Bobby Doerr

Bobby Doerr died yesterday at age 99. That's a name now known to only the most hard-core baseball fans--he played with the Red Sox through the 1940s, along with Ted Williams, and was a gifted second-baseman, and a pretty good hitter. He was also, until he died, the oldest member of the Hall of Fame (he was inducted in 1986).

Heck, he was the oldest Major League player, period. Others have lived longer, but at the moment he was the oldest. He was the last player living who played in the 1930s (there are two others, not in the Hall of Fame, who are still alive after playing before World War II).

Of course I never saw Bobby Doerr play, but the evidence is clear that he was a great player. His batting stats were impressive but not super-duper: he hit .300 seven times, and batted in over 100 six times. But his defense at second base is what earned him the plaque in Cooperstown. He was said to have "soft hands," which is compliment for a second baseman, in that they soak up balls and rarely muff them. In fact, he set records for consecutive chances and games without an error.

In case you're wondering, the new oldest Hall of Famer is Red Schoendienst, another second-baseman with soft hands. In second place is Tommy LaSorda, the Dodger manager, who just turned 90, followed by Whitey Ford at 89. Baseball players are, on the average, very long-lived, much longer than football or basketball players. I'm sure it's because they do not take repeated blows to the head, and they are not freakishly tall, which tends to be a life shortener.

The Red Sox of those years were notoriously snake-bit, just as they would be for another sixty years. They came closest in 1946, when they made the World Series (their first since 1918) and lost to the Cardinals in seven games. The winning run for the Cards in game seven came when Enos Slaughter scored from first base on a single. Bosox shortstop Johnny Pesky momentarily held the ball to allow Slaughter to score. The Red Sox wouldn't be back to the World Series until 1967, and wouldn't win one until 2004. They've won twice since then, and Bobby Doerr was around to see it.