Johhny Pesky Dead at 92

Legendary Red Sox infielder Johnny Pesky has died at the age of 92.

Alternately Boston’s third baseman, shortstop and second baseman, Pesky may well have made the Hall of Fame after playing the 1942 season with Ted Williams and Bobby Dorr but spent the next three years of his prime fighting in WW II.

Pesky had a .307 career lifetime batting average and served the Red Sox in a multitude of capacities – player, manager, coach, broadcaster, front office executive and ad salesman.

Pesky is immortalized at Fenway Park. The right field foul pole, commonly known throughout Red Sox Nation as Pesky’s Pole, is so named by former teammate and Red Sox broadcaster Mel Parnell who named the pole after Pesky won a game for Parnell in 1948 with a home run down the right field line.

Although Pesky was infamously linked to Boston’s 1946 World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals as part of the much written about “Pesky Held The Ball”, the myth has been debunked by many writers and baseball historians who have exhaustively reviewed film and concluded that, quite the opposite, Pesky whirled and threw the ball home with no hesitation whatsoever but was unable to get a streaking Enos Slaughter at the plate, who had gotten a huge jump at first and was off to second way before the pitch was even delivered. John Holway’s accounting of  the episode and his historical research can be found here

Johnny Pesky – a great teammate, human being and baseball ambassador – will be missed. A tip of the cap Johhny.