Pesky lil fella

According to Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald the Sox will be retiring Johnny Pesky's #6 before the end of the season. Hopefully they do it tonight and the Sox clinch a playoff birth against the Injuns and Cliff Lee and celebrate in style.

Johnny has been the Sox mascot of sorts over the past 10 years; Don't give me any Wally back talk either. He has hit grounders in pre-game warm-ups and been a good will ambassador for the Red Sox fans since his playing days. He's always there in spring training signing autographs or falling asleep on the bench. He's helped celebrate the past two World Series titles and nobody deserved to more then he.

Pesky holds a .307 lifetime batting average and had three 200 hit seasons. The guy was an Ichiro before Ichiro existed...almost. I didn't catch any of his games but I know he was a hard nosed player. I've know him more for his great presence on the bench and one of the last living buddies of Teddy Ballgame. Pesky is Williams' John the Baptist of sorts. He has spread the word of The Splendid Splinter on to the younger Sox fans like myself. My favorite Pesky moment is when he helped raise the flag with Yaz and accepted his 2004 ring with tears flowing down his wrinkled face. If your eyes didn't well up at that moment you're probably brain dead a Yankees fan or more likely both.

"To date, just five Red Sox players have had their numbers retired - Bobby Doerr (No. 1), Joe Cronin (No. 4), Carl Yastrzemski (No. 8), Ted Williams (No. 9) and Carlton Fisk (No. 27)." BostonHerlad.com

Here's to #6!