Pesky makes honor roll

Red Sox will retire No. 6 Friday night

Recognizing his nearly six decades of service as a player, manager, scout, instructor, and goodwill ambassador, the Red Sox yesterday announced they will retire Johnny Pesky's No. 6 before Friday night's game against the Yankees, the eve of his 89th birthday.

"It's something that John [Henry], Tom [Werner] and I and many people in and out of the organization have given plenty of thought to over the years," said club CEO/president Larry Lucchino in a press conference. "Make no mistake, we don't enter into these kinds of decisions lightly, but it's one for which we feel an enormous sense of appropriateness, fitness, rightness.

"Johnny's been with this franchise for nearly six decades and he's a very special ambassador and a very special person in this organization and has been for many, many years. So it's with great pride we announce our intention to retire Johnny Pesky's No. 6 this weekend."

The decision represents a shift in the team's policy for bestowing such an honor; previously, only players who fulfilled these prerequisites qualified: 1. having played at least 10 years with the club; 2. having finished their career with the Sox; and 3. having been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Unlike teammates Ted Williams (No. 9) and Bobby Doerr (1), whose numbers were retired, Pesky is not in the Hall of Fame.

"We inherited a set of rules that applied to this question of retiring numbers and we have looked at that and considered that to be useful, but as guidelines rather than firm rules," Lucchino said. "I think that Johnny Pesky's career cries out as exceptional, and its length of term and the versatility of his contributions - on the field, off the field, in the dugout, etc. - are such that we considered Johnny a worthy exception to the rules that were set down before."

Pesky said he was "flabbergasted" when summoned to meet with ownership before last night's game.

"I thought I had done something wrong," said Pesky, who maintains a locker in the clubhouse. "When I went to see what they wanted and they told me, of course I was flabbergasted.

"To say I'm very flattered about the whole thing, I didn't think I was in the Ted Williams or Bobby Doerr class. I played with some good guys and I'm quite flattered by this announcement and I'm really going to enjoy it. I hope I live long enough to really enjoy it."

Pesky's number will be placed on Fenway Park's right-field facade, near the foul pole known as "Pesky's Pole," 302 feet from home plate. It was the only place, teammates used to joke, that Pesky could hit a home run. He hit 17 in his career (six in Fenway).

Pesky's number will join those of Williams and Doerr, along with those belonging to Joe Cronin (4), Carl Yastrzemski (8), and Carlton Fisk (27), for whom the Red Sox created a loophole after he ended his career with the White Sox. Jackie Robinson's No. 42 is also displayed, having been retired throughout major league baseball.

Signed in 1940, Pesky came up to the Red Sox in 1942, batting .331. The shortstop missed the 1943-45 seasons after enlisting in the Navy during World War II, rejoining the Sox in 1946 until he was traded to the Tigers in the 1952 season. He finished up with Washington in 1954 and had a career .307 average.

"I thought it would never happen because I was never in that class with those guys, all Hall of Famers," Pesky said. "To be up there with them, I hope I'm up in the corner by myself."

Asked if he'd prefer to have his number close to the right-field foul pole, Pesky lit up and replied, "Well, maybe that would be better. I'm very grateful about the whole thing.

"God's been good to me. This is wonderful. I've had a complete life."