He held the big league record for lifetime double plays at second base (1,507) until Nellie Fox broke it in 1963, and he had the major league record for career fielding percentage (.980) until Red Schoendienst overtook him in 1953; Fox broke the AL record in 1956.
At second base, Doerr finished seventh in career games (1,852), putouts (4,928), total chances (10,852), and sixth in assists (5,710). He set Red Sox marks for games played (1,865), at-bats (7,093), hits (2,042), doubles (381), total bases (3,270), and runs batted in (1,247), all of which were eventually beaten by Ted Williams, his lifelong comrade.
His 223 home runs were third among big league second basemen at the time, while his 1,247 RBI ranked fifth. Doerr was the son of Harold Doerr, a telephone company supervisor, and his wife, Frances Herrnberger; his middle name was a nod to General John J. Pershing, the leader of US armed troops during World War I at the time.
After starting his professional career with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League in 1934, he graduated from Fremont High School in Los Angeles in 1936. Doerr made his big league debut at the age of 19 in 1937, going 3 for 5 in his first game.
In 1938, he joined a potent Red Sox lineup that included Jimmie Foxx, Joe Cronin, and Dom DiMaggio as a regular. Doerr was frequently called upon to bunt early in his career, and he was so good at it that he led the league with 22 in 1938.
Doerr began a streak of 12 consecutive seasons with 10 or more home runs and 73 or more runs batted in in 1939, Ted Williams' rookie season with the Sox; in 1940, the Red Sox became the 12th team in major league history to have four players with 100 RBI, with Foxx, Williams, Cronin, and Doerr each collecting at least 105.
Doerr topped the league in slugging percentage in 1944. In the same year, he finished second in the league with a.325 hitting average, two percentage points behind Lou Boudreau of the Cleveland Indians.
The Sporting News named him the American League's Most Valuable Player, despite the fact that he placed seventh in voting for the AL MVP Award, appearing on just 13 of 24 ballots and getting only a third-place vote. Doerr was stationed at Camp Roberts, California, in the Army during World War II and missed the 1945 season.
Doerr was an offensive powerhouse for the Red Sox in 1946, when they won their first pennant since 1918, driving in 116 runs despite a.271 batting average and finishing third in MVP voting (won by Williams). In the 1946 World Series defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals, he hit.409 with a home run and three RBIs.
Williams referred to Doerr as the Red Sox's "quiet captain." Doerr hit for the cycle twice in his career, once in a 12–18 defeat to the St. Louis Browns in the second game of a doubleheader on May 17, 1944, and once in a 19–16 victory against the Chicago White Sox on May 13, 1947.
He led the league in triples with 11 in 1950, and he hit three home runs in a 29–24 win over the Browns on June 8 of that year. Doerr established an American League record in 1948 by handling 414 chances in a row over 73 games without making an error.
He was regarded as one of the best defensive second basemen of his age, with observers split between him and Joe Gordon of the rival New York Yankees. Doerr had three seasons in which he batted over.300 and six seasons in which he had at least 100 runs batted in.
He never played a game other than second base and retired at the age of 33 due to a back injury in September 1951 with 8,028 plate appearances, 1,094 runs, 89 triples, 809 walks, 1,349 singles, 1,184 runs created, 693 extra-base hits, 2,862 times on base, 115 sacrifice hits, and nine All-Star Game selections.
He had a.315 average with 145 home runs at Fenway Park, compared to a.261 average with 78 HRs on the road. In 1986, Doerr was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He's been a resident of Oregon since the late 1930s, spending much of his time in the Agness area until migrating to Junction City in the 1950s.
On May 21, 1988, the Red Sox retired his number one uniform. Since then, Doerr has maintained a pretty low-key existence in Junction City. He travels to Cooperstown, New York, every year for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and while he's at home, he often fishes for huge game fish.
Doerr married Monica Terpin on October 24, 1938, and the couple had one son; their marriage lasted 65 years until she died on December 17, 2003, at the age of 88, following a series of strokes. Doerr was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 29, 2007, after the induction of Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn.
Bobby Doerr Day was held on August 2, 2007, at Fenway Park, when he drove around the warning track in a vehicle, threw out the first pitch, and delivered a speech.
Doerr became the oldest surviving player in the Baseball Hall of Fame with the death of former New York Yankee Phil Rizzuto in August 2007, however, Lee MacPhail, a member for his achievements as an administrator, is older.
