Johnny Pesky, Red Sox Fixture, Dies at 92
by RICHARD GOLDSTEIN, nytimes.comAugust 13th 2012
Johnny Pesky, the star Red Sox shortstop of the 1940s and early '50s who spent seven decades at Fenway Park as a player, manager, coach, broadcaster and instructor, becoming one of Boston's most beloved figures, died Monday in Danvers, Mass. He was 92.
His death was announced by the Red Sox.
Pesky teamed with second baseman Bobby Doerr, a future Hall of Famer, in one of baseball's leading double-play combinations of their time, and he hit better than .300 in six of his seven full seasons with the Red Sox. In his 80s, he was still wearing a Red Sox uniform, hitting fungoes during batting practice and giving tips to the infielders.
For many a Bostonian, Pesky was as familiar as the Common, Faneuil Hall and the Old North Church, and his name endures as a Fenway Park landmark. The short right-field foul line ends at Pesky's Pole, given its name by Red Sox pitcher Mel Parnell, Pesky's teammate, as a wry allusion to the rare occasions when his left-handed swing, which produced all of 17 career home runs, managed to pull the ball into the stands in the vicinity of the pole.
For all the accolades, Pesky was branded, perhaps unfairly, as one of baseball's "goats" for pausing briefly before relaying a throw to the plate in Game 7 in the 1946 World Series as the St. Louis Cardinals' Enos Slaughter completed his so-called Mad Dash from first base to home with the Series-winning run.
Notwithstanding that star-crossed moment in Red Sox history, Pesky was showered with affection by latter-day players and fans through the years.
"They treat me like a king," he said when he visited with the Red Sox during the 2004 World Series against the Cardinals. "They all give me hugs, like you only used to get from your family."
Those Red Sox defeated the Cardinals in four games, winning the World Series for the first time since 1918, the year before Pesky was born. In April 2005, Pesky helped hoist the World Series championship banner at Fenway Park. In April 2012, when the Red Sox commemorated the 100th anniversary of Fenway, Pesky and Doerr were together again, in wheelchairs side by side at second base, an emotional centerpiece of the celebration.
A slender left-handed batter, only 5 feet 9 inches and 170 pounds or so, Pesky was adept at spraying line drives, beating out infield hits and executing the hit-and-run. He had more than 200 hits in his first three seasons, leading the A.L. each year. He hit .335 and was named an All-Star in 1946, when the Red Sox won their first pennant in 28 years.
Pesky was introduced to a new generation by David Halberstam's best-selling book "The Teammates" (Hyperion, 2003), an account of the lifelong friendship among Pesky, Ted Williams, Doerr and Dom DiMaggio.
Once, when DiMaggio offered Pesky a job with his highly successful company that manufactured automobile upholstery, Pesky turned him down.
As related in "The Teammates," Pesky told DiMaggio: "Dom, I couldn't love my own brothers more than I love you, and I want to thank you, but I'm a baseball man, and it's all I'll ever be. It's all I know. I'll wear the uniform until I die, and then they'll probably have to cut it off me."
A son of immigrants from Austria-Hungary who settled in Portland, Ore. — his father was a lumber-mill worker — Pesky was born John Michael Paveskovich on Sept. 27, 1919. His name was shortened to fit into box scores, and he later changed it legally.
Signed by the Red Sox out of high school, he played two seasons in the minors, then joined Boston in 1942, taking over at shortstop from the player-manager, Joe Cronin.
Pesky batted .331 as a rookie, second in the league to Williams's .356, then missed three seasons while in the Navy during World War II.
The low point of his career came in that 1946 World Series, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. With the Red Sox and Cardinals tied at 3-3, with Slaughter on first base and two outs in the eighth inning, Harry Walker lofted a hit to short left center. Slaughter, running on the pitch, was determined to make it home, knowing that Leon Culberson, filling in for an injured DiMaggio in center field, had a weak arm.
Taking Culberson's soft throw, Pesky was astonished to see Slaughter rounding third base. He paused briefly and then threw to catcher Roy Partee too late to catch a sliding Slaughter, and the Cardinals were soon the World Series champions.
"I'm the goat," Pesky told reporters afterward. "I'd never expected he'd try to score. I couldn't hear anybody hollering at me above the noise of the crowd. I gave Slaughter at least six strides with the delay."
But Pesky may have been unwilling to blame Culberson for failing to make an aggressive play and throw on the ball. Years later, Pesky said that after watching film of the play, he "didn't see any hesitation" on his part.
The film does show Pesky appearing to hold up for about a second before throwing the ball home. It is unclear whether he otherwise would have gotten Slaughter.
Pesky remained a linchpin of the Red Sox, but he was traded to the Detroit Tigers in June 1952, later played for the Washington Senators, then retired as a player after the 1954 season with a career batting average of .307. He managed in the Red Sox farm system, then served as the Red Sox manager in 1963 and 1964, finishing seventh and eighth in a 10-team league. (He filled in as manager for the last five games in 1980 after Don Zimmer was fired.)
Pesky was a color commentator for Red Sox games from 1969 to 1974 and became a Red Sox coach. He was named a special instructor in 1985, working with players in the farm system and providing tips on fielding and batting to Red Sox players during the regular seasons.
Pesky seemed unaffected by his renown, joining his longtime friends for breakfast just about every morning at an International House of Pancakes in Swampscott, Mass.
Pesky's wife, Ruth, died in 2005. He is survived by his son, David, as well as a brother and a sister.
Pesky was a lifelong baseball man who never lost his touch, whether promoting the Red Sox or getting on the field to help younger players.
During batting practice in 2002, he snared a ground ball heading for the shortstop hole.
"I just reached out and caught it," he told The Boston Globe. "A guy asked, 'How could you do that?' I looked at him and said, 'Very easy.' "
Original Page: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/sports/baseball/johnny-pesky-red-sox-fixture-dies-at-92.html?pagewanted=all
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