Tag: Johnny Pesky

Celebrating Red Sox Great Bobby Doerr

Bobby Doerr graced the field with all-around excellence and carried himself with supreme dignity on and off the field.  The Red Sox great and long-time fan favorite died at the age of 99 last November. At the time of hs death, Doerr was the oldest living Hall of Famer.

Doerr played his entire 14-year Major League career with the Red Sox from 1937-1951, missing the 1945 season to military service during World War II. Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam chronicled the longtime friendship between Doerr and fellow Red Sox legends Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Dominic DiMaggio in his well-received 2003 book Teammates.  The tight bond between Doerr and Williams started in 1936 as teammates for San Diego of the Pacific Coast League, where both were discovered during the same scouting trip by Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. A year later, Doerr began his big league career at the age of 19.

There is a bit of a mystery surrounding Doerr’s first baseball card.  Most collectors and baseball historians refer to Doerr’s rookie card as the 1936 Goudey Premium, but the sturdy second baseman did not play his first major league game until 1937.  Although there is no specific date on the card back, the 1936 Goudey series, originally distributed in Canada, was most likely issued in 1937, possibly 1938. No matter the year issued, decent graded versions of the Doerr Goudey Premium rookie sells for $750.

By 1940, Doerr was a key member of a potent Red Sox lineup that included Williams, Jimmie Foxx, and Joe Cronin.  The man Williams called “the silent leader” hit a robust .291 with 22 homers and 105 RBI — impressive numbers for a second baseman of any time period.  Doerr’s 1940 Play Ball baseball card is a favorite among vintage Red Sox collectors, selling in excess of $100 in decent condition. Baseball cards issued more than 75 years ago lack the glitz and glitter of modern day cards, but the Play Ball series is renowned for its picturesque and simplistic settings.

Back woes forced Doerr from the game following the 1951 season.  A nine-time All-Star, Doerr smacked 223 home runs for his career, the third highest total for a second baseman at the time of his retirement.  He also accumulated 1,247 RBI while producing batting .288 and slugging .461 for his career. He also ranks in the top 10 among Red Sox players all-time in many offensive categories, including game, runs, singles, doubles, triples, home runs, RBI, extra base hits, and total bases.

Defensively, Doerr was one of the top fielding second baseman of his time, leading American League second baseman in fielding percentage six times and in double plays five times.  He once held the AL record for most consecutive chances at second base without an error.

In addition to being a great ballplayer, Doerr also an avid baseball memorabilia and autograph collector.  His most prized possessions — Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Williams autographed bats — were gathered as a player.  After his playing days, Doerr accumulated autographed photos, balls, and bats from all-time greats such as Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Moe Berg, and Foxx at baseball functions and Hall of Fame ceremonies in Cooperstown.  

Doerr was also a gracious autograph signer during and after his baseball career.  He would even respond to autograph requests through old fashioned mail correspondence.  Most Red Sox memorabilia collectors have a Doerr autograph or two tucked away for safekeeping.  For me, the non-glossy, smudge-free 1986 Donruss Highlights card celebrating Doerr’s Hall of Fame enshrinement was the perfect card to send through the mail for an autograph.

Doerr was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 by the HOF Veterans Committee that included Williams.  Two years later, Doerr saw his No.1 jersey retired by the Red Sox, which is now displayed on the Fenway Park right field facade alongside the numbers of Williams, Pesky, and other Red Sox greats.

 

David Oritz Makes Us Remember Legendary Slugger Jimmie Foxx

As David Ortiz climbs the charts among baseball’s all-time great sluggers, we see the name Jimmie Foxx appear in the record books over and over again, but for some reason Ole Double-X is seldom discussed. Dubbed “The Beast” because of his powerful right-handed swings, Foxx was one of the most underappreciated players in baseball and sports collectibles history.

Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez once proclaimed, “When Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, he and his space scientists were puzzled by an unidentifiable white object. I immediately knew what it was. That was the home run ball hit off me in 1937 by Jimmie Foxx.”

Foxx equaled or surpassed the production of nearly every slugger not named Babe Ruth, but he his rarely mentioned among baseball immortals such as Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle et al — and the demand for his baseball cards lag considerably behind baseball’s most revered sluggers.

Foxx hit at least 30 home runs and tallied 100 or more RBI from 1929 with the Philadelphia Athletics to 1940, his fifth season with the Red Sox. His 20-year total of 534 home runs ranked second to Ruth for many years. His 58 home runs in 1932 fell just two short of Ruth’s single-season record. Interestingly, two home runs were taken away from Foxx because of rain and 10 more were lost because of newly constructed outfield screens in Cleveland, St. Louis, and Philadelphia that were not erected until after Ruth hit 60. So if the baseball stars were properly aligned in 1932, Barry Bonds would have eclipsed the magical number of 70 set by Foxx.

While serving as the Red Sox first baseman, Foxx quickly learned to take advantage of the cozy confines in front of Fenway Park’s famed Green Monster. In his first three seasons with the Red Sox, he hit 41, 36, and 50 homers respectively.

Yankee Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey said of Foxx’s ridiculous power, “If I were catching blindfolded, I would always know it was Foxx who connected. He hit the ball harder than anyone else.”

The toughest Foxx baseball card to find in reasonable condition is the 1934 Goudey (#1). First cards of vintage sets received the brunt of the rubber band damage that decimated so many ’50s and ’60s baseball cards. A handful of PSA-8 versions exist, selling for $8,200, a remarkable buy considering ’34 Goudey PSA-8 Gehrig cards command as much as $15,000.

Foxx, provided Boston with their first bona-fide star since Ruth was sold to the Yankees in 1919. Double XX set Red Sox records for home runs (50) and RBI (175) during his 1938 MVP season. More than just a slugger, Foxx won the Triple Crown in 1933 and excelled defensively, primarily as a first baseman, but also as a catcher, third baseman, and outfielder.

Foxx was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951, but strangely there has been little or no protest over the Red Sox failure to retire his number. Surely someone who is mentioned in the same breathe as Ruth and Gehrig deserves the same elite status as Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Johnny Pesky, Carlton Fisk and Wade Boggs in Red Sox annals.

Playing his only season with the Red Sox in 2006, infielder Mark Loretta told the Boston Herald that “Foxx never received the credit he deserved for being one of the game’s all-time great sluggers.” Loretta honored Foxx by wearing number 3. Foxx, who played 20 seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics (1925-35), Red Sox (1936-42), Chicago Cubs (1942 and 1944) and Philadelphia Phillies (1945), is arguably the best slugger not to have his uniform retired by any team.

Modern day cards of Foxx are somewhat limited, but affordable. His 2005 Upper Deck Trilogy Bat displays a vintage photo of Foxx in his Philadelphia Athletics uniform with a piece of an actual Foxx baseball bat embedded into the card can be had for under $45 — a great buy for limited card serial numbered to just 99.