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Well it's about time. They have a lot more numbers to retire.




Article URL: Red Sox to retire Johnny Pesky’s number - BostonHerald.com
Red Sox to retire Johnny Pesky’s number
By Steve Buckley | Tuesday, September 23, 2008 | Home - BostonHerald.com | Boston Red Sox

Photo by Matt Stone (File)
The Red Sox [team stats] are about to break with their longstanding policy regarding the retirement of uniform numbers. And longtime club fixture Johnny Pesky will be the first beneficiary.

According to a team source, meetings were held last night and again this morning to address how and when a player’s number should be retired. The team plans to hold a press conference today or tomorrow to announce the change in policy, with all signs pointing to the dramatic news that Pesky’s uniform No. 6 will be retired before the end of the regular season.

The timing is perfect: Given that Pesky’s 89th birthday is Saturday, it’s likely the ceremony will take place before the Sox’ nationally televised game against the New York Yankees.

To date, just five Red Sox players have had their numbers retired - Bobby Doerr (No. 1), Joe Cronin (No. 4), Carl Yastrzemski (No. 8), Ted Williams (No. 9) and Carlton Fisk (No. 27).

Additionally, the Red Sox in 1997 joined all other major-league teams in retiring No. 42 in memory of Jackie Robinson, who became the first African-American player in the modern era to play in the big leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

Pesky, who played seven full seasons with the Red Sox before being traded to Detroit early in the 1952 season, was a .307 lifetime hitter and had three 200-hit seasons.

He returned to Boston to manage the Red Sox in 1963 and 1964, and later served the club as a broadcaster, coach, special consultant and, for the past couple of decades, a sort of ambassador of goodwill who up until a couple of years ago was still banging out grounders prior to Sox home games.

He still makes daily trips to Fenway Park [map], and continues to have his own locker in the team’s clubhouse. He has lived on the North Shore since the 1940s. His wife, the late Ruth (Hickey) Pesky, was a native of Lynn.

It has long been speculated that Pesky might have been a Hall of Famer had he not lost three full seasons because of World War II. After exploding into prominence in 1942, hitting .331 in his rookie season with the Red Sox, he enlisted in the Navy Air Corps and did not return to the club until the pennant-winning season of 1946.

He was traded to the Detroit Tigers in June of 1952, and ended his playing career a year later with the original Washington Senators.

Pesky is known as the playeer who “held the ball” when St. Louis Cardinals speedster Enos “Country” Slaughter made his mad dash to score what would be the winning run in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series. However, modern-day baseball historians have long since debunked the “Pesky held the ball” theory, arguing that Pesky may have acted surprised when he turned toward the plate to see Slaughter running, but did not “hold the ball.” And anyway, even a perfect throw would not likely have caught Slaughter.

Pesky also holds the distinction of having Fenway’s right field foul pole named after him. It was Sox pitcher Mel Parnell who first used the term “Pesky’s Pole,” this because Pesky, a left-handed hitter, apparently had a habit of hitting home runs inside the pole. He hit just 17 home runs in his career, 13 with the Red Sox.

According to the team source, the Red Sox have long debated changing the standards a player must reach in order to have his number retired. The current policy, put in place by the previous ownership, holds that a player must be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, have played at least 10 years with the Red Sox, and have finished his career with the club.

Yet the Red Sox went against their own policy in 2000 when they retired the No. 27 of former catcher Carlton Fisk, even though Fisk ended his career with the Chicago White Sox. But rather than dump the policy when Fisk’s number was retired, the Red Sox simply announced that the catcher was returning to the club as a special assistant to general manager Dan Duquette and, thus, ending his career with the club.

However, Fisk is actually working for the White Sox again as an “ambassador,” meaning, to use the Red Sox’ own terminology, he has not “ended his career” with the team.

Pesky wore No. 22 when he managed the Red Sox, and No. 35 when he was a Red Sox coach in the 70s. He has returned to wearing No. 6 ever since, and in recent years the team has not issued the No. 6 to a player, in essence informally retiring it.

The last Red Sox player to wear No. 6 was Gary Gaetti in 2000.

The retirement of Pesky’s number is sure to inspire much discussion from fans and media as to which other players should have their numbers retired. For years, there has been debate over the numbers of Luis Tiant (No. 23), Jim Rice (No. 14), Tony Conigliaro (No. 25) and Frank Malzone (No. 11), among others.

In addition to Pesky’s No. 6, several other numbers are informally retired by the club. These include Rice (No. 14), Roger Clemens (No. 21), Nomar Garciaparra (No. 5) and Pedro Martinez (No. 45).

Article URL: Red Sox to retire Johnny Pesky’s number - BostonHerald.com

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Pedro-no
Nomar- No
Rice- Yes
Clemens- maybe
Tiant- Maybe
Boggs- Yes
Buckner- Met fans believe he does.