The passing of Bobby Doerr, who was baseball's oldest living player and Hall of Famer at the age 99, makes me think of the man currently playing second base for the Boston Red Sox.
To be precise, will Dustin Pedroia one day join Doerr in the Cooperstown. Doerr was granted entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986 through the Veterans' Committee.
Doerr's career ended somewhat prematurely due to a back injury at the age of 33 at the end of the 1951 season. He collected 2,042 hits for a .288 lifetime batting average with 223 HR and 1247 RBI along with 9 AL All-Star team selections.
Pedroia turned 34 this past August and has now played 12 big league seasons compared to 14 with Doerr. Entering 2018, Pedroia has collected 1,802 hits for a lifetime batting average of .300 with 140 HR and 724 RBI. Petey has been selected to four AL All-Star Teams and his earned three Gold Gloves for his defensive work.
Doerr certainly has a big edge in production. He drove in 100 or more runs six times in his career while Pedroia has never had a 100 RBI season. But Petey does have an AL MVP under his belt and two World Series rings. If Petey were to retire today he would be a borderline case much like Doerr. But Pedroia does have an outside shot at collecting 3,000 hits. But given Petey's propensity for injury I doubt he will get there. But if he maintains a .300 average, gets around 2,500 hits and wins another Gold Glove and a World Series ring then I think he would supplant Doerr as the greatest second baseman in Red Sox history and it would be hard to keep Pedroia out of Cooperstown. He wouldn't be a first ballot Hall of Famer, but I don't think it would take the Veterans Committee to put him in.
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