Doerr was certainly the best second baseman in the AL during the 1940's and might well have been in the 1950's if a back injury didn't force his retirement following the 1951 season. He finished his career with 2,042 hits for a .288 lifetime batting average with 223 home runs and 1,247 RBIs. There were no Gold Gloves in those days but he likely would have had a bushel full. Doerr was named to 9 AL All-Star Teams.
Of course, Doerr never got to be a part of a World Series winner though he played in the 1946 Fall Classic against the Cardinals and was also part of Dick Willliams' coaching staff with the Impossible Dream Team of 1967 who also fell to the Redbirds in seven games. Doerr is credited for converting Carl Yastrzemski into the power hitter who would win the Triple Crown that year. However, Doerr would resign from the Red Sox coaching staff in protest of Williams' firing in the middle of the 1969 season. Doerr would be the inaugural hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays serving in that role from 1977 to 1981.
Doerr was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1986. Later that year, the team would retire his number. He was the third Red Sox player to be so honored after Ted Williams and Joe Cronin.
I strongly recommend David Halberstam's Teammates which documents Ted Williams' last days with Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Doerr. Unfortunately, Doerr's wife was ailing and he could not make the pilgrimage down to Florida to see The Splendid Splinter. Doerr would be the quartet's last surviving member as Pesky passed away in 2012 not long after the two appeared at the 100th anniversary commemoration of Fenway Park.
Above is Doerr's Hall of Fame acceptance speech.
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