Mr. Red Sox Takes His Rightful Place

(Mr. Red Sox, Johnny Pesky, escorted from the Fenway Park field by his ceremonial first pitch catcher, Big Papi David Ortiz, on Sunday, September 28. Mr. Pesky's number was originally scheduled to be retired on Sept. 25. The event was moved to Sunday due to rain.)

Sometimes the rules just have to be broken.
John Michael Paveskovich, Johnny Pesky, will receive his just due tomorrow night at Fenway Park. His number 6 will be officially retired alongside Ted Williams' 9, Bobby Doerr's 1, Joe Cronin's 4, Carl Yastrzemski's 8 and Carlton Fisk's 27. Jackie Robinson's 42 is retired in every Major League park.
There are rules. For the Sox, a player must have played 10 years. He must have ended his career with the Sox. And he must have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The rules were bent for Pudge. Carlton Fisk ended his playing career with the Chicago White Sox. But you couldn't keep the New England native who had won Game 6 of the 1975 World Series by waving that home run fair in the bottom of the 12th, the man who caught more Major League Baseball games than any other, out of the line of Red Sox immortals.
Johnny Pesky didn't play 10 years for the Sox. He didn't end his playing career with them. He certainly isn't in the Hall of Fame. He simply embodies the living history of the franchise. Johnny was nicknamed "Needlenose" by Ted Williams. He was along for the trip that was chronicled in David Halberstam's wonderful book (Halberstam, wonderful book...never more redundant than that) Teammates, as Johnny and Dom DiMaggio made one last journey to see Teddy Ballgame. Pesky played with Dom and Ted and Bobby Doerr on the best Red Sox teams (until now) in anyone's living memory.
He has done everything for the team that a man can do. He has played, coached, managed, broadcast, taught as an instructor and represented the team everywhere and anywhere. Johnny will be 89 on Saturday. He is marking 69 years in baseball. 57 of those have been spent with the Red Sox, the last 40 consecutively. Some of the most touching moments in the clubhouse celebration of the 2004 championship came when Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, David Ortiz and others grabbed Johnny up in turn and told him that the moment was for him as much as any of the current players. And anyone who didn't tear up when the old man, in uniform, was called out to receive his World Series ring at the 2005 home opener just doesn't have any humanity in them.
On the eve of his 89th birthday, Johnny Pesky's number 6 will be officially retired. As it should be. Mr. Red Sox forever!
Rules? We don't need no stinking rules!