Johnny Pesky isn't the greatest Red Sox player ever, but he is as good a man who has ever played the game. He has been there for every player wearing the uniform. If you see how he interacts with the team's young players, you can understand how important he is. Having dealt with him in a non-baseball way, he is one of the nicest people I have been around. He lacks the ego of today's players and is like anyone's grandfather. It will always please me to look up there and see his number.

Barring a rainout, today they are going to retire Pesky's #6. As a player, although good, Pesky wouldn't be the type of player the team would ordinarily retire his number for- but Pesky has been with the team since about 413 A.D ( with some time spent with other teams) as a player, coach, manager, etc, and you can see why they're retiring it. Pesky isn't a HOF'er, the team previously had a rule where only HOF'ers with 10 or more years with the club and while it doesn't bother me at all ( some idiots on our sports talk station WEEI were foolishly bugged by it) it does make you wonder if they'll retire Rice's 14 and possibly other numbers too. As a player, Pesky was a good singles hitter and a solid though unspectacular fielder.

A good batting average, on-base percentage shortstop and third baseman with minimal power and a decent glove, Pesky went on to manage the Sox briefly in the early 'sixties and again in an interim role after Don the Gerbil Zimmer got the gate.

He spent a fair bet of time in coaching role, and still hangs around in a kind of instructor/advisor role with the team despite being well into his eighties.

As a player, he is unfortunately remembered for something that probably never happened, "Pesky's Pause" that allowed Enos Slaughter to score from first on a double in the deciding game of the World Series. It is alleged that Pesky was slow to relay the ball to the plate to nail Slaughter, but a look at the film shows a bad throw coming in from center, Pesky having to crouch to get it, and then wheeling and throwing without pause.