Joe Dobson's Baseball Career
from Baseball Historian.com

Joe Dobson - Pitcher Right-handed - 6ft, 2inch, 185lbs - An outstanding pitcher with pinpoint control, Dobson used his sharp-breaking curve ball to mystify AL hitters. He was one of the top pitchers of his day. He posted a sparkling 137-103 lifetime W/L record, hurled 22 career shutouts and pitched in over 2,000 innings.

Joe began his major league career in 1939 mainly as a relief pitcher with the Cleveland Indians. He was traded to Boston in 1941 and joined the starting rotation.

Armed with a sharp-breaking curve ball Dobson went a compelling 12-5 in '41, completing 7-of-18 starts, and pitched 134 1/3 innings in 27 games. In '42 he had a 11-9 record and a
3.30 ERA in 182 2/3 innings, pitched 3 shutouts, completed 10-of-23 starts and surrendered just 9 homers all season. His W/L record slipped to 7-11in '43, but he did post a fine 3.12 ERA and then spent the next two years in the military during the war.

At age 26, Joe spent the entire 1944 & 1945 seasons in the Military serving our country during World War II. Dobson returned to the Red Sox in 1946 and helped the team win the pennant by going 13-7, 3.24 ERA in 32 games, completing 9-of-24 starts with one shutout.

Joe's pitching carried the Red Sox into the 1946 World Series against the Cardinals. He hurled 12 2/3 scoreless inning in the World Series and winning Game 5 hurling a 4-hitter in leading Red Sox to a 6-3 victory. (the three Cardinal runs were unearned) 

The crafty, 6'2", 185-pounder curve ball specialist had a career best 18 wins in 1947, going 18-8 with a nice 2.95 ERA and scattered just 203 hits in 228 2/3 innings, striking out 110 batters while walking 73 and completed a career-best 15-of-31 starts, one shutout and picked up one save in two relief appearances. His resounding 18-8 record in 31 starts was the second highest winning percentage in the AL, .692 pct, trailing only Yankee ace Allie Reynolds.

From 1948-1950, Joe Dobson went 16-10, 14-12, and 15-10 and was then traded to the Chicago White Sox 1951

The control pitcher was 7-6 for the White Sox in '51 and helped the team with a fine 14-10, 2.51 ERA in '52, fanning 101 batters while issuing only 60 walks, and allowing just 164 hits in 200 2/3 innings, pitched three shutouts and completed 11-of-25 starts. He pitched 100 1/3 innings for the ChicSox in '53 and was 5-5 W/L.

Joe Dobson career: 137-103 record, 3.62 ERA, 414G, 273GS, 112GC, 22 Shutouts, 18 Saves, 2048 Hits in 2,170 IP, 992Ks, 851 Walks and a fine .250 opponents batting
average.

From Ted William's Book  "My Turn at Bat"

Now, the second thing that worked in my favor that year was an injury. I had chipped a
bone in my ankle sliding into second base about the second week of spring training and
for the first two weeks of the season I did nothing but pinch-hit. The early season was
never my time of year anyway. It's cold in Boston, you have a lot of chilling, adverse
hitting winds. I never hit as well in cold weather as I did in dead of the summer. Never.
And, and, we had gotten Joe Dobson from Cleveland in a trade.

Dobson wasn't pitching regularly for us, so every day we'd go out and he'd throw me
batting practice. We'd make games out of it -- "OK, Joe, ninth inning at Detroit, bases
loaded, two out," and so forth. I got the most batting practice of my life, and the best,
because Dobson had a hell of a curve and a good overhand fastball, and he always bore
down. Every day that his arm would hold out, and the blisters on my hands would hold
out, we'd go out there like it was all out war, one-on-one.

Well, for me it was great fun, and I was about as sharp as I could ever be. My hands
were good and callused. First I'd get the blisters, then the calluses would start growing,
real big, hard ugly calluses. I'd bet if you checked today you'd find most hitters don't
develop calluses like they used to. They wear golf gloves, and they don't hit that much.
So I began to pinch-hit, and almost everything I touched was a line drive. When I finally
got back into the lineup, the weather had turned warm, and I mean I got off to a flying
start.