Happy Birthday, Bobby Doerr

When I made my annual pilgrimage to Fenway last summer, I was in attendance for Bobby Doerr Day. Doerr is one of the greats, a Hall of Famer whose #1 is one of the few retired numbers for the Red Sox. His lifelong friendships with Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Ted Williams is the subject of one of my favorite books about the Sox, The Teammates by David Halberstam.

It was made clear throughout the ceremony that this would be Bobby's last visit to Fenway in any kind of an official capacity. He's 89, and not able to travel as easily from his home in Oregon. From Wikipedia:

Upon the death of former New York Yankee Phil Rizzuto in August 2007, Doerr became the oldest living player in the Baseball Hall of Fame..

Bobby threw out the first pitch, with Johnny Pesky close at his side. He was given a big HD TV so that he could continue to follow the Sox on NESN, and he mentioned that he was particularly excited about following our scrappy young second baseman, Dustin Pedroia!

He threw the pitch to Mike Timlin, one of the old vets on today's team - although there's no truth to the rumor that Mike actually played with Doerr.

So happy birthday to #1, Bobby Doerr. I hope this veteran's luck will carry us to another title in 2008. Because tomorrow is the Ring Ceremony!