Editor's Note: This is the fourth column in an off-season series detailing the best Red Sox players from A-Z, one letter at a time. Each column includes tidbits about some of the players whose last names start with the respective letter, not all of the players. At the end of the series, I will compose the list and you can vote on the all-time Red Sox team. To review the previous columns, go to the Categories section on the right side of the site and click on "Best Red Sox Players: A-Z."
After the hurricane announcement of Mark Teixeira signing with the Yankees, all is quiet again in the Hot Stove League. Boston media reports indicate that the Red Sox are still talking to Scott Boras about Jason Varitek, but otherwise it seems that agents and front office members alike have taken a Christmas break. With this in mind, today seems like an ideal time to continue my Best Red Sox Players: A-Z series. This post features Red Sox players whose last name starts with "D."
The best all-time Red Sox player whose last name starts with "D" is subject for debate. No, it's not Johnny Damon. Far from it. Bobby Doerr, who Ted Williams called the silent captain of the Red Sox, and Dominic DiMaggio, who would have been better known if not for his more famous brother, Joe DiMaggio, are the candidates. Doerr is my selection.
Doerr, who at 90 is the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was a second baseman who played his entire career with the Red Sox (1937-1951). In a way, Dustin Pedroia is a lot like Doerr, who was one of the best defensive second basemen of his era and a .288 career average with 223 home runs. Much like Johnny Pesky, Doerr has spent much of his life with the organization. He was also a scout for the team, and was Boston's first base coach in the Impossible dream season of 1967.
Before retiring at the age of 33, Doerr hit .300 or better three times and knocked in 100 or more runs six times. He never played another position other than second base. Doerr, whose number 1 is retired, was named the American League Player of the Year by the Sporting News in 1944, when he batted .325 (second to Cleveland's Lou Boudreau), had 15 home runs and 81 RBI and led the AL with a .529 slugging percentage. Interestingly, he finished seventh in AL MVP balloting that year, receiving no higher than a third place vote. A likable guy, Doerr was signed by Eddie Collins on the same scouting trip that produced Williams. Not a bad week for the Red Sox.
In the next two weeks, Jim Rice will learn if he is selected for induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame in his last chance before his name is sent to the Veterans Committee. Rice deserves enshinement in Cooperstown. Another former Red Sox outfielder who deserves consideration (from the Veterans Committee) is Dom DiMaggio, who patrolled center field for the Red Sox during the same era that Doerr played second base.
Nicknamed the Little Professor for his eyeglasses and his 5-foot-9 frame, DiMaggio spent 10 full seasons in the major leagues, all with the Red Sox. He missed three seasons (1943-1945) while serving in the Coast Guard during World War II. A member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, DiMaggio was a speedy leadoff hitter whose career average was .298. His 34-game hitting streak in 1949 remains a team record. While Joe DiMaggio was known for his bat (though he was a proficient defensive center fielder, too), Dom DiMaggio was regarded as an exceptional defensive center fielder. His career batting numbers alone do not warrant Hall of Fame consideration (.298, 87 home runs), but just like Ozzie Smith earned his way to Cooperstown with his glove, DiMaggio should get the same recognition.
Red Sox players whose last name starts with "D" include a future Hall of Famer at the end of his career in Andre Dawson (who played in Boston in 1993 and 1994), a third baseman who wore a red Sox uniform in 1922 and later became a key member of the 1927 Yankees (Joe Dugan), and one of my favorites (Brian Daubach, who primarily played first base from 1998-2002). Though Damon forever ruined his Red Sox legacy by signing with the Yankees a year after he emphatically told the media he would never wear pinstripes, you cannot discont his role in helping end the curse in 2004.
You might have already been familiar with Doerr and Dom DiMaggio, but perhaps you have never heard of Walt Dropo. A towering man at 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Dropo was the son of parents who moved to the United States from Yugoslavia. He turned down an offer to play for the Chicago Bears and signed with the Red Sox in 1947. Dropo's major league debut was nothing special. He batted .146 in 41 at-bats with no home runs and one RBI in 1949. The next year, though, he erupted for one of the best all-time rookie seasons of any major league player when he ripped 34 home runs, knocked in an AL-best 144 runs and hit .322.
Dropo was named AL Rookie of the Year in 1950, but he broke his wrist the next season and never matched the numbers he produced in his first full year. He was traded to Detroit in 1952 and played for the Tigers, White Sox, Reds and Orioles before retiring in 1961.
Boston area native Manny Delcarmen and right fielder J.D. Drew are the current Red Sox players whose last name starts with "D." Delcarmen has the tools to become one of the better set-up men in baseball - if he can figure out how to consistently throw strikes. As for Drew, though he continues to miss games here and there with nagging injuries, he has justified his five-year, $70 million deal by delivering in the 2007 and 2008 post-seasons, and carrying the Red Sox last July when David Ortiz went down with a wrist injury. With Drew, Jason Bay, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and a healthy Mike Lowell and Ortiz, the Red Sox should have not trouble producing runs in 2009.
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