A Well-Deserved Honor

I read in this morning's Boston Herald online that the Red Sox are going to break with their retired numbers policy and on Saturday will retire the number 6 in honor the beloved elder statesman, Johnny Pesky. A formal announcement from the Red Sox should happen within the next day or so.

All I can say is: it's about time.

Johnny has done just about everything someone can do for one organization: he was a star player, manager, coach, broadcaster and scout. He's been in the organization nearly 60 years, and is beloved by everyone who knows him.

Johnny turns 89 on Saturday, and the plan is that the Red Sox will have a ceremony for him on Friday night before their game with the Yankees to formally put number 6 in retirement. Here is the Boston Herald's article about it.

The Red Sox have retired 1 (Bobby Doerr), 4 (Joe Cronin), 8 (Carl Yastrzemski), 9 (Ted Williams), 27 (Carlton Fisk) and 42 (Jackie Robinson). And at some point number 14 will go up there for Jim Rice (hopefully after he gets elected to the Hall of Fame next year), and down the road, 45 will go up for Pedro Martinez. (I don't think we'll ever see 21 retired. And I think it's about time to give some player that number again.)

Hey, Bill Buckner can now say his number on the Red Sox is now retired. But, of course, it wasn't for him.

The old ownership had strict rules for retiring numbers. The player had to be in the Hall of Fame; had to have played at least 10 years with the Sox; and had to have finished their career in Boston. I've always thought those rules were way too strict. I'm really happy they are honoring the great Johnny Pesky while he's still around to enjoy it.

Here's the complete list of Red Sox who've worn number 6, courtesy of The Joy of Sox. Interesting to note that the Red Sox gave out Pesky's number to other players while he was serving in WWII. I guess he wasn't an established veteran player yet:

Hal Rynes          1931
Wally Dashiell     1932
Bucky Walters      1933
Dusty Cooke        1934
Carl Reynolds      1935
Joe Cronin         1936
Eric McNair        1937-38
Boze Berger        1939
Marv Owen          1940
Odell Hale         1941
Johnny Pesky       1942
Roy Partee         1943-44
Skeeter Newsome    1945
Johnny Pesky       1946-52
Johnny Lipon       1952-53
Harry Agganis      1954-55
Mickey Vernon      1956-57
Vic Wertz          1959-61
Lu Clinton         1962-64
Lee Thomas         1964-65
Rico Petrocelli    1966-76
Johnny Pesky       1981-84 (COACH)
Bill Buckner       1985-87
Rick Cerone        1988-89
Tony Pena          1990-93
Damon Berryhill    1994
Chris Donnels      1995
Gary Gaetti        2000