white and installed in someone else's house. Don't forget when I grew up I bet a whole quarter in the tenth grade he would get five hits in the next day's game and he only got four. Even then it was a long time before I eventually found out instead of four home runs it was really his second time hitting for the cycle.

Doerr and Foxx

My information is largely hearsay, youngster recollection, and chance reading. Jimmie Foxx, who I never saw play, was like Bobby in that he never would bellyache a bad call. They never yakked it up with an umpire. I know some do it probably to get their team emotionally jacked up. I think it is childish and entertainment for the yahoos in the stands.

 It is nothing but adult tantrum. Billy Martin appeared to be a crybaby kicking sand on the umpires shoes. Did he really do that? The umpire is a part of the game of life. You are not playing with the umpire even if you are playing against him. It does not matter if he is wrong or not, you play the cards you are dealt.

 I learned that when I was young watching Bobby Doerr. I knew he was class even then. I thought he knew everything because he was a veteran and he was old. In my crowd we all knew that 30 was the ancient of days. Even so, at thirty I thought he would play forever. However I linked those two ideas together I can no longer fathom.

Antics of a rabid fan. . .

I followed the stats on the Red Sox every day following every at bat and the change in the averages. I was known as a rabid Bobby Doerr fan and was once egged on by a high school chum that Bobby would not get five hits in the next day's game. The next morning came the news that Bobby had hit four for four, as five hits would have required extra innings. I was so ecstatic that I joyfully gave him a quarter to cover my bet. That was how rabid I was and when 36 years later Bobby went into the Hall, I was so ecstatic I thought I had gone into the Hall with him.