Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky (real name: John Michael Paveskovich) turns 88 today. I’ve met Johnny a few times and he is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever want to meet.
Pesky played in the major leagues from 1942 to 1954 with the Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Washington Senators as a shortstop and third baseman. He missed all of the 1943, 1944 and 1945 seasons while serving his country in World War II.
Pesky was close with teammates and lifelong friends Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr and Dom DiMaggio, so close that David Halberstam wrote the book “The Teammates” about them. Pesky is one of a handful of people to have a piece of Fenway Park named after him. The
rightfield foul pole is “Pesky’s Pole” so dubbed by pitcher Mel Parnell after Pesky hit a game winning home run in 1948 that wrapped around the pole. It was one of his 17 career home runs only 6 of which came at Fenway Park.
Pesky has been affiliated with the Red Sox for 56 of his 68 years in baseball serving as a player, coach, manager, minor league manager, instructor, broadcaster and ambassador. But it is today’s players who still embrace Pesky with great fondness. From Tim Wakefield, Curt Schilling and David Ortiz to rookie Dustin Pedroia they all love Johnny.
It is widely rumored that the Red Sox plan on retiring his Number 6 although he does not meet the current requirements by the team for the honor. Pesky is already a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame.
In 10 major league seasons he hit .307 with 17 HRs and 404 RBI he had 1455 hits and a .966 career fielding percentage.
