Johnny Pesky, 6, tips his cap. Image via Bloomberg |
"We have lost a dear and beloved friend," said Red Sox owner John Henry. "Johnny was happiest when wearing the Red Sox uniform. He was able to do that for 61 wonderful years. He carried his passion for the Sox, for Fenway Park, and for baseball everywhere he went, and he was beloved in return. We will miss him. We share the sadness that his family and legions of friends are all feeling."Pesky the player and manager was before my time, but Pesky the grandfatherly ambassador of the game, Pesky the familiar shock of white hair, that Pesky was always there, seemingly. A comforting, joyful site in the Red Sox dugout for years.
For fans of a certain age, our fathers were fans of Dick Radatz, Carl Yastrzemski, and the teams of the 60s, and our grandfathers remembered for us young Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky. They weren't my Red Sox, but they were just a couple generations back. We never get to know our grandfathers as young men, but we love the stories they tell and were told about them; Pesky's passing is a sign that we're not going to hear those stories directly any longer, that era is fading from living memory.
Pesky is gone, but his name will be linked forever to that pole.
Pesky's Pole via Adventures of the Blackgang |